Straight Talk Tyre Open ’83

The  best surfers on the planet descended on Cronulla for the Straight Talk Tyre Open when the world tour of pro surfing hit town.

Peter Solness Photographer.

Peter Solness was the brother of Shark Island charger Geoff. Around the mid to late 70s while Soulman (Geoff) pulled into the barrels, Peter was shooting water shots of the action and quickly built a name for himself as one of the best on the Southside. His pics had an artistic side to them which made his work standout from other photographers and he  regularly featured in Surfing World. The photo below was a night session taken at Sandshoes with Banksy, Dave Shaw and Greg Melhuish. Peter was using a Nikonos with a waterproogf flash to get these unique shots back then.

Chris Iredale

This shot was taken at Voodoo in the late 70’s of Chris Iredale. This was the same day refered to in an earlier post when after getting caught inside by a set  my mat that I was shooting from went sailing to Bundena. Chris ended up fetching it…. see older post for the long version .  Photo Stroh.

Dog 80’s

This shot from early 80’s was of young Richard Marsh when he was riding for Daniel surfboards and Peak wetsuits . It was snapped on a sizeable day at one of Cronulla’s lesser mentioned spots photo Chris Stroh

Greeny

Gary Green, fresh faced back in the days when he was winning everything. Circa mid 80’s photo Stroh.

Occy ’83

Occy appeared in this Peak Wetsuits advertisment in Nov  ’83. The photo was taken at Wanda by then Tracks senior photographer Peter Simmons.

Barry Regan Pioneer Surfer.

Heres a recent pic of Barry Regan(white cap) one of Cronullas first pioneer surfers from the 50’s and early 60’s. Back then he was a member of South Cronulla Surf club.  The photo was taken at the Wood Board day at Currumbin, August 7th 2011. To read a  interview with Barry see:
http://mypaipoboards.org/interviews/Paipo_Interviews.shtml#Barry_Regan

James Bickerton

Bicko was one of EBC top boys in the middle 80’s and a renown grommet torturer. As part of the Bando rd Garage gang Bicko was a regular sparring partner with Glenn and Shane Pringle. Today Bicko lives in France.This pic of Bicko in the Dunny Bowl photo Stroh

Banks Wins Om Bali Pro ’81

Jim Banks enforces his creditials as one of the sports best tube riders with his win in 1981 at the Om Bali Pro held in solid waves at Uluwatu. The story and cover shot appeared on Tracks July 81 issue.

Tim Vanderlaan ’74

Tim Vanderlaan and home made ’spear board’, 1974 .I asked Tim to tell me about the boy and the board.Photo of Tim taken in front of the family home at Wanda, Cronulla. It was early 1974 and I’m displaying my first home made board. My older brother Rick and myself made the board and bought the materials from Graham King’s home at Grays Point. The blank and materials cost me $33, that was a lot of money considering the milko i helped do morning deliveries paid me $1.25 for 3 hours work.

The board was 5′10″ and 13″ wide. My brother read somewhere that the width of a board should be the measurement between your nipples plus 2 inches.We had seen magazine shots of Terry Fitz riding something similar at sunset in hawaii and we thought the spear shape would work at a Wanda beach break. I persisted trying to ride it for ages but Icouldn’t turn the thing. I later sold to to Max Garlings of the Benz shop in Cronulla. He had the board on display amongst all the bikinis. (big thanks Tim Vanderlaan)