Photos by Graeme Harkin 1979

Graeme Harkin took some nice water shots of the Redhead surf crew around 1979, here are some of them.

Col Smith, Redhead, close up and having way too much fun, what a grin!

Col Smith close up Redhead 1979

Col Smith again getting tubed at Redhead in 1979

Col Smith tubed Redhead 1979

Mick Carr on a hollow Redhead Little Beach right in 1979

Mick Carr Redhead Little Beach 1979

Paul Smith Redhead Little Beach 1979

Paul Smith Redhead 1979

Philip Woodward Redhead 1979

Phillip Woodward Redhead 1979

Peter Kuba on a Redhead Shark Tower left 1979.

Peter Kuba Redhead Shark Tower 1979

Chas Woodward at Redhead.

Chas Woodward 1979

Kenny Stanton wellcovered up Redhead 1979

Unidentified surfer at Redhead 1979

Col Smith again Redhead 1979.

Col Smith Redhead 1979

27th March 2010 – More Redhead

Redhead Little Beach in 1983 on a cold winters afternoon. A surfer on a nice wave, framed by the cliff and the shark tower rocks.

Redhead Beach 1983

Redhead Shark Tower, this time covered in foam during the June 2007 storm. Lots of people were out and about as the ship Pascha Bulka had grounded at Nobbys and also the power was out for 3 days so there was nothing to do at home.

Redhead Shark Tower in June 2007 Storm

Redhead Beach Ghost 1983 . I took the photo of Sandy with the cameras flash and left the button down and she walked out of the photo.

Sandy the ghost 1983 Redhead Beach

Redhead Surf Club March Past Team around 1978. A great bunch of blokes who put a lot of time and training into what they do.

Redhead March Past team around 1978

Redhead Swamp before the drought and the digging out of the Third Creek. We used to paddle tin canoes made from roofing sheets and wooden boxes with road tar to seal them, from the second creek up into the swamp when we were kids.

Redhead Swamp 1975

Mick Carr styling on a nice left from behind the Redhead Shark Tower.

Michael Carr surfing at Redhead 1977

14th March 2010

Ronnie Rudder drops around to show off another new board, but this one has a history. A shaped blank has been stored in the rafters of Forster Board maker Bobby Brown’s shed for 10 years. This 9′6″ Noserider was shaped by the then 72 year old Floyd Smith from American Gordon & Smith Surfboards fame. Given to Ronnie by Bobby, faithfully cleaned and glassed at Pacific Dreams by Roy and the boys, this old classic beauty eventually has come to life.

Ron & Crow & Floyd Smith Noserider

Redhead 1984, Martin Littlewood the Margaret River board builder of Delta Designs, comes back over to Redhead with a new batch of space age boards way ahead of their time. All lightweight epoxy/styrene hand shaped and hand glassed beauty’s. Included here are some Antman Paul Patterson UFO fish models featuring step decks and drop rails.

Martin Littlewood with new Delta Designs 2004

Col Smith surfing a local Redhead Board Club event around 1975. Col as usual tearing it up, showing lots of style.

Col Smith Redhead Boardriders Comp 1975

Around 1964 Skateboards made their way into the surfing culture. They looked like a good idea so we grabbed some skates from the Op shop and some packing case boards for decks and made our own and off we went down the back of then Kotara Fair (now Westfield) car park on a Saturday arvo when the shops closed. Yes they closed at 12pm then.

Crow Skateboarding Garden City Carpark 1964

Redhead Little Beach has not been as good as it was. Just to show what I mean check this 1977 empty line up with a perfect left tube coming off Pinny Reef next to the cliff.

Redhead Little Beach left 1977

Another ground breaking surf board design from around 1976 shown off here by the proud owner Peter Murnaine. The Ben Apai Stinger just looked awsome. Ben Apai’s boards were available at Mark Richards Surf Shop Newcastle.

Peter Murnaine and Ben Aipa Stinger 1976

Eddo (William Harrison) on another of his left-go-right foam hits at Redhead surfing in the same heat as Col Smith in a local boardriders comp around 1976.

Eddo Redhead local comp 1976

Charlestown East Bypass will cause traffic congestion

My Daughter Ellen has advised me of a proposal for a Lake Macquarie Council traffic diversion in Charlestown East. There is only to the end of the week to lodge any concerns to council.

If you may be affected or concerned please go to http:\\thespicerack.net for details and if concerned please follow her lead and submit an email to council.

Thankyou.

Some More of the Seventies

The recent AC/DC Tour reminded me of a photo my wife Sandy has of her younger sister Vanda and Angus Young taken at the Hard Rock Cafe around 1974. Both very young and VERY Rock ‘ N Roll.

Angus and Vanda 1974 Hard Rock Cafe Melbourne

I did’nt take the next two surfing photos – When Redhead’s Graham Harkin developed his first roll of film from his new underwater camera I got a copy of some of these because they were great photos. Taken around 1977 at Birdie Beach.

Phillip Woodward surfing Birdie by Graham Harkin 1977

Chas Woodward surfing Birdie 1977 by Graham Harkin

Water shot of Peter Pitt surfing Redhead Little Beach around 1974.

Peter Pitt Redhead Little Beach 1977

One of the good things in surfing at the moment is the variety of surfing equipment people are now making – old ideas, mixed with the new. You would’nt look out of place walking down the beach now with this 1976 5′6″ Martin Littlewood Delta Fish.

Bob Scarr & Delta Knee Board 1976

Eddo – William Harrison. We wern’t sure what he was doing when he surfed but it was always interesting. Shown here at Newcastle Mattara Surfing contest around 1977, close to the foam and close to the nose.

Eddo Mattarra Contest 1977

Grant Brooks showing his cool casual style surfing at Redhead around 1977 .

Grant Brooks at Redhead 1977

Cold and windy and big and no one out. Redhead Little Beach around 1977.

Redhead 1977 big no one out

Music and Surfing

Crows favourite records

Surfers have been into music since the start of surfing, in the beginning surf music was a bit corny but always fun.

1968, a typical surf on a summer Saturday morning at Redhead, the flags were up already but no one was in the water yet (hard to imagine these days). Two young long haired surfers sneak into the surf club (it’s ok they were members but they were sneaking). They set up a portable tape player in front of the PA mike, switch on the PA and the tape player and then grab their boards and paddle out fast.

The lag on the tape leader allows them to get out and then we hear the crackling and over the air waves comes Jimi Hendrix – Third Stone from the Sun. The music sort of rumbles and growls then squeals and sets into an awsome rythm. We take off and surf a wave to the new sound. Hendrix growls, You will never hear surf music again.

Soon enough the funbusters discover what’s happened and the music is switched off.

When we return to shore its…. ”"Crow …..you cant play that kinda shit over the PA!!!”

Well I guess I like shit music.

Anyway, we all like different music and I would like to list some of my favourites in the hope someone else likes it.

Jimi Hendrix – Are you experienced – the first record that hit me, the times were changing and this was a big change, no soppy verses and structured choruses – just whatever Jimi felt like. Other Hendrix favoutites are Axis Bold as Love and Band of Gypsys.

A couple of years later a work mate loans me the 3 first Mothers of Invention albums, I listen, hear some weird stuff but some good stuff. In 1970 I go and buy the album Frank Zappa – Hot Rats and now have another favourite guitar player. Captain Beefeart’s growling vocals and Zappa’s Wah-Wah together on Willie the Pimp, awsome. Zappa has some 60 albums out and there is something incredible in all of them. My favourite now is Joe’s Garage, the song Watermelon in Easter Hay is Joe’s last imaginery guitar solo before music is made illegal. However Zappa’s a little bizzare for most people and I am sure I couldn’t paddle out with him playing on the PA, so I have to imagine it too.

Captain Beefheart was Zappa’s school mate and then formed his own band Captain Beefheart & the Magic band, his first album Safe As Milk has a young Ry Cooder on slide guitar, favourite song Sure’Nuff and Yes I Do. Other notable Beefheart albums are Trout Mask Replica and Doc at The Radar Station. Growling blues boogie and meshing electric guitars. Not for the faint hearted.

Dr John, The Night Tripper – New Orleans Voodoo Swamp Funk, the album Gris-Gris is scarily awsome. The good doctor has appeared on most big names albums as a session pianist and has many fine albums.

After a re-listen I am back into the Gratefull Dead, the hippy tie-die head band. Listen to American Beauty the song Ripple is beautiful.

After James Brown (try – its too funky in here) came Funkadelic/Parliament – the same band but just add more players. For fun, some great funky rythm’s and guitar and Zappaesque humour leader George Clinton (Brother Bill) is the new hip hop guys hero. Try Parliament Tear the Roof off – which inspired Talking heads Burning down the House after watching them. Also try Funkadelic Music for your Mother and Standing on the Verge of Getting it on.

Took me a long time but I did it and never looked back.- Listen to Miles Davis best intro is the album In a Silent Way.

Carlos Santana’s Greatest hits and Carlos with John Mclaughlin – Love Devotion Surrender is music at its sweetest.

Jimi Hendrix and Frank Zappa had the same guitar hero – Johnny Guitar Watson, try Funk beyond the call of Duty or his 1959 song – 3 hours past midnight.

I have a lot more but you cant take it all in at once.

More good music

Redhead’s Col Smith

Around the mid seventies there was 2 great surfing Col Smith’s, the other from Narabeen, both powerfull goofy footers and both shaped surfboards and won contests.

Redhead’s Col Smith was an Australian Champion and also placed in contests in Hawaii.

This photo around 1976 shows the boards he took to Hawaii and shows the distinctive channel bottom, Col riding Pipeline on the board shown here is in the surf movie Fantasea. These boards were made by Shane and were shaped by Jim Pollard who invented the channel bottom.

Col Smith Channel Boards for Hawaii

Col was 8 years younger than me and I saw him grow up into a powerfull surfer with his own style. I first saw Col in the surf when he was 8 on a coolite and was free falling into a tube as I was scraping over the top of it.

He started borrowing his brothers 9′6″ big red South Pacific at Seal Rocks and then was soon winnning junior contests on a plastic machine around 1969. Boards then started getting shorter and Col mostly rode “Bee” tailed channel boards.

Here Col gets into his trademark positon at Redhead around 1975.

Col Smith tubed at Redhead

Col Smith was the secret weapon for Redhead Boardriders club in the early 70’s, put in the last heat and only around 13 years old, the other clubs would put their older more experienced riders in and get a shock.

Col runs back up the beach to paddle back out, to avoid the pushing NE swells.

Col Smith heads out again at Redhead

Col would cheer you into any wave you may have had second thoughts about and off you’d go. When you emerged either having made it or near drowed, he would be there still chearing you on. Same thing when fishing, he was just as stoked to see you get a good one as himself.

Col and family Christmas 1983, his son Rique is an excellent surfer.

Col Smith & family 1983

Col surfing in the Newcastle Mattara around 1976, his mate Steve Butterworth is also in the same heat.

Col Smith surfing at Mattara Newcastle around 1975

Steve Butterworth sets up on a cold windy left on Redhead’s Little Beach around 1985.

Steve Butterworth Redhead 1983

Crow’s view on the history of Surfing

Surfings early days.

Hawaiians rode waves on wooden hand carved boards, royalty standing up on 16′ Olo’s and commoners on shorter Alaia boards mostly ridden prone. Peruvians rode waves in when out catching fish on boards made from bundles of reeds tied up.

Hawaiian Duke Kahanamoku delivered surfing to the rest of the world in the early 1930’s, visiting many countires demostrating his surfing skills on a 10 foot solid wooden finless surfboard. Duke demonstrated the way of the aloha lifestyle and the rest of the world caught on. His famous quote – “out of the water I am nothing”.

Around 1935, Tom Blake, Duke’s good friend and fellow swimmer, drilled holes through one of his heavy redwood boards and covered it with a wood veneer, making it a lot lighter and managable. Blake then made a hollow chamber board, put a fin on it and then patented the model. This lighter more manouverable board won races, was used as the standard surf rescue board and then developed into a better wave riding board. Tom also wrote the surfers bible Hawaiin Surfriders 1935. Tom worshiped at the church of the open sky and his theory was nature=god.

Around the early 1950’s Californians Joe Quigg, Bob Simmons and Matt Kivlin developed the balsa and fibreglass Malibu Chip and then Dale Velzy starts manufacturing surfboards on a large scale.

Around 1955 the polyurethane foam board was developed and surfing grew like wild fire. In 1963 Midget Farelly wins the prestigeous Makaha championship and then the 1964 World Championships in Manly.

At the same time the surf culture grows with Phil Edwards showing style and manouvers and Miki Dora showing us surfing style with attitude. Dora summed up his feelings here – ” I drop in, set the thing up and behind me, all this stuff goes over my back: The screaming parents, teachers, police, priests, politicians – They’re all going over the falls head first … and when it starts to close out, I pull out the back , pick up another wave and do the same goddamn thing”

In 1967 Bob McTavish with Nat Young and George Greenough push surfing into the more serious involvment way of surfing by shortening and thinning and lightening boards with V in the bottom and so they now turn faster. Dick Brewer with team rider Gerry Lopez refine the shorter boards and prove they go in Hawaii’s powerfull waves when Brewer narrowed the width of the tail.

From there we got into smaller and lighter boards, all sorts of shapes and settle on the Simon Anderson Tri Fin as the most popular. Four time world chamion Mark Richards rode a combination of board types with success in competitions and his twin fin is still popular.

These days the old and the new co-exist (well almost) with the theory of ride what you like or horses for courses and its common for surfers to have several types of surfing equipment.

My own involvement in surfing started in 1964 as a 14 year old, some of my mates started getting boards and I was surfing with a surf-o-plane. I was lucky to live across the road from the beach. I came home from school one day and my Mum had just returned from walking the dog on the beach and said there was a board washed up down the second creek. I rushed down and pushed the finless dinged up balsa pig into a few foamies and got hooked and went home and patched it up.

My first surfing lesson:

I never hesitate to pass this lesson on to new starters.

I paddled out into the lineup with the local mob and straddled my board eagerly waiting my first wave.

A loud voice boomed out at me – “Crow…. F%#@ Off down there…” and I saw a finger pointing away from the rest of the pack towards the deserted southern part of the beach. I stayed away until I could handle the board and its a pity that learners don’t get this kind of expert advice these days.

Within weeks I had pestered my parents with promises of doing well at school and as an early birthday and christmas presents, into buying me a new board. (I just went to school to draw waves in my books and my birthday and christmas were still 6 and 8 months away respectivly)

I then got to order a 9′3″ Custom Warren Johnson – and it was awsome. No one these days seems to remember Warren’s board shop near Hamilton and I have no idea now who told me to go there but I still think this one was great and wish I still had it.

Crow's first 2 boards 1964

We could’nt wait to get pictures of ourselves surfing, Peter Kuba paddles out with a box browie camera in a plastic bag in his teeth and takes my photo. I am unsure how the camera survived from the look of the wave coming at him. I was wearing the state of the art wet suit of the time, a sleaveless singlet of 5mm hard neopreme rubber that rasped your arm pitts off and you had to put a T shirt under it or risk sawing your arms of as you paddled.

Crow water shot Redhead 1964

The Redhead surf crew consisted of varied aged guys, and I was the youngest, but I still got to go places with the older guys. Seal Rocks was uncrowded and camping on the beach with an open fire was just great.

Camping at Seal Rocks 1964

Crow surfing seal Rocks 1965

I eventually got my own car and what a beast – yep a Renault R4 a whole 750 cc’s of power and 3 speeds. However it did get us up the coast to Green Knob near Old Bar for 50 miles a gallon at an average of 50 miles an hour. By this time boards had thinned out but not yeat shortened. The board I had here was a Gordon Woods 9′ stringerless from Ray Richards Surf Shop.

Crow & R4 Green Knob 1967

Crow Green Knob 1967

Around late 1968 boards started getting shorter . Here Marty and I pose for a shot with our new boards before heading away to try them. Marty had a 7′10″ black railed Gordon Woods Pintail and I had an 8ft red railed Sam Egan Tracker with a clear plastic movable fin.

Martin & Crow with new boards 1969

The new shorter board went fine.

Crow 1969 on 8ft Tracker at Redhead

around 1975 the Redhead crew settled on rounded pintails with channels, made by Martin Littlewood and then Col Smith. Marty still makes boards and other surf stuff at Margaret River WA under the name Delta Designs.

Crow with 6'5" Delta around 1977

In the 80’s Mals and windsurfing added variety to surfing. Here is a bit of stuff in my garage from then.

Crow & Boards around 1983

A few bits and pieces

Father Nature feeling a bit frisky? A rock formation between Redhead and Dudley has been weathered into an unusual shape, or is it some fertility rites statue carved by a long forgotten tribe?

Rock formation below Redhead Bluff

A bush fire rages through dry pristine bushland and peters out on the sand at Mark Point on a scorching hot summers day around 1980. The fire fighters as always ensure the situation is under control.

Bush fire at Marks Point 1980s

A dazzling Lake Macquarie sunset. The sun surrounded by clouds powers though in a blaze of colour just before dropping into the hills behind the lake. Taken at Mark Point around 1980.

Firey sunset Marks Point 1980's

I’m just heading out into the brisk late arvo Sou-Wester for a chop hop run across to Swansea from Naru near Marks Point. My wife Sandy took this one. The sun was beaming in between the building clouds.

Crow sailboarding Marks Point

The winners of the Newcastle beach girl contest 1985 pose in front of the Redhead Shark Tower rocks.

Beauty Contest Winners 1985

The Hunter River passes through the rolling hills of the Hunter Valley at Pepper Trees near Muswellbrook.

Pepper Tree Mountains Hunter Valley

The water moving through reeds make a pattern in this typical sunny Australian bush river scene. Taken somewhere not far inland from Coffs Harbour around 1976.

Reeds in a pattern near Coffs Harbour 1976

Cold Chisel around 1978

You can now click on the photos to get a larger view.

Cold Chisel toured Newcastle constantly making Newcastle a Chisel stronghold. The music suited our town’s working class fans and were always great shows.

After another great gig at the Mawson, Don Walker gets to sit down and relax and takes the jar going around. Don was always thinking… and well, just maybe he comes up with inspiration and the first words for a new song (Cheap Wine).