“Sanity begins below the high tide mark.”
Gringo: At ‘Ol’ Faithfull’, 1981
In the beginning was the word and the word was the beginning…
but when was the beginning? Certainly for surfing at Alex it was long
before us, even before ‘Slug’ Kelk and gangly young McLardy
dragged their dunggas down to The Korner to be parked in the dunes for
the weekend, before the Wilkes generation, before O’Connor’s
cutting up of the Headland, before Granddad down from Kin Kin hired
out the big redwood on Maroochy Beach around the end of WW1, even before
our South Sea Islander mates Great-Grandparents came down to surf Alex
from Buderim, even before The Dreaming, when the turtles ruled…
Our ‘Mal’ Chapter began when Rooster dropped
off the “Headland” keys to Seaweed in ’75 and the
“yuk, yuk, yuk gone surfing” sign came down (for a while
– the Peacocks & I hated the torture of it at our bus stop
- we had to go to school! Darrell!) and the doors opened (at least on
Sat morning). On the tank-stand lived two critical characters in our
story: Mighty Mal & Ron. Both about 9’6’’; Ron
was about a 1962 “RON”; and Mighty was of course a “Hayden”
about 1965-66: No one really owned them, we never really knew where
they had come from: they were just part of the Simpson’s “Blue
Waters” establishment.
The late ‘70s was a heady swooping twin time of VERY short boards
and HIGH performance surfing. We were very conscious of The Korner’s
place in surfing innovation: HK & modern materials, GG’s visits,
MacT… and now Jim Pollard channel’ing the shop floor and
Pascoe/Hopper racking it up; BUT unlike Byron’s consistency which
had embraced some of our North Coast talent we had to somehow quiver
our way through the vagaries of Sunshine Coast swell. You rarely saw
some of the older guys anymore (Barry Bluff, Terry McLardy, Bruce McK;
or HK & Johnny Walker snow’erly experimenting with skis; or
Les & Doggitt doing their thing with thicker boards; or ‘Bali’
Bob L. with his modern long boards… or Mungo just playing his
guitar): the too short boards just didn’t float.
The first wave in our mal-formation set was
Da Korner Kids Krew. 2
Our flat spell relief was Ron & Mighty Mal, but it was also our
frustration: we wanted motion and manoeuvrability.
The dunggas were fun (although the plastic fantastic was dangerous when
layed over too far) and styled us for down the line & later reef
surfing BUT just too stiff and not stiffy enough to blow the back out
of waves. Coach Weed, “Climb ‘n drop boys, climb ‘n
drop”: MP cutbacks & MR reo’s on any, every wave was
our holy grail.
A second wave was about to break ~ the air
was ripe for a revolution: Seaweed was keen to cater for his born again
30ish grommet mates stoked to surf all the time instead
of sinking on a fashionably correct twinnie or similar – tri’s
even quin’s (Gracie, Stumpy, Bret M. shaping up) were about but
thrusters were yet to be dreamed. Bruce L, Oz (and later Huey P and
JB) were turning the screws; and Morris and Butch were plumbing the
aesthetic depths of our endeavours. C’mon Johnnie ~ get it together!
Enter our Bryon Brothers: gentleman Roy Miesel, Frank & Peter Spencer
and through them Brian Ingam. Althrough Seaweed recalls Peter Spencer
bringing up from the Bay a John Blanch shaped Modern Mal;
what Seaweed felt was the first real modern mal on the newly named “Sunshine
Coast”: a ‘San Juan’ 8’ in 1976 ~ 30 years ago!
Johnnie had done the run regularly, supply and demand did its thing
~ Eureka!
In the beginning was the word and the word was the beginning and the
word was, is, will be … mal! Sure it meant Malibu
by the strict 8’ definition but even more it meant a larrikin’s
thumb’s up to over-short and over-earnest competitive surfing
and even Mal(Fraser)’s surf team … BAD n’est pas!
Filth hey! Not the stalwart Alex Surf Club nor the outstanding North
Shore Club. 3
“The Bluff” was to see how close you get to the end rocks
[to surfing precision] according to T McL (I still get stoked if I can
do a ‘step-off’); for us to “Mal” was to see
how close you could get to surfing’s quintessence: the
fall line. Indeed as Weed liked to quote it was “the
art of our necessity, the essence or pleasures” or as I invoked
Ted Spencer fondly and ironically (for where we went longer, he had
gone shorter: for the same reason): “surfing is dancing for Krishna”
4
(its #1 judging criteria – rhythm & style or “grace”
as Gringo called it). Hence the ‘unknown surfer’ salute
to the sun in the club emblem (with a special wave to Glen at ‘G&R’,
Chris Gee & Lindsey Clare – Chris did tell u we raided the
office art supplies?).
So we whittled away (Oz literally) on refining our longboards –
really long shortboards – for me the two black n’ white
check boards really nailed it especially the 7’9”: a perfect
all rounder ironic given it was a KKK and which I ‘mal’-ed
into a ‘shovel-nosed’ 7’6” on Cartwright wall
after inheriting it from Oz. And we whittled away at being surfers;
solid days like Magic Wednesday and Big Thursday on the 6’2 /
6’4”; huge days at Noosa on 6’7/6’9”;
dead flat days swimming or paddling RON; and the usual days, our milk
n’ honey days, the 8’ers. “Water, water, everywhere”
~ even back in Weed’s lounge coffee’ing, workshopping meteorology
(“it’s the squeeze that counts, the squeeze”), debating
board design and yogic stretching into the early 80’s. It was
happening but something needed to happen again.
A third wave was breaking ~ it was time to
come out from behind the tankstand and show what we had refined. The
return of Gringo energised us to take those steps and ‘Headland’
metamorphosed into ‘Plantation’, into a more defined middle
“path of awareness” between soul and competition. Indeed
I believe a truly 3rd way in Australian surfing: in the water ~ excellence
& fun; out of it ~ attention to detail with style. 5
Where Seaweed had galvanised Mal-life locally; Gringo saw the then incipient
retro movement requiring some edge to trim its section: the idiosyncratic
‘gonzo soul’ that our eccentric ‘gentlesurfers’
club had mashed into our “threading of the eye of the needle”.
“Those other tracks” as McCoy so eloquently portrayed in
‘Blue Horizons’. Where we mal-riders had thus far asserted
our local differentiated identity (we were there then!); Gringo saw
a new global market position (that was tinged with vicarious nostalgia!).
It’s glib to say it a brilliant commercial stroke to tap, indeed
create, a new market segment. However, I think, simply Gringo all Bali
OM Pro’ed out was ready to see some synthesis of soul and competition
that had evolved in The Korner. He put his finger on that more irreverent
surfing pulse and was keen to get the message out: “Guys keep
surfing, there are boards for you!” Cool ~ all surfers are brothers
that’s why the T-shirts were black… a salute to Da Black
Shorts: our real elders. We had no idea how popular, just how big this
would become, that an avalanche would fall from our small stony throw.
A fourth wave rippled from that stone. We
had been happening but it was time to have a “Happening”.
We gathered in Plantation Parade for the first time NOT to ‘wax
up, take the drop, ‘n pull in’; but to organise as a de
facto association 6
(Ross Head, the usual Plantation suspects, someone I’ve forgotten
and Roy C scathingly sceptical that Modern Mals were a real innovation:
“you’ll *#&! the Bluff with crowds”). I noted
(from interviewing HK at school a few years before for the Daily) that
next year was the 21st anniversary of fibreglass and foam – coming
of age, keys to the door etc! To think this year is 45 years and think
of all those other stories made possible by glass & foam ~ Bonza!
HK! We’d better plan a big one for the 50th. Back to ’82
& apparently 20 years was good enough and 2 beers later we were
cheering “Roots”! That weekend is another whole volume of
stories: board scarifices, Balinese offerings, the flags, the
funtest, The Stomp!… Aaaamazzing what a bunch of gonzo
surfers can do when a few crews pull together…
I’ve left out a lot of names in this brief ; 7
but I’ll run off a roll call some time. I’ve missed out
a lot of war stories about organising the first funtest and the stomp
~ “The Roots Experience”; but I’ll spin you a yarn
in a lull (although a special thanks to that guy for not charging Dugong
& I over the bamboo flag poles). I’ve not even told you about
the genesis of our rallying emblem, but I’ll give the you the
jen if a flat spell leaves me free.
Although the memory seems OK after the tracks that have surfed me ~
sorry if I’ve forgotten anyone (it was a blur, a haze, for weeks
before and after); I’ll get you in the long version. I’ve
mentioned a lot of names because ours was really a communal push to
define our own Surfing Identity: indeed to surf our
mal waves with the appropriate equipment and manoeuvres and to push
out those “inner most limits”. It wasn’t just Seaweed
presiding, Gringo directing and me executing, …: it was a community
of bronzed Aussie surfers effortlessly but purposefully pushing those
limits on short and long boards: mal-surfers!
However, even in our Monty Pytonesque tale, I have to note for the record
that in our late ‘70s eccentric ‘gentlesurfers’ Mal
Club was John Tregear, Bruce Leslie, Oswald Bonutto, Steven
Imber, Des Nicholson, Morris M, “Butch”, the Manly connections
(Peter, Fork, Bimmie T who probably took the first modern mal to Manly,
‘coals to Newcastle’!), the Bryon connections (Bent Kent,
Roy Miesel, Frank and Peter Spencer) and Huey Pass (the quintessential
eccentric mal-rider). Our once but never again unwritten rules were:
Alex Mal Club Rules:
Rule 1: All meetings are in the water
Rule 2: There are no other rules
The core group in ’82 from which the “Roots Experience”
grew was the Alex Mal Club Office-Bearers (if we had
gotten out of the surf earlier or not out of it or something…):
El Presidente-for-Life
Seaweed
John Tregear
Club Director-for-Life
Gringo
Paul Andersen
Surf Scribe-for-Life
Mondo
Desmond Nicholson
Eccentric-for-Life
Oz Turtil
Oswald Bonutto
Socialite-for-Life
JB
John Burke
Women’s Convenor-for-Life
DEB
Debbie Tregear
Apparently some rules were written on the first black T-shirt box. Amazing!
We were usually too surfed stoked to be bothered to do anything like
that ~ if we had beer it was more likely Santana was playing and Seaweed
was up on the table re-dancing the day’s waves again or Gringo
would get the gasoline alley rhythms going “book em dano”
or on my x-gen flip side we’d be ‘Sunny Boys’ or “blistering
in the sun” on 45!
However we were not ‘Peter Pans’ as Time Australia called
us ~ we were on a mission of surfing excellence in the water and out
of it. Anyway the only quorum was a bare-footed & wet one: there
were no pens in those pockets just soul in the arches and a motion carried
meant a perfect pocket positioning.
Anyway mal’ing was never just a length of board but a state of
surfing mind. 8
So c u @ da next meeting...
PS This story ends just after the ‘Roots Experience’.
In ’83 I helped organised the National Inter-varsity on Straddie
then went back to SE Asia) but the Alex Club Mal’ed on (who did
actually register it?). So these questions about the post-roots Mal
Club & Mal-scene have been prompted by Gringo:
What significance has Alex had in the development of modern longboarding
given its role in refining the modern mal and subsequent longboards,
in holding the first contest, in establishing a longboard club per se,
its early dominance of longboard events, its principle sponsor Plantation’s
first modern mal shop in what is now a booming industry… what
else? Of course this all pales against the introduction of fibreglass
and foam; but just how significant has the continuing Alex Mal Club
been over the long run to, as I wrote on the very first club poster,
“putting the fun back into surfing”?
Of course there was, and is, some friction (& a bit of rage) between
short boards and mals: rightly so when courtesy gets
sunk in the surf. However I don’t know many serious surfers of
long standing who don’t ‘cross-surf‘ at least occasionally.
Indeed some of the most virulent detractors now surf at least a ‘mini-mal’
or fish: as Oscar Wilde said “imitation is the most sincerest
form of flattery”. On a more positive note I’m waiting to
surf the next innovation in materials and design. Got a go, enough words,
blue skies: if I hurrie I’ll get 3’ high tide ‘ol
faithfull’ on the 8’6” and I’ll really be pencillin’
da Korner. Have Fun!
.........................................................................................................................................................
1 I apologise in advance if I’ve
misquoted or misremembered or, worst of all, not remembered someone.
I’ve preferred to use nicknames or initials because no space ~
anyway you know who you are, where you were and what you were doing!
Send any corrections to mondo@big.net.au
We’ll fix-up the next version. back
2 Elko, Aldo, Cattie, Reid, Nimbin, Gus, me Mondo, later Garth,
Robbie S, Nico, Young JB & Young Kelkie doing a generational baton
change at The Korner as BB’s Boys have done and grand-boys will
soon do and as Kev’s Kai, my Oscar and his childcare mate Max
Hopper will hopefully do: the end of any history is a future…
back
3 Indeed after it caught on ~
Tullemann’s ‘Mal-Function’ at Currumbin and so on
up ‘n down the coast. back
4 In that sense we were ‘next
geneneration’ “tear-drop” aficionados like Ric of
Ric’s ‘Moffeteering’ on his. back
5 After surfing ‘THE Big
Reds’ at Waikikiki in ‘79, I’d argue the modern mal,
the 8’er, was a true synthesis-in-process of the alaia & olo
style boards. Althrough given enough beers & cheers now I (&
20kgs more) might concede its realised better by the 9’4”etc
(not a Queen Mary though). back
6 This meeting should not be confused
with an ’83/84 one, a fifth wave, which I did not attend, at St
Minivers where it was agreed to legalise it. Ross Head recalls, as well
as himself, Paul Anderson, Jack Boast, Barry Coulter, John Burke, Billy
Hoffmann and here it gets unclear Johny Paul, perhaps Kev Annetts were
amongst those present. Billy is perhaps best placed to ‘blog’
that and subsequent years. back
7 The Kellies, the Graham twins,
Bido, Johny Paul & La Cone lefting ’Ol Faithfull, Slow Harry
K., Big Al H., Duffy, Kim Bradley & his then wife Made Ringan, Kim
McK, Bev B, Gary Mac & Sutto, Syko, Humphrey, our own real medalled
hero Inzan, JC, the X-gens~ Coombs brothers, the Camerons, Channa, the
Cadells, the Hatfuls, Wattsie, Jody P, Focksie ~ Borgie, Brian W, even
Cal-connections with Bushie, Greg Roper…: THE girls, Leigh, Peta,
Trina: who else? Email me: mondo@big.net.au back
8 Look at Stokesie (who joined
us a little later, boards always under 6’ but, mark us, he never
misses a meeting even now) or Robbie K nose-riding his 6’6”
– true mal-riders! back
