surfresearch.com.au  newspapers : 1952

The Australian Women's Weekly Wednesday 9 January 1952, page 16. Now for the long, hot days of SUMMER.... SUMMER GLADNESS.  From the crest of a sand- hill a suntanned young girl welcomes the long, leisurely days of summer.  Most Australians make the most of the daylight hours before and after work. Nearly everyone enjoys week-ends in the sun. SUMMER SURFING.  The energetic can enjoy the thrill of a surfboard ride.  The lazy can loll on the beach with a book in one hand, an ice-cream in the other, and a hat pulled over the eyes. Trove 1952 'Now for the long, hot days of SUMMER....', The Australian Women's Weekly (1933 - 1982), 9 January, p. 16, viewed 7 April, 2013, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article51595190

The Australian Women's Weekly 23rd January 1952, page 36. Vincent's Powders and Tablets.

Thirty-eight lifesavers were disqualified in the surf- board race at Manly carnival yesterday.
The water referee, Mr. Lionel McDonald, disqualified the riders for not completing the course he had outlined at the start of the race.
Only five competitors rounded the correct buoy, and their leader, D. Cahill (Coogee) was declared the winner.
Other riders protested against their disqualification.
Their leading spokesman, Graham Ferris (Tamarama), has been cited to appear before the S.L.S.A. on Tuesday night for alleged remarks to the referee.
...
Former Australian surf ski champion Les Lazarus (Newcastle) made his first Sydney appearance of the season.
Lazarus won the single ski race and then took part in the double ski event.
He and his partner finished three feet behind the winners.
...
Surf Board Race- E Cahill (Coogee), 1. G Bevan (Coogee), 2. T McMahon (Bronte) 3.

Doubles Surf Ski Race- Mulcay brothers (North Cronulla), 1. Lazarus and Conolly (Newcastle), 2. Brown and Rowswell (Maroubra) 3.

With the surfing season officially opening next Wednesday, hundreds of thousands of Australians will soon be visiting beaches to enjoy Australia's national pastime surfing.

It may seem an immodest claim, but there is little doubt that Australia has the best beaches and the best surf in the world.
Only Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Ceylon, the southern States of U.S. and some Pacific islands have a surf at all.
At this time of the year especially, we should pay tribute to a Sydneysider, Mr. W. H. Gocher, who, 50 years ago, won for Australians the right to all-day surfing.
Australians had, of course, been surfing long before Mr. Gocher breasted the waves, although no one seems to know when or with whom it began.

At all events, by 1880 many young Australians were bathing regularly at Sydney's near-deserted beaches.
But surfing in those days was a clandestine affair- something to be indulged in early in the morning before too many people were about.
For the law expressly forbade (and still forbids) public bathing between 6 a.m. and 8 p.m.

In 1902, Gocher, a journalist, announced that at noon on the following Sunday he would defy the law and publicly bathe at Manly beach.
True to his word, and before a large crowd of onlookers, Gocher carried out his promise.
He was not arrested, and since then Australians have surfed during the forbidden hours without interference.

Perhaps the most famous feature of Australian surfing are our Iifesavers.
The Australian voluntary system of surf lifesaving is unique, and the tanned lifesaver with his bright club, cap, who pays an average of 15/- a year for the privilege of saving your life, is as much a product of Australia as the kangaroo and kookaburra.
Since they began formal operations, surf Iifesavers have saved the lives of more than 80,000 people. To-day, there are more than 165 surf lifesaving clubs in Australia with a total membership of about 12,500.

Surf-lifesaving has come a long way sjnce the days of 1907, when á few youngsters formed lifesaving clubs at some Sydney beaches "just for the fun of it."
Two years later, representatives of these clubs met to form the Surf Bathing Association of New
South Wales.
The movement spread rapidly, and clubs were formed in Victoria, Western Australia, Queensland and New Zealand.
In 1920, the association changed its name to the Surf Life Saving Association of N.S.W., and three years later it adopted its present name of Surf Life Saving Association of Australia.

SYDNEY TO-DAY
- Slightly in advance of the official opening of our surf season, Sydney's 18-footer sailing skiffs are out, lending colour and personality to the harbour's blue waters.
Above, a crew prepares its skiff at Double Bay for an afternoon's racing.

To-day, there are Surf Life Saving clubs in every State except the Northern Territory.
Australians have developed many unique contrivances to meet the demands of the surf.
Our first surfboat was designed by Fred Notting, a Manly club member, who gave it distinctive high ends and a curved keel.
Manly was the first club to use a surfboat; it proved such a success that all the other clubs adopted the idea as soon as they could raise the money.
The lifesaving reel and belt, the surf ski, and the rubber surfoplane all originated in Australia.
The Eve resuscitation rocker used on beaches here is an Australian adaptation of an English invention.
The flippers used by surfers to-day were developed from the type of flippers used by frogmen in World War II.
The original surfboard was not Australian; it was introduced here by Duke Kahanamoku, a visiting Hawaiian swimmer, in 1914.
Australian surfboard riders, however, soon modified the short, broad boards of the Hawaiians, which were constructed of solid wood.
By 1925, we had developed the hollow surfboard, which is much faster than solid boards.
The Australian surfboard today is a long, narrow board with pointed ends and continuously curved sides, and is completely hollow.
The art of "body shooting," or catching a wave so that it carries the surfer with it for hundreds of yards, is almost exclusively Australian.
Since its development early in the century, Australian surfers have introduced many improvements on the original body-shooting style.
The art of shooting waves with arms by the sides, reducing the force of the break by bringing the arms over, and dipping the shoulders and lifting the legs to keep the surfer on the wave are features of the present style.
Other refinements developed by Australian surfers include "cork- screwing" while racing down the front of the wave at 30 miles an hour and shooting the waves on one's back.
With surfing so popular here, it is not surprising that Australians have developed their own surfing language.
A surfer "catches," "shoots" or "cracks" a wave.
A waye which carries the surfer, right to the beach is called a "beacher," and an unusually big or fast wave is a "screamer."
The most feared of all waves is the "dumper," which instead of breaking gradually builds up into a tremendous wall of water and then suddenly "dumps" tons of water from heights of up to 30 feet. Any surfer who is unfortunate enough to be caught by a dumper is said to go "down the
mine" and other surfers have to "scrape him up."
A "mocking bird" (a variation on "galah") is anyone who gets in the way of a surfer "coming in" on a wave and into whom the surfer crashes.
The surfer then tells his mate that "my head stopped and my shoulders kept on going."
Our Iifesavers have also developed their own terminology.
The" "sweep" is the-lifesaver who mans the steering oar of a surf- boat.
The "beltman" is a man who swims out with the belt to anyone in distress, the "linesmen" those who pay out the line, and the "reelman" the man who works the reel.
One of the greatest contributions of Australian swimmers to the world has been the swimming stroke known as the "Australian crawl."
The common swimming stroke in use all over the world before the development of the Australian crawl was the trudgen (named after J. Trudgen).
This stroke utilised a frog-like kicking action which considerably reduced the speed of the swimmer.
According to the records, towards the end of the 19th century, a 12-year-old boy named Alick Wickham swam in a championship race at Bronte baths using a stroke which later became known as the Australian crawl.
Alick swam with his face submerged, taking breaths at long intervals, with his legs threshing straight up and down and with his arms moving rapidly.
Australia's swimmers soon adopted and modified the revolutionary new stroke, astonishing swimmers in other countries with its speed.
In 1910, the Australian swimmer, Frank F. Beaurepaire, using the crawl stroke, won every English title from 100 yards to a mile.
Competing in Scotland, Sweden, Finland, Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, South Africa, New Zealand, Canada and Hawaii, he was undefeated in 41 events and established five world records.
To-day the Australian crawl, or modifications of it, is used all over the world.
Swimmers recognise it as "the fastest of all swimming strokes".

Trove
1952 'Best Surf In The World', The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), 27 September, p. 9. , viewed 29 Dec 2016, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18283890

Page 6

Seven surf lifesavers will fly to Honolulu on January 10 to show Hawaiians Australian methods of
surf rescue.
The men will be selected by the Surf Life Savin« Association to represent all States.
Pictures on these two pages show the fine types of young men who will be eligible for selection.
The names of the members of the team to represent the Commonwealth will be announced on December 13.

(Photographs)
ABOVE: Coogee crew take their boat out over the breakers at North Wollongong,
where one of the oldest New South Wales clubs is established.

BELOW: Parade of teams in a March Past Championship: Tasmania (left); Queensland;
Henley, South Australia; New South Wales; and Western Australia.

On page 7

BrflE iV» RESUSCITATION.
Merv Butterfield, chief instructor of South Australia
BJ;,, ttntre (in shorts), watches the Burleigh Heads, Queensland, team winning its heat.
Tasmanian team is on the right.
STALWART AUSTRALIANS.
Standard-bearers on the dais.
Alex Prior, superintendent of W.A. Surf Life Saving Association, is in foreground.
líji^" ^^^T.
Wollongong (foreground) and Bulli in the march past at North Wollongong Surf Carnival.
Teams consist of 12 men with reel and flag.
Bondi's standard on the right.
Ampol Petroleum Ltd. will pay all the fares on the Hawaiian trip.
PARADE-GROUND PRECISION.
Bondi team takes part in a march past with Maroubra and Bulli.
The members of the team to go abroad will be picked for their ability to act as ambassadors for Australia, as well as for their lifesaving skill and surf prowess.
JUDGING.
Members of the Burleigh Heads team give a rescue and resuscitation demonstration.
Judges are Myles Black, of Bondi (left), Andy Frizelle, Queensland (centre), and Alan Paterson, of Newcastle.
The Schaeffer method of resuscitation is used.
POLISHING SURF SKIS.
Supporters help leam members at a surf carnival.
The Australian voluntary system of beach patrols has received much praise abroad.

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