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falzon and platt : noosa, 1968 

Ably Falzon and Kevin Platt : Noosa, 1968

Extracts from:
Surfing World

May 1968
Volume 10 Number 5


Introduction
Photographs, some from the water, by Alby Falzon and some brief text by Kevin Platt from an issue largely devoted to previous cyclone season at Noosa in February 1968.
Featured surfers include Midget Farrelly, Kevin Platt, Ted Spencer, David Treloar, and Peter Cornish.

Riding an 8ft pin-tail, Platt records that he is
through with vee-bottomed plastic machines; I even dislike shaping them now.
Falzon notes Spencer and Treloar's
180 cut backs, right up into the soup, almost back over the wave then down are ahead of any other manoeuvre I have seen with the exception of Wayne Lynch's 360 in the curl loops.

The excellent conditions provided high quality photographs, some making cover shots on subsequent editions, see below.

Page 10




[Surfer unknown
, Noosa.]
This image is interesting in that the board appears transparent (?).

Page 11


[Surfer unknown, Noosa.]                             
[Midget Farrelly, Noosa.]
Page 20

[Baddy Trealor?]

[Kevin Platt?]
Page 21
...
Now it's as it should be once again.
Sitting in ihe flat at night talking over boards and the days surfing.
If you're on the ball you can get ahead quickly using these waves.
It's so hard to tell if you're moving in the right direction in Sydney surf.
Shape a board, you think it could be good but never really sure in all that slop.
Up here in these waves everything gets straightened out.
I'd been surfing wide-backed, vee-bottomed machines until the last few weeks before I left Sydney.
The newest board was a short pin-tail.
No vee at all, but a flat section under the back with low rails in the back third plus some new changes in the bottom shape.
I was well pleased with it in what surf I'd had before we left.
Some small, very weak surf at Avalon and a larger, more powerful swell at Long Reef had given a wide variety of conditions.
The only thing I felt here was the need for a little extra length, the board was only eight feet, three or four more inches would have been perfect.
On the larger waves the turning circle was too short so there was no drive out of the turn, it spun around too fast.


'noosa is a journey to heaven'

Noosa only strengthened this demand for a little more rail to work with.
Despite anything said in previous magazines about vertical performance and trimming, I'm not for or against either one or the other.
They're all useful.
If anything, the vertical performance thing was carried to its utmost by David Treloar, but it's oh! so monotonous, especially after half an hour of nothing but turning off the bottom then jamming a cut back high in the wave and repeating the whole process over and over again.
Midget remarked on how many surfers had forgotten how to trim correctly, get maximum speed out of their boards, and he is right.
For myself, I take neither of them to the extreme, I'd rather use each as the wave called for it.
Once I'd adjusted to the pin-tail it gave good water flow and speed plus the extra curves in the plan shape made turns so much easier.
Now I feel sorry for all those sheep who fell into the brave new era thing and walked away with their 8' x 25" vee-bottomed things with a 15" pod.
The reasons for their


Page 22

sudden burst of popularity are far too complex to explain in a magazine story, besides, I'd be stepping on too many short twisted toes if I even tried.
Suffice to say that I'm through with vee-bottomed plastic machines; I even dislike shaping them now.
I've got my own model to work on and I'm doing it my way.                       

What's left to tell of Noosa Heads, its very hard to find words to describe aptly.
The atmosphere of the place has a strange effect on people, relationships grow stronger in the silence of the night, or in the water.
No words to describe a walk through the rain forest after a tropical shower.
No words tell what its all about, but you'll feel it


- Kevin Platt

Page 36
...
He
(Midget) said to me as we were paddling out together, 'This is surfing the way I like it'.
This is the way "Midget" liked it.
Peter liked it and I "lked it.
No-one else around, almost dark and could hardly see the waves, hard, fail and free surfing.
It was great and worth going to Noosa for that one hour that one night.
Ted and 'Baddy' arrived around midday, Tuesday.
It didn't take them any time at all to adapt.
Ted on his small red pintail and David on a borrowed stubby.
Ted knows his board so well that he just thinks and surfs and his board follows.
His board just appears to be an extension of his body.
I've never seen a surfer and his board blend in so naturally.
Both Ted and David were pulling off manoeuvres, difficult manoeuvres, with so much grace and poise that it made most other surfers look sick.

Their 180 cut backs, right up into the soup, almost back over the wave then down are ahead of any other manoeuvre I have seen with the exception of Wayne Lynch's 360 in the curl loops.
We surfed it for a week.
If it wasn't at Main Beach or Johnson's, it was at National or Ti-Tree.
But it really didn't matter, just to be there and to know we could surf any bay at any time, and be alone with the surf and our thoughts was in itself a tremendous satisfaction.
There were times when Midget and Ted would surf National with no-one else in the water, with sparkling, glassy tubes and an off-shore wind.
...
- Alby Falzon

Advertising
Page 23
Farrelly Surfboards. 
 
Classic All Round Design.                              Choice of Hulls, Fins, Tints, 3 shapes.
Interstate Freight Free. Ph. 919 5169.                      Write: Palm Beach PO NSW (2108).

Uncomplicated lines guarantee versatility. 
Minimum drag shapes thru,out, low white water resistance.
Minimum buoyancy,desirable for low ride and traction.
Fast outlines, foil profiles, hi-lo gun rail with free flow fin allow maximum slip, plus release thru white water.
Rocker distribution allows parallel trim in vertical water
Page 37


The Noosa Sessions

David "Baddy" Treloar, Noosa, January 1968.
Photograph by Albert Falzon.
Possibly Surfing World, Volume 11, Numbers 1-6

Surfing World v11 n1 1968 July

Surfing World v11 n5 Nov 1968

Surfing World v11 n6 Dec 1968




Surfing World

May 1968
Volume 10 Number 5
 


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Geoff Cater (2018) : Falzon and Platt : Noosa, 1968.
http://www.surfresearch.com.au/1968_05_SW_v10n5_Noosa.html