MY first board was a nine foot six Malibu made by Vic Tantau, a legendary Aussie surfer and board maker. It was a robust fibre glassed foam board with a stringer down the centre, an off-set red triangle design on the deck that hid a crack in the glass and a single balsa wood fin.According to Leonie Tantau, her father made one of the first balsa boards in Victoria in the late 50’s in a room out the back of an old kiosk on the Esplanade in Torquay, then moved to a factory in Moorabbin.
Not only a pioneer board maker, but he and Peter Troy – another great Aussie surfing legend – organised the first ever Bells contest which was held on the Australia Day weekend in January 1962. One year later it was moved to Easter making it the longest running professional surfing event in Australia and the world, and one of Victoria’s six “Hallmark International Sporting Events”.Anyway, Vic certainly knew how to make a board. Mine could handle most types of waves including some of the big stuff that you’d sometimes get at Flinders, Torquay and Bells.
Also, back then we didn’t have rash vests or wetsuits. I surfed in a sleeveless footy jumper and boardies. What’s more, ankle straps hadn’t been invented yet. So if you wiped-out, you had to swim in to get your board which wasn’t all that easy when you were weighted down by a Hawthorn jumper knitted in pure new wool.
The closest waves were at Point Leo, The Pines and Flinders – just below the navy’s gunnery school. This meant that you could be out-the-back waiting for a set when suddenly there was a puff of smoke from the clifftop and a live shell would whistle overhead and slam into a large target that was being towed parallel to the shoreline by a navy patrol boat a few miles out to sea.
Every weekend we followed the surf report to where the best waves were. If they weren’t on the south coast we’d drive to the west coast beaches such as Torquay, Ocean Gove or Lorne.
Lorne was good if the wind was from the south but Bells was awesome if the wind was a northerly and there was a big swell running.
So there we were; Watto, Watto’s younger brother Len, Floss (named because he had snow white hair), Pluto (my Kelpie X) and me in Watto’s FJ with our boards tied to the roof rack listening to the Beach Boys singing Good Vibrations.
When we found a grouse wave we surfed all day until it got dark. Sometimes we’d surf under the lights of the cars parked on the beach. In those days you could still legally park on some beaches – that is if you could drive down safely but more importantly, drive back up without getting bogged in the sand.
Then when it got dark you had to find a place to sleep. Mostly we’d sleep in or beside the car but occasionally you could find a haystack to curl up in. Smelly but warm. The only drama was getting up in the middle of the night to have a slash. Also, if you were at the top of the stack you had to be careful not to piss on somebody below or worse still, fall off the top. This was easy to do considering that most nights you’d have sunk a few VBs or Bundies.
Anyway, you always envied the blokes who had a panel van, or as we used to call them: “Shaggin’ Wagons”. If you had a PV you didn’t rough it. You chucked in a mattress, sleeping bag, pillow, esky full of piss, your girlfriend and you had it made.
So what’s all this got to do with the green Sandman pictured here? Absolutely SFA!
Lorne was good if the wind was from the south but Bells was awesome if the wind was a northerly and there was a big swell running.
So there we were; Watto, Watto’s younger brother Len, Floss (named because he had snow white hair), Pluto (my Kelpie X) and me in Watto’s FJ with our boards tied to the roof rack listening to the Beach Boys singing Good Vibrations.
When we found a grouse wave we surfed all day until it got dark. Sometimes we’d surf under the lights of the cars parked on the beach. In those days you could still legally park on some beaches – that is if you could drive down safely but more importantly, drive back up without getting bogged in the sand.
Then when it got dark you had to find a place to sleep. Mostly we’d sleep in or beside the car but occasionally you could find a haystack to curl up in. Smelly but warm. The only drama was getting up in the middle of the night to have a slash. Also, if you were at the top of the stack you had to be careful not to piss on somebody below or worse still, fall off the top. This was easy to do considering that most nights you’d have sunk a few VBs or Bundies.
Anyway, you always envied the blokes who had a panel van, or as we used to call them: “Shaggin’ Wagons”. If you had a PV you didn’t rough it. You chucked in a mattress, sleeping bag, pillow, esky full of piss, your girlfriend and you had it made.
So what’s all this got to do with the green Sandman pictured here? Absolutely SFA!
But this is what every surfer wanted to own. Jim’s has had his Sandman for six years and it’s taken him four years to rebuild. He’s the third owner and it still has the original owner’s plates and genuine books.
So if you want to relive your surfing days or have ever dreamt of owning a genuine Holden Sandman with a 4.2L V8 that’s in perfect nick, give the man a call on +613 9557 5333 or email:
+of+SELF.jpg)
