surfresearch

Introduction
Photos and incomplete contest notes by some competitors including finalist Midget Farrelly.
There were other contest reports by spectators such as Rusty Miller.

Page A [Midget Farrelly Contest Report:]

... the next day.

Rolf Aurness, Peter Drouyn, Nat, Keone Downing, Reno Abellira and I paddled out into the frigid water and for our last surf of the contest.
I wondered if there was ambition left in any of us.
When I saw Rolf on his first wave, I knew he clearly had a mission to win.
It seemed that every good big wave in the ocean had Rolf's mark on it.
He surfed them faultlessly, riding deep, never getting too far ahead of the curl.
Rolf had that kind of confidence that we all would love to have at the critical moment of truth in a final.
He had been in the Bells area for a month before the contest and now he seemed supremely familiar with Johanna and her glassy walls.
His board glided easily through the heavy swells and his real aggression was played out into his positioning under the threatening lip that often enveloped him in it's white mass.
Up into the dark eye he travelled time and again.
His desire to win in no way made him play safe or infringed on his radical flexible style, Rolf used his body as a lever, levering the board in and out of the wave.
He was more the athlete than stylist, all the more to his credit; I know I didn't do much to earn second place, my attitude seemed to sour after the semi-final.

Peter Drouyn could have done better with some decent waves.
Reno Abellira was ready to win.
He chose only the biggest and best waves.
He always put himself back under the curl.
Reno was ...

Page B

Keone was also at the mercy of the waves.
...
Nat didn't have the waves he wanted, perhaps another board, would have seen him through better.
Perhaps he had the one he liked, but couldn't get it doing what he wanted.
It was Rolf who was able to show what he had going, and it was Rolf who should have won.
From the very beginning he did well.
Only once in his semi did he nearly miss when he took a fourth.
It was in his last semi, that I could manage on three waves to come third to Rolf's first.
We all used different boards, though speed was the key to all our riding.
Had a movie been taken of the final, I'm sure we could see some way-out riding.
High-speed, rail-skittering surfing on fast, peeling waves.
The waves were good for the final, in fact they seemed to be touching on their best.
Perhaps a shade under one of the semis, when the waves as big as eight and ten feet began to punch through.

[Rolf Arness]

It is those waves in the semis and the final that should be my last reflection of the World Contest, for all the things that the contest lacked, fell down on, or missed, the tall grey waves of Johanna more than compensated.

Page C [Competitor's Contest Report:]

... people-worn Flanders.
The following waveless days sent the surfers and officials into a desperate frenzy.
I think they would have seriously considered Lorne Point as the World Championship wave had it broken.
At this point I would sincerely like to apologize to all those people who were in Australia, for the disgusting antics of the Victorian press and the unthinkable harassment of competitors by the police.

I think every Australian surfer present was shamed by the attitude of people not connected to the contest, who made a field day of some obscure incidents.

The contest dragged into its second week with little chance of a new swell arriving.
The numbers began to fall away as eliminated surfers went north to warmer water or left the country.
You couldn't really say Johanna was a miracle.
You could say that the fact that the contest was concluded at all, at Johanna was; Johanna, Johanna.
What a beautiful rugged place.
Johanna lay three hours south of Torquay, so near yet a world apart.
I wonder how many people were overpowered with the beauty of this place.

As I surfed on one of the reefs, I looked to the vertical cliffs and imagined I might be In Ireland or Wales gating at sheep farms that ran over a multitude of small knobby hills to terminate in a perfect wandering border on the brink of the cliffs.
Jagged rocks of great height reached out ...

Page D
...
It was the (peace?) and emptiness of Johanna that struck me as I slid over the (?) swells.
The waves at Johanna are more powerful than Bells because of the southerly direction the coastline faces.
Swells from the south belt unimpeded into the cliffs and open-beaches.

(With) subdued, joyous delirium, the organizers, who were subdued by the long windedness of the contest, but nevertheless, joyous that the damn thing might soon end, sent everyone through semi-finals etc., 'till they were left with a hand full of so-called, best surfers.

I'm not casting asperions (sic) on those who were left, but surely some who were not present were eliminated by more than the competition.

The light began to fail at beautiful Johanna as the finalists were sent into the water by chairman of the contest Eduardo Arena.
Before we hit the water I had objected against the lack of waves.
I had just come in from a semi-final and had seen how some surfers had only been able to catch three waves yet the winner would be
decided on five.
It was just another wave-catching contest.
Surfing skill was almost secondary when you realized that some riders didn't stand a chance under the five wave system.

At this point the World Contest seemed to mean very little to Arena.
It was the concluding of the event that meant everything.
As it turned out there were no waves ...

[Wayne Lynch]

Page 20

[Contest Report:]

... (Nat's?) performance in the semi-final cannot fire in the final.
He takes off on too many impossible walls and is forced to ride back inside the white water; he keeps digging a rail as he comes out of turns and finishes up swimming a couple of times.
Downing gives a pretty straight-laced exhibition of basic surfing.
The hassling for waves out in the water is quite severe and it is only the ever moving Aurness that has consistently clean take-offs.
The final ends five minutes before dark.
There is little doubt who the winner is.
We leave Johanna with the off-shore wind still blowing.

Day 14
Thursday sees the long awaited end of the contest.
The Womens events are run-off at a little place called Skenes Creek on the south side of Kennett River.
Sharon Weber causes a minor upset when she beats Margo Godfrey in the 3-4' pre-dominantly left close-outs.
Another goofy foot, 14 year old Barbara Belyea from the East Coast of the U.S.A. raised a few eye-brows when she finished well ahead of Joyce Hoffman, two time world champion.
The trophies are presented Thursday night and climax a contest which had more than its share of hang-ups.
If nothing else, the 5th World Surfboard Riding Championships managed to produce a unanimous world Champion and this in itself is quite an achievement.
The extent of the achievement is for you to think about.

Page 15

Wayne Lynch

Men Women

1st Rolf Arness (USA)
2nd Midget Farrelly (Australia)
3rd Peter Drouyn (Australia)
4th Reno Abellira (Hawaii)
5th K. Downing (Hawaii)
6th Nat Young (Australia)

1. Sharon Weber (Hawaii)
2. Margo Godfrey (US)
3. Barbara Belyea (US)
4. Joyce Hoffman (US)
5. Martha Sunn (Hawaii)
6. Jerico Poppler (US)

Page 19 Page 21