Shoes

It was in the early 80’s can’t remember what year when local boy Sid Cassidy brought the pro tour to Cronulla and Sandshoes. On this day a north east swell was running and the beaches were flat and Shoes was the only spot offering a ride-able wave. Pic below was taken early morning as competitors got fun waves at an unlikely world tour contest venue.Photo Stroh

SANDSHOES—THE REAL STORY

Another blast from the past this time we get the inside scoop  on how Sandshoes was discovered by Ray Greenaway aka Dags………..It was a Sunday, we were all  hanging the spots around Northies. there was a bit of swell around, but the SE wind was knocking it about. Dormouse, Tossil and Cheeks decided to go spear fishing, they drove to Oak Park  and when they had a look at the conditions they saw a wave off the rocks. After watching for awhile, they thought “this looks good enough to ride “.  The same Sunday night, there was a surf movie on  at Miranda theatre. By this time,crowds to surf movies needed bigger venues. Anyhow,Dormouse, Tossil and Cheeks were there, with great cheezy grins and telling everyone what a great surf they had that day at a new secret spot. They went on a lot about it, saying it was down the coast. One of them got a bit sloppy and mentioned “OP”  (other places)’. Well Dags had a bit of luck that same day. Around noon, Dags was going west near the hospital, and spotted the trio going east.It didn’t seem enough time for these 3 guys to have gone down the coast. Dags along with his brothers used to swim at Oak Park as kids and had a feeling he knew were this new secret spot was located. So the next morning Dags picked up Skol (Ian Selig ) and Chook (Alan Falls ), and off we went to OP, and it was on. We surfed it all the week before work, and on Saturday and we took Lance Fisher (Fishy). So there we were Saturday morning early, and when the boys rolled up to their secret spot, we were out there razzing them. It was two fingers in those days. So how was it named sandshoes? After getting a foot full of spikes off a sea urchin,we decided to protect our feet with sandshoes. Well that didn’t last long, they were a bit clumsy, but we kept the name because it was still a secret spot. When the NE came up, that would be the end of the session, and we were the ones with the cheezy grins outside the pie shop. It was kept secret for months, until one fateful day, Dormouse brought the mob around. There were 2 local kids who used to surf with us. One named Teryy and the other Binskin. I came across the Bin one day at Coolum Beach. His son and mine were competing in Qld Under 15 titles. I always looked at the heats board to see anyone I may know and there was the Bins name. Got someone to point him out, sided up to the Bin and said “didn’t you wear dessert boots at Sandshoes “? Well ,he near shit himself, jumped back and said “who are you “.  All the names mentioned in the story are ,like me, in Qld now, exept Tossil, who I believe is at Old Bar………….dags over and out.

Lance Fisher from back in the day with sandshoes on at OP’s.

PT @ Sandshoes

Peter Townend appeared on the cover of April Tracks in ’76, the shot was taken at Sandshoes when PT was calling Cronulla his home for a while.

Craig ‘Cranky Franky’ Naylor

Late 70’s gouge on a twinny at Sandshoes left.

Photo: Stroh