surfresearch.com.au  sutherland : aust titles, 1967

As usual, now in Victoria we expect the pre-Easter build up of swell to commence about three weeks before Easter and this year was no exception.
March was one of the greatest months ever that I have known for surf and weather.
The swell hovered around the ten foot mark and we experienced above average temperatures in the high nineties, perfect for a surf before and after work.
The long weekend, a week before the contest, brought the first interstate visitors.
Robert Conneely and Ted Spencer were the first sighted and they sneaked a few sessions in perfect Bell's surf before the mob arrived at the close of the week.
Monday, March 29, the first day of the contest, presented us with a sloppy easterly wind swell fighting a four to eight feet ground swell.
Nevertheless, by lunch time the wind swell had disappeared and we had smooth lines of ground swell.
The programme scheduled for the day was the first round of women's and junior men's competition and everything ran smoothly until a southerly sea breeze chopped up the surf around 2 p.m.
Head judge, Stan Couper, promptly announced his decision to postpone the remaining finals to a later date.
At this stage Wayne Lynch and Kevin Parkinson had won their semi-finals and Gail Couper and Lyn Stubbins had easily won their heats.

The next day, Tuesday, turned out to be the best day for surf for the entire contest.
The swell had lifted to 6-10 feet, the wind was offshore and the sun shone brilliantly, for the duration of the first round of senior men's and men's competition.
Outstanding displays in the heats were registered by "Nat" Young, Robert Conneeley, Keith Paul, "Midget" Farrelly, Peter Drouyn, Russell Hughes, Bobby Brown and Ted Spencer.

Malcolm Saunders, Rod Wilson and Doc Spence were the better surfers in the senior men's event and they were followed by ever-green Ross Kelly, Queensland's Ben Bendle and Victorian Jim Howard.

The men's semi-finals produced some tremendous surfing, naturally, the pressure was on already. "Nat" Young and Peter Drouyn after being in the same heat were in the same semi-final, and both surfed brilliantly with tremendous control and feeling with the white water, "Nat" finally ...

Page 20

Perfect, big, glassy waves rolled in before the contest grand finals began Sunday morning.  Bobby Brown and Robert Conneeley chase another surfer across a beautiful wall. Surfabout Volume 4 Number 1, June 1967,  page 20.

By the time the final began at 5 p.m., the tide had filled in considerably and "Little Rincon" was consistently breaking around the 6 foot mark - ideal surf for a contest final, especially with a light offshore breeze and the low rays of the sun adding sparkle to the water.

After forty-five minutes of close, tight and hard surfing from all finalists "Nat" Young was given first place, just ahead of "Midget" Farrelly, with Peter Drouyn breathing hard down their necks in third place.
"Nat" won because of his greater ability to perform in the white water, thus setting a pattern he adhered to for the rest of the contest.
Peter Drouyn showed amazing versatility and it was evident that he had only to click in all departments to be able to beat "Nat".
"Midget" proved he is certainly no "has-been".
On Wednesday the weather changed.
The early morning wind was due west and dark lines of swell were running ahead of inky black clouds that loomed across the sky toward the south-west.
An early start to the contest and some quick organisation enabled the junior semi-finals and repercharge, held over from Monday, to be completed before the sky opened up and all hell broke loose.
Within minutes of the completion of the repercharge it did!
Down came the rain, and with a sudden gust of wind flashed around to the south-west and we were in the middle of a storm.
For perhaps half an hour surfers and officials huddled in groups wherever shelter was available, or jammed themselves into the safety of cars until the outburst had cleared.
Contest officials deliberated on what to do - Bell's was badly chopped up, finally the decision was made to move back to Torquay and see what was offering there.
Back at Torquay the wind had dropped and the waves were around 4-6 feet, glass smooth inside and on the verge of coming good with the falling tide.
Knowing Torquay well and what sort of wave it can produce I soon convinced myself that the A.S.A. would hold the rest of the contest here before the wind came up permanently and ruined all. Nevertheless the decision was made to shift the contest down to Lome and of an hour later we were watching 3 feet maximum waves break off  Lome Point in between long intervals of no swell.
I heard a few remarks from some "experts" saying that Torquay was not a class wave.
For casual observers how misinformed they were, it was good quality contest surf!
Anyway, it was to be Lome.
It was obvious the swell was not big enough to get into Lome and the indications were quite clear that the Point would not work ror very long with the incoming tide.
After much discussion it was decided to shift back to Torquay, and by the time everyone reached there, nearly three hours had lapsed since first leaving in the morning.
The surf had deteriorated to a sloppy mess - great conditions for the remaining women's heat and semi-finals!
Thursday, the fourth day broke with south-westerly winds, patchy blue skies and intermittent showers.
The swell was big, possibly 15 feet at Bell's.
Lome was definitely the venue this time and with the bigger and stronger swell the Point was on - a beautiful 4-6 feet surf.
Consistently, line after line of swell wrapped around the outside point near the pier and poured across the bay to the Point creating one of the best line-ups seen here for quite a while.

 Page 21

After a protest from the N.S.W. delegates the junior and women's finals were held at a break, not the Point, ,further down the beach.
The reason for the protest was the advantage that locals Wayne Lynch and Gail Couper had at the Point.
Fair enough, but no matter where a contest is held someone will always have a slight advantage because of the knowledge of local conditions.
Besides, Wayne and Gail ride the Lorne beach break more than they do the Point, so the advantage was still with them.
Of course if a surfer is good enough he will beat anyone, on their home beach or not.
"Butch" Cooney proved this by closely defeating Wayne in the junior final after both had turned on some tremendous surfing.
"Butch" was always in the right place at the right time regardless of wave size and quality and could not put a foot wrong.
Wayne, with his tremendous repertoire of turns and functioning manoeuvres powered many waves into submission, but he lacked final consistency which he later revealed in the contest.
Kevin Parkinson rode into third place and was impressive with his attacking style.

The women's final proved a one-horse race with Gail Couper outclassing all her opponents.
Lyn Stubbins surfed well and was the only girl who looked capable of pushing Gail in later competition.

Russell Hughes was another surfer who rode extremely well in patches and there was no doubt he sat consistently tighter in the wave than anyone else.
However, at the critical time he lacked that little extra polish the other surfers had.

Sutherland, Barry:  Australian Champs '67 Surfabout, Volume 4 Number 1, June 1967.

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