Rusty Cover 1st Underground Surf Mag.

     Underground Surf Magazine hit the newsagent’s shelves in Autumn 94. Local Elouera surfing identity Ben Horvath now the Coastal Watch man was the driving force. Bens mag was alternative and different to all the others focusing on cutting edge fashion, music and showing a more youthful and rebellious side to surfing. Plus it had plenty of Southside of the harbor coverage. It was also pretty contreversial with strippers etc that had the censors working overtime. Rusty Moran scored the cover of the first issue wearing his trademark Gath helmet that he was rarely seen without back in those days. Taken on a 2 metre south east day with a wrapping east bowl making things interesting. Rusty was making it look easy.  Photo Chris Stroh

G&S 70s Adv.

Check out this Gordon and Smith advertisement from the pages of Tracks in April ’79. Classic stuff when the brand was going off with 3 surf outlets.

Piping Hot

Piping Hot Wetsuits set up office in the main street mall above the fruitshop back in the 80’s. They sponsored local riders like Glenn Pringle, Greeny, Matt Brown, Sean Fitzpatrick, Grome and Rod Baldwin. Piping Hot was blowing up at the time with Kong. This advertisement appeared in Tracks Dec 84 showing Brownie kneeling ,Grome on the left and Fitzy standing on the right who were Cronulla’s hottest rising stars. Brownie went on to win the Cronulla Boardriders Club Cadet  championship in ’85 and Fitzy won it in ’86 and the Junior title in ’87. 

Surfboard Manufacturers

Cronulla has a long history of surfboard manufacturers. In the 80’s the following 4 surfboard builders  were just a few of the brands that kept the local crew well equiped….. This 1988 adv. for Jim Banks appeared in Tracks, Banksy worked out of his Cronulla Original Clothing Shop, the photo was by Chris Stroh….. Geoff Solness was the driving force behind Shark Island Design Surfboards located just across the road from the train station his adv.appeared in Tracks in 87…… Rod Baldwin appeared in this Emerald advert in 84  the photo was by Stroh……while the Graham King Surfboards logo turned up in Tracks in 79.

Southside Open 1980

Sandshoes local Graham Cassidy was the driving force behind bringing the worlds best surfers to Cronulla for the $23000 Southside Open World Tour event. The 4 day waiting period was blessed with good to average waves which lucky considering  Cronullas usual fickle beachy standards. The Trials were held at Sandshoes and the 6 man heats found the small take off area a real battle where 72 riders were culled down to 13 only advancing to the main event.On the final day 2 surfers had stood out from the pack. Hawaiian Dane Kealoha and Queenslands Wayne Rabbit Bartholmew. A best of three set final saw Dane take the first with some explosive moves. The second went to Bugs and in the final heat Rabbit  had superior wave choice and walked away with the cheque presented by NSW Premier Nevil Wran. Info and pics from Waves Issue No 2.

Bobby Brown and G&S.

This advertisement for Gordon and Smith appeared in Surfabout Magazine Vol 4 No2. sometime around 1966. It featured Southside legend  Bobby Brown and his Stringerless Model…the sales pitch was its Bold, Daring, Exciting and Fundamental.

Cronulla Point Cover

This Dave Shaw pic of Geoff Doig turned up on the front cover of Surfing Magazine 1979. The same issue features an article on Cronulla Point with shots of Gary Hughes, Greg Melhuish and Les Martin all getting barrelled.

Who’s got the Power?

This is still one of the craziest Cronulla tubes ever captured on film. Gerry “Popout” Manion at Cronulla Point Easter Saturday 1977 shot by Greg Button with a Nikonos II camera which appeared in “Surf” magazine “Who’s got the Power” issue. This article exposed the powerful reef waves around the Nulla and proved once and for all that the Southside is a wave power magnet.

Surf Mag Cover

The cover of Steve Core’s “Surf” Vol.1 No.6 Nov 77. A shot of Greg Melhuish at Cronulla Point, Photo by Dave Shaw. Core’s mag put Cronulla on the map as local stars got well deserved media coverage.