Proposed Surfboard Ban

Surfboards riders were enjoying the waves all the way fro North Cronulla to Wanda up until about ’67. When the Elouera Surf Club building appeared suddenly the best banks at “Midway” between Wanda and Elouera were declared off limits for surfboards. School boy Martin Newbery was part of the protest with several letters sent to Sutherland Council. Surfers regained the right to surf midway again in February 1968.The reply letter from the Council.

” The clubbies were totally taking over the Cronulla surf scene with the need to put their stickers on your surfboard. It was the time of revolution. Council just listened to the established organisations on the beachfront. It was a time of change as free surfing life challenged the establishment just like what was going on in the USA as the ” hippies ” took on the governments at Washington State University etc during the Vietnam war debacle. Black rights, Woodstock, Haight – Ashbury, all happening in the summer of love.The Stones, Dylan and The Doors were pumping out the music which went with the sentiment of youth fed up with the old order” said Martin of the event.