Sue came up & introduced herself and I remember her asking my girlfriend if she wanted to become a full member or just a ‘beach bunny’. That was the start of the best period of the Surf Club for me. In a matter of weeks the membership had grown to 90+ due in no small part to the CP ad. Friday night was the highlight of the week, with Clare Cottage bursting at the seams for the club meetings. Very soon there were movies being shown, mostly taken on 8mm by Dave Bottrell, and skateboarding down Spring Hill. I well remember Sid remarking that Merry Hughes (a quite well endowed young lady) had done a 6 point landing having fallen off her board halfway down. Hands,knees & boobs for those with no imagination. Also, a decision was taken as to where the club would be surfing at the weekend. Bear in mind that the majority of members had no board & were reliant on the good will of the established members, mainly the Ventnor crew, to borrow boards, thus meaning that everyone had to turn up at the same place at the same time. My belated thanks to Rog & Sue, John Ainsworth, Rusty Long & Colin Burgess.
Oct 04, 2010 | Categories: Surfer Profiles, The Sixties | Tags: 1960's, 1966, 6 Point Landing, 60's, 70's, 8mm, Advertisement, Albert St, Albert Street, Aluminium Fin, Aluminium Surfboard fin, Anthony Macpherson, archive, Austin A50, B&W, Baby grow, beach, Beach Bunny, Bedford Dormobile, Beer, Beers, Beford CA Van, Bilbo, boards, Boobs, Brian Loader, Calbourne Garage, Camp Hill Prison, Cascemtied Blank, Chequered Flags, Chris Kernick, Clare Cottage, Club Funds, Colin Burgess, Column Geer Change, compton, Compton Bay, Cornwall, county press, CP, Cross Family, Dave Bottrell, Doug Saunders, Dougie Saunders, Fields, Folly Inn, Freshwater, freshwater bay, fuel, Girlfriends, Glyn Kernick, Governor, Hands, history, IOW, IOW County Press, IOW Surf Club, Isle of Wight, Isle of Wight County Press, Isle of Wight County Press Newspaper, Isle of Wight Surf Club, John Ainsworth, Keith Williams, Kernick Brothers, Kevin Digweed, Knees, Learning, London, longboard, Lorraine Paddon, Malibu, Malibu Boards, Membership, Merry Hughes, Michelin Man, Motorbike, movies, Mr Cross, Murphy, niton, oil, people, photo, photographs, Popout, portrait, Rob Clark, Rob Clarke, Rog Backhouse, Rog Cooper, Roger Backhouse, roger cooper, rudder, Rusty Long, Sail Board, Schmoo Suit, Sid, Sid Pitman, Skateboarding, Skeg, sleeping bag, Spring Hill, stoked, Sue Backhouse, Sue Ellis, Suf Club Hut, surf, Surf Trip, surfboard, Surfer, Surfer magazine, surfing, Susan Backhouse, Susan Ellis, swell, The Hut, The Secretary, The Sixties, Tony Macpherson, Ventnor, Ventnor Crew, wave, waves, wetsuit, wightsurfhistory, Wooton, £12.50 | Comments Off on The Surf Cub is formed by Keith Williams
This is 1971 and Hutch and I are coming off Barricane beach in Woolacombe. By this time we were both living in England and found it more convenient to leave our wives together (after a year or two with children) in Hutch’s house in Southsea, and to go down to the west country for a weekend rather than to come to the Island. Woolacombe was much closer than Newquay so we would leave at around 6:00 or 6:30 on a Saturday morning, reckoning to be in the water by 10:00 and then return late Sunday afternoon. I’m carrying the board that the customs confiscated.
In 1972 we went back to Biarritz where there was quite a gang from the Island I remember the Isle of Wight contingent sitting on the sea wall outside the surf club at Cotes des Basques, Biarritz watching the then world champion (Corky Carroll).
From left (ignoring the little girls) is me, Rory Angus, an Australian chap that we hooked up with, Bob Ward (I think, he was certainly around), Trev, his girlfriend, an English bloke called Alan that was with the Aussie, and their two girlfriends one who was English the other Australian.
The “IW” campsite. Hutch in the middle, Rory on his right andTrev + girlfriend in the background.
Rory at Chambre d’Amour. The waves were very small but he insisted it was worth going in, we gave him flack about surfing on wet sand.
Hutch on the left, unknown on the right. This is on the sandy beach between Bidart and Guethary
Hutch at our campsite.
Chambre d’Amour. Trev’s girl, Trev and Rory with Hutch in the car. Hutch and I were a bit better organised that the rest of them and did most of the shopping. Each day we would go into the little supermarket in Guethary and buy a platter of peaches, about 4 baguettes, two cheeses and 7 or 8 litres of beer. The girls there thought it was only for us so we achieved a little notoriety for our diet, but it was really for the other guys as well.
Tony Macpherson may remember it as the year he spent a night in a French gaol! He was camping in his van on the beach at Bidart and I asked him to try to sell a board for me. Despite my suggestion that he didn’t advertise it, he put an “A Vendre” notice on the board. The police hauled him off for not paying import tax or something. The options were to pay a fine or forfeit the board, he chose the latter and I lost my board! Tony didn’t offer to recompense me.
Sep 30, 2010 | Categories: The Seventies | Tags: 19070, 1970's, 1971, 1972, 70's, A Vendre, archive, Aussie, Australian, B&W, Barricane, Biarritz, Bidart, Bob Ward, Camp, Camping, Chambre d'amour, compton, Compton Bay, Corky Carrol, Cornwall, Cotes de Basques, Customs, English, Fine, For Sale, Forfeit, France, French, Freshwater, freshwater bay, Gaol, Girlfriends, Girls, Guethary, history, Holiday Camp, Hutch, Hutchinson, Import Tax, IOW, IOW Surf Club, Isle of Wight, Isle of Wight Surf Club, longboard, Mike Hutchinson, Mike ‘Hutch’ Hutchinson, Newquay, Pat, Pat Morrell, Pay, photo, photographs, Rob Ward, Roger Backhouse, Rory Angus, Sid Pitman, Southsea, stoked, surf, Surf Trip, surfboard, Surfer, surfing, swell, The Seventies, Tony Macpherson, Trev, Trevor, waves, wetsuit, wightsurfhistory, Woolacombe, World Champion | Comments Off on ‘Surf Trips & France’ by Pat Morrell
‘The start of surfing on the Island’ by Pat Morrell Hutch and I started body boarding at Compton in 1955. My parents rented one of the huts that were out there then. The boards were just flat plywood sheets – the “posh” people had boards with curved up noses but ours were home made. We […]
Sep 30, 2010 | Categories: The Sixties | Tags: 1955, 1960's, 1963, 1964, 1967, 1968, 60's, 63, 63/64, 64, archive, B&W, baord, beach, Biarritz, boards, Bob Ward, compton, Compton Bay, Cornwall, fins, flood, flooded, French, Freshwater, freshwater bay, Girlfriend, Girlfriends, Guethary, history, Hutch, illegal, IOW, IOW Surf Club, Isle of Wight, Isle of Wight Surf Club, IW, Len Howarth, longboard, Mike Hutchinson, Mike ‘Hutch’ Hutchinson, Mini, Newquay, niton, paddle, Pat Morrell, Patrick Morrell, people, photo, photographs, Plywood, plywood board, plywood surfboard, Polystyrene, Pyrenees, Race, Rob Ward, Roger Backhouse, Rory Angus, Ryde, Sid Pitman, Spain, stoked, storm, surf, Surf Trip, surfboard, Surfboards Basques, Surfer, surfing, swell, tent, tents, Tevor Woodley, The Sixties, Trev, Trevor, Volkswagon, Volkswagon Camper, VW Camper, VW Campervan, waves, wetsuit, wightsurfhistory | Comments Off on ‘The start of surfing on the Island’ by Pat Morrell
During the early sixties it wasn’t just the boys enjoying the waves, there were some pretty hardcore girls surfing on the Island with no wetsuits or leashes too.
Mar 29, 2010 | Categories: The Sixties | Tags: 1960, 1965, 1967, 1968, 60, 60's, Aston Martin, Atlantic, Atlantic Coast, Bournmouth, Bude, Champion, compton, Constantine, Cornish, Cornwall, Crantock, Fistral, freshwater bay, Galway, Girl, Girlfriends, Girls, Ireland, Isle of Wight Surf Club Secretary, Judy Bull, Kimmeridge, La Hinch, leashes, Lynmouth, Marazion, Merry Hughes, Mini, niton, Ocean, Oil Spill, Oil Tanker, Oiltanker, Prah Sands, RAF ST Mawgan, Renuyle, Rita Long, Rolls Royce, Ryde, Sandown, Shanklin, Shigo, Split Screen, Split Screen VW Van, Steephill Cove, Sue Backhouse, Sue Ellis, Sue Ellis (Backhouse), Supertanker, Susan Backhouse, Susan Ellis, Sweeney's Hotel, Sweeney's Oughterard House, The Sixties, Torrey Canyon, Ventnor, Victoria Freer, Victoria Pickering, Watergate, Wendy, wetsuits, White City, Whitecliff Bay, Women, Woolacome | Comments Off on The Girls were there too…..!