If you can remember back to when "dope" was the guy who sat in front of you in Maths, when "hash" was the stuff that Mum served up at Breakfast, and "grass" was the thing that needed mowing before you could go anywhere on Saturday morning, then you should remember the old term, "Surfari". You'd all pile into the FJ, or Dad's new HD Holden, and head out of Sydney, along Highway One, to some of those little known surf spots situated in the North. You know the ones - Angourie, Lennox Head, and Crescent Head!! If the car held together long enough you would head even further north to Greenmount, before your final destination - Noosa Heads, that small coastal town with it's two little shops, it's retired people wandering leisurely around, and it's seemingly never-ending swells pushing onto a variety of points, causing endless lines of uncrowded waves to form. This is about one of those trips.
Enjoying the present - unaware of the grey hair and the 4 kids in their future
The group on this particular
trip consisted of six people in three cars. The vehicles of the day were
the latest in refined automotive styling - a 1960 Morris Major, a 1963
Mini 850, and a thoroughly modern 1968 Fiat 1500. Two of us were still
on P-Plates, so it was going to be a long drive - but we were going surfing
and that's all that mattered. Our first stop was going to be Crescent
Head, but the generator in the Fiat had other ideas, so after a quick
repair job outside of Newcastle, our first night was spent on the side
of the dirt track over-looking Seal Rocks. The Fiat had the added convenience
of fold-back seats, so while the rest of us curled up on the front and
rear seats of the other two cars, the occupants of the Fiat enjoyed a
peaceful night stretched out on their folding seats.
Breakfast Break along Highway One - no MacDonalds around in them days
We surfed Seal Rocks for a
couple of hours before continuing on to Crescent Head. We again chose
to stay in our cars overnight, so we parked against the rail overlooking
the golf course and the point. Now you have to remember that this was
in the late 60's and not in school holiday times, so places like Crescent
Head were absolutely deserted, especially getting on towards Winter, which
is when we did this trip. (It was late-May if I remember rightly). Our
overnight stay turned into three days of epic surf. We would all come
out of the water just long enough to get a bite to eat and a drink before
heading back into the water again. Make no mistake - it WAS cold, but
we were too stoked, or too stupid, to feel it. One particular incident
sticks in my mind from this part of the trip, and that was when I decided
to take one of these photos. I had just taken the shot and was running
back to the car. Being the smart-arse surfie that I was, I didn't think
was cool to go around the small fence that bordered the golf course and
car park, but it would be cool to jump over it. Well my front foot caught
the top of the fence and over I went. As I was heading face-first towards
the asphalt all I could think of was, "don't smash the old-man's
camera". I somehow managed to turn in mid-air and land on my back.
I was winded and had skin off my shoulders and lower back, and the foot
that had caught the fence on the way over was also cut, but at least I
saved my old-man's camera from any damage - for now anyway.
Another Crescent Head Session under our belts
Our next stop was to be Angourie,
but car problems plagued us again. This time it was courtesy of a stray
rock from a passing car. Result - one broken windscreen. So we were stuck
around Grafton till the following day. Pulled into Angourie mid-afternoon
the following day. Like Crescent Head, the place was deserted, and from
memory there was a nice little swell running. We left the cars at the
top of the hill (mainly because you couldn't drive down any closer) and
carried the rest of our stuff down to the beach. We set-up camp under
a rocky over-hang right down on water level. Try to do that these days!!
It was pretty damned cold down there after the sun went down. But in front
of a small camp-fire was pretty pleasant. This was complimented by the
sound of the surf which rocked us off to sleep each night. I seem to remember
that our diet consisted of something like Rolled Oats (with no milk or
sugar) for breakfast. Very little, if anything, for lunch, and then tinned
foods and tea boiled in a billy for our evening meal. The rest of our
food intake consisted of Violet Crumble Bars and other junk like that.
Battling the cold at Angourie
We took an hour or so to carry
all our stuff back up the hill to our cars before we were underway again.
A couple of the people with us wanted to stop in at Byron Bay, but as
we only had a little under 3 weeks, including travel, they were out-voted,
and we headed straight towards Greenmount. You surfers who weren't around
in the mid-to-late 60's probably can't contemplate having a place like
Greenmount completely on your own for a couple of hours each morning.
And those of us who can remember can only look back on it and say something
like, "well at least it USED TO BE uncrowded". We planned to
stay on the boardwalk in our cars for the first night, but the local police
had other ideas, and with the threat of being gaoled offered as the only
alternative, we soon headed off. I seriously doubt that it would have
really happened - but when a 6½ foot Queensland Copper is standing
over you with a flashlight in your face, you don't argue. Because back
in those days there was none of this Police Integrity Commissions, etc.
You took your lumps and learned to live with it. So we headed back out
of town until we were over the bridge near Banora Point somewhere, and
parked up a side-street for the rest of the night. For the next four days
we spent our time between Currumbin, Kirra and Greenmount. After our "sleep-out"
on the first night we managed to get a unit on Marine Parade (the road
that runs along the beach-front at Coolangatta). It was called "Coolabah"
if I remember rightly and it cost us $24 for the 4 days!! Yep, $24 for
4 days, or for you maths geniuses out there, that's $6 a day. After a
quick surf check via the front window, we could then decide on where to
start our day. It usually followed the same steps each day though - the
Rock at Currumbin until mid-morning followed by Kirra until lunch. The
afternoon session was invariably Greenmount Point. We would then spend
the evening hours down at the now defunct Cabbage Patch Beer Garden.
Hamming it up on the road North
Besides the great - and very
uncrowded - surf, which just seemed to come in never-ending lines, there
was one particularly funny incident that did take place. One of the guys
who went with us was having problems sleeping. He said it was because
of being in strange beds. He had brought some sleeping tablets with him
and so after returning from the Cabbage Patch one night he decided to
have a couple of pills, then take a shower and hit the pillow. He got
as far as having the shower and that's where we found him the next morning
- sound asleep in the shower recess with the water still running.
On one of our mornings up at Currumbin we decided to go inland and
visit the Currumbin Rock Pools. It was a pretty rough old track up there,
but the water was flowing and the falls were great fun.
"He always says just one more wave - but I seem to wait here for ever"
From Coolangatta we headed
straight up to Noosa. From memory, we had to drive up to Nambour and then
head to the coast from there. It was absolutely unbelieveable at Noosa.
Main Beach, National Park and T-Tree all had good quality waves. There
was a camping ground right on the corner of the main (and just about only)
street, almost opposite the surf club. It cost us $2 a night for an unpowered
site. We had brought a now very old, but back then, very new 12'x12' canvas
tent with us. We had allowed ourselves three days to get home, so that
left us about five days up here.
Rock-hopping at Noosa National Park
The surf ranged in size from
a foot or so up to about four foot. The day it was up around four foot
was the day that we struck the biggest crowds - about six other board
riders out at T-Tree. What a crowd!!! We spent that whole day around at
T-Tree, we had terminal sun-burn, our joints ached, our muscles were screaming
for mercy and our board lumps were infected and full of wax and sand.
Would we have it any other way??? How great is that!!!! Of the 4 or 5
days we were there, we only had other people in the water on weekends.
During the week we barely saw anyone else in the water at all. When somebody
did come we felt like they were invading our area. Although the 4-foot
day was the biggest, our best day was the one we spent surfing National
Park. It was only 2-3 foot, but had to be seen, and surfed, to be believed.
Low tide, high tide, mid tide. It didn't really matter. The waves just
kept on breaking all day. That was the day I thought I had invented a
good way of staying out in the water for long periods of time but still
have something to nourish yourself with. I had wrapped a couple of chocolate
bars in plastic and shoved them down the front of my T-Shirt that I wore
in the water. I figured they would be okay there, because I always used
to kneel-up to paddle. But I forgot about a thing called "body heat".
I laughed at the others as they paddled in to get something to eat, because
they were "starving". When I stuck my hand done my T-Shirt I
pulled out a plastic bag full of melted liquid chocolate. Well at least
it was dry, I thought. Strangest sensation - drinking salt water flavoured
liquid chocolate. That little shop back in town was looking better all
the time. We ended our trip north on a great note with some awesome waves.
The trip home was uneventful for a change, and although the roads were
a LOT less crowded than they are today, you could still tell when you
had reached the out-skirts of Sydney.
T-Tree Bay Noosa