Jeffreys bay by Bruce Gold.
First came to J Bay in about 1953 for Sunday dinner at the Beach Hotel and not again till the end of 1968 to surf, even though went to Woodridge Prep. school nearby for two years in in 1958 and 59. The tar road started at the Beach Hotel with Andora Store over the road not one hundred yards away and about a mile if that from Surfers Point where Dr.Oosthuizen, Karina Strydom's father had already set up a camp with toilets and shower,cold, and a sign that said "please preserve out trees and bush". Next thing the offspring of Dr A.D. Keet who had inherited his farm sold it to Trust Bank for 1.4 million and the bulldozers moved in after Sanlam bought for 4 million i heard. From 1963 on surfers started arriving and mainly stayed in the rondawels at the Recreation and caravan park on the hill right uptown, or in their kombis. Visiting Australians and Tasmanians started camping in the milkwoods hollowing out the dunes somewhat and putting tarps over the bushes.Tim Milward first came around that time and is now 77 and still surfing. Gus Goble from Cape Town claims very early arrival after John Whitmore noticed waves in the area and some Port Elizabethans must also have been lurking. First local i think was John Marx whose parents had a holiday house almost on Noorsboom Point that Max Wetteland later bought for 15,000 Rand. That would be overlooking Boneyards the surfbreak the boys from Ra surfboards two houses up from Max at Shalom, used to call Insanitudes and Magnas was Magnitudes amd Mangletoobs by the Californian crew who stayed in the White House above Ozzies Hardware owned by the Humphreys. Thats another story as they were part of the Brotherhood of Eternal Light or so and were running compressed marijuana out and the best Owlsley LSD in. They never gave me any, maybe because i had just left the police and had short back and big ears and a movie camera. There is a quick clip of them on the dune in my old documentary Time Warp-watch 'im play.
First trip with Rod Suter, Bruno Bruniquel, Flynn Reynolds, Michael Richards, Bradley Harris and Paul Gravelle. They all on the latest garage built seven footers and me on my new 9'6"" Safari, graham hynes assuring me short boards were just a passing fad. No problem though ,loved that board, my first being a marine ply logger white with black rails and skull and crossbones. Uptown was the old man Ungerers Supermarket and his wife there and Coetzees Fish and Chips and the Bar-b-que on the main beach owned by Mr.Rielly only open whenever.
There was plenty of soccer played at the point between surfs and none surfed Supertubes till end of 1968 with various players claiming to be first. Gavin Rudolph claims to have surfed it with an Aussie and Donald Paarman says it was two Aussies on a cutdown longboard.
There was some friction with the local townsfolk with camping in the bushes and drugtaking and the eating of one of a pair of tame beach blue cranes. Slaughtering our national bird not a very good idea. I once got a barman job at the Beach Hotel when Steph Kruger owned it in the mid seventies when the first professional surfers were arriving. The big snooker table there was the social hub of surfers every night and my speaking Afrikaans from being in the police kind of made the peace with the local townsfolk and farmers. I had been living in the bush at Supers for two weeks when i got the job. The bush church no fun in the rain.
At one stage Larry Levin, surfboard shaper, rented the farm, smallholding, just over the Kabeljouws River, then Karina Strydom had it for a while and somehow it ended up we were more or less squatting there, everyone welcome. Had 13 cats there eventually and many more great nights by the fire, everynight in fact, only place to cook. Place was packed with antique furniture and books which all got plundered mainly by surfers it would seem. Even know of one beach house that got ripped off by a surfer who is in the Happy Surfing Grounds now.
John Daniel opened Wave Arts and Crafts around 1980 ot so and John AndCarol Ross took over and Mark "0rnery" Ormsby .my nickname, he sucker punched me once to the side of my head, just because i told him to control his temper and thats why he had no friends. He had the finest girlfriend though. To cut a long story to smithereens Cheron Habib took over the old garage shop and started Countree Feeling. In about 1982 Rupert Chadwick started the Beach Hotel Classic. Twenty seven entrants with Mario van Eeden sponsoring about R500 or R750. Think Sean Tomson won. Rupert organised the contest the next year and then Country Feeling came in as sponsor and Mark Occcilupo won. There used to be a not bad shell collection at the Beach Hotel but surfers stole the whole thing. Rupert knew about that.
Well they raped J bay not so rapidy as they are still trying to cover the hills of the old farm with not so pretty always brick houses. There are four traffic rushes out of season and one big one in seaso,. Joburg hobos summer here and bushes almost crawling with drunk "car guards. We hear the town is changing its name to Johannes Bay.
There is a rather good Surfing Heritage Museum above the Quiksilver shop with four shell collections by yours truly. Unfortunately noone seems to be curating it all all. Ruperr Chadwick died and his wife said Supertubes Foundation Ans Quiksiver must run it. Needs a committee badly to commit. Any questions ? Ha ha. Cheers. That was quite an effort.
