My Mate Bill and 1960s Surf Trips
Bill Scott 1945-2014
My mate Bill passed away the other day.
I’ve known Bill and a few other mates since third grade in Primary School and through other life stages such as High School, girlfriends, wives, families and later.
My best and happiest memories of Bill were in the early 1960s and 70s when we all explored the coast looking for surf.
Our surf trips were adventures of discovery, both geographical and personal. In the early 60s we had our first taste of personal freedom – subject to work or study commitments and someone having a car – to head off into the unknown.
Looking for new surf spots we travelled up the coast just beyond Noosa because we found the good surf stopped around there and south beyond the Narooma area because with the smell of snow in the offshores in freezing winters we realised it got colder down that way. We were very practical.
Bill was an enthusiastic surfer. He was smart, curious, quick witted and had a great sense of humour. Any surf trip away with him was Guaranteed Fun no matter what the surf was like. Being part of Australia’s surf discovering pioneer generation, getting to the end of a dirt road somewhere new and finding rideable surf with no one out was the ultimate excitement for Bill and the rest of us.
To fully appreciate the significance of that, it’s worth remembering what surf safari travel in Australia was like then. Even though the 1960s only seem like yesterday to some of us and we all take today’s conveniences for granted, the pace of technological and other development has been rapid. Time flies when you’re having fun.
I recall Bob Evans wrote in a 1962 or 63 issue of Surfing World reflecting on how a trip north out of Sydney took you straight into the bush and showed what a “young country” we were, full of surfing opportunities. I remember it because we used to read every word in surfing mags… then read them again.
Once you headed north of Hornsby in the late 1950s and early 60s the Pacific Highway was a winding single lane each way road… all the way to Brisbane. Traffic was lighter than today but a slow truck or caravan would back traffic up for miles and make a long trip hell on wheels. It took forever just to get to Gosford! Road improvements, starting with the opening in 1965 of the Freeway north of the Hawkesbury River to Mount White, were gradual but constant over time.
There were no surf guides, surf reports or surf forecasts. Weather forecasts in the daily newspaper in the early sixties consisted of a weather map for yesterday, a brief description of today’s weather and tomorrow’s expected outlook for Sydney. Surf forecasts didn’t exist until The Goat’s Surf Forecasts started in 1996.
There was no internet in the 1960s so there were no Google maps or satellite images or phone apps to help you explore prospective surf spots and no mobile phones for other mates to let you know when they found one. Long distance phone calls were a hassle and cost a small fortune.
If you weren’t able to get away on a trip, your other good mates might thoughtfully and gleefully send you a postcard after a week or two, raving about the great surf they’d had.
Our ‘surf guides’ to unexplored areas were a Shell road map of the State, NRMA strip maps and a Gregory’s Fishing Guide which had maps in it. We learnt how to read weather maps and we knew which way the wind was blowing.
Finding surf was pretty much pot luck.
But we weren’t flying entirely blind. We had Surfing World and Surfabout magazine to tell us about some new surf discoveries (Tracks didn’t start till 1970) or someone at someone’s work had been somewhere and we were usually not far behind. Naturally we explored other areas and would ask local fishermen who’d helpfully tell us about ‘the huge shark that lived out at the point’ – which we’d naturally ignore.
Despite the increasing crowds of surfers in Sydney, often we would be either the only ones at some place up or down the long east coastline of Australia, or among only a few other boardriders in the water. While ours may not have been the first malibus in town – there were usually a few locals for instance, or Bob Evans and crew or others had been through – we were among the early pioneers. Each new place was a discovery to us.
The first time that Bill, Pete and I drove into Byron Bay for instance – after Bill’s older brother Al and mates told us about the surf there – we found ourselves stopped behind a herd of cattle slowly being driven down the main street Jonson Street, by a couple of stockmen on horses. It was a quiet country town. Hard to believe now.
We camped out at The Pass for a week, hanging a sheet of tarpaulin from Pete’s station wagon up to a tree near where the barbeque and shower are now. Bill and I would walk along the beach to town to get food supplies. Along the way we’d pass the wide, high desert-like sand dunes which used to front Clark’s Beach east of the township. The grassed beachfront park and unit blocks replaced the dunes.
Two or maybe three other cars with boards on roof racks turned up at The Pass during the week we were there. Car radio reception crackled at night and sounded like it was coming from outer space… At 500 miles from Sydney, Byron felt so remote you might as well have been on the moon. I thought it was paradise… Still do, despite all the changes.
Noosa was a sleepy little fishing holiday village. We tried to sleep in our cars (as per our trip budget) at National Park right next to the break, then in sleeping bags on the beach at Main Beach but a burley Queensland copper moved us on both times, and without any hint of politeness in his boot the second time.
1960s surf trips were more than just Going Surfing. Each one was a life experience. Experiences shared with my mates that I wouldn’t have missed for anything and I wouldn’t have had but for my mates, particularly Bill who was often the instigator. A special time. Special people in a special time and part of my happy memories for all time.
RIP Bill, old mate. Hope you’re still catching a few … Rog.
The pics of Bill were taken by Laurie. We’d each take it in turns with a camera but you were always lucky if you got any good pics of yourself because everyone wanted to surf when the surf was good
