While a far cry from the aesthetic of surfing today, young surfers themselves in the 1970’s were not that different, maybe just a little more hardcore. Friday nights were spent at the Time n Tide Hotel or the Royal Antler, which housed some of Australia’s best bands from Midnight oil to INXS. There was no air con back then, but the Royal Antler had an electronic roof that would slide back, allowing a minimal breeze to flow through to the 3000 people that gathered there in summer. It cost five dollars to enter. Four went to the band and one to the venue.
Without much in the likes of video games and Netflix, days were for the most part, spent at the beach. This sort of culture radiates through this footage - the stark commonality of shiny blonde hair and dark skin.
And then you had the surfing. A more stylish, upright approach was favoured. You can see just how the fin and rails worked in harmony to bank from one rail to the other so abruptly, giving a wonderful sense of unpredictability. Surfing then was looser and more erratic. It was more expressive, and no two surfers surfed the same.
This video is as refreshing as it is a throwback. Truly a gap from the conventional top to bottom style of surfing most have adopted today. But it was this sort of surfing that was so radical at the time, that it provided the stepping-stones for modern surfing as we know it.
This video was shot at Long Reef Beach in the 1970’s from around 1973 onwards. It was shot with 8mm film by around four separate people, including Jeff Morris who has edited the footage for us all to enjoy.
Written by Ben Morgan - 29th May 2020
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