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Hayden Kenny Interview
Hayden Kenny Interview Our own very special Interview of the Month by Noel Woods, talking to Sunshine Coast surfing legend, Hayden Kenny. Noel - During the 60's Hayden Surfboards were regarded as one of Australia's best longboards. You had your shop and factory where the Alex Beach Beat shop is today and it was a regular hangout for the top surfers and shapers of the era. Tell us about those times. Hayden - In the early 60's the first shop/factory I had on Alexandra Parade, Alexandra Headland, was three doors south of the Beach Beat shop. This was a small place with a small showroom in front, enough room to to glass two boards in one area, a glass room that had two stands with the shaping carried out in the hallway and the sanding in the yard out back. As this was proving to be too small, I had planned to have a new factory built which is now the Beach Beat shop. I worked and lived there for twelve years before moving out to Kunda Park. During those years I had some of the first hard core surfers work for me. Bob Cooper from Yater Surfboards in California was one of the first. George Greenough and Reynolds Yater came by to visit and surf and Yater shaped four boards while here; one for himself, one for Cooper, one for Algie Grudd (I think) and one for me. George Greenough brought a balsa knee board down from Santa Barbara. One day he had an idea to redesign it and took a sander to the deck and produced his famous spoon. Algie Grudd was a sander, later Bob McTavish, Russell Hughes, Kevin
Platt, John Mantle, Kevin Brennan, Ken Adler, to name a few, worked
for me. The first shop was destroyed by fire. However the new one was
nearly completed so I wasn't out of business too long. Hayden - The most noticeable change to surfing on the Sunshine Coast for me is the number of surfers in the water. For me, four or five in one spot was a crowd. When Noosa was on, we would all go in one car and split up when we got there. Two or three would surf National Park and the others would surf First Point. Nobody would bother with anywhere else. We would surf all day and not see another person. Sometimes, when I was driving down from Maryborough I would call in to Noosa and surf it on my own, a bit scary as there was no such thing as a leg rope so a wipeout meant a brisk swim and a run over the rocks to retrieve your board. Unfortunately Noosa is now a writeoff. Good manners appear to have
left the scene and some surfers do have an attitude problem. Hayden - If I had my time over again there is nothing I would change. I believe I have had the best that surfing has to offer on the Sunshine Coast. To have the first surfboard on the coast, surfed all the points from
Noosa to Caloundra on my own or with one or two others is not going
to be repeated, and I have no idea how that can be improved. Hayden - One of my more memorable surfing days was on a Saturday afternoon in the corner of Alexandra Headland. Three of us started surfing about mid afternoon on an incoming tide, glassy conditions and a full moon. We stayed out until nine o'clock and only gave up because of hunger and thirst. When we got out of the water the boards were stood up leaning against the oak trees in the corner and we went home. You could leave your board there and come back the next day and it would still be there.
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