Back in the day....

Geoff Jones dropped us an email with a coupla shots of the old days in PE:

"As an ‘old’ PE surfer, I thought I better give you a little more info about ‘the old days’ i.e. the 60’s and 70’s.

When I started surfing in 1965, we only had one surfshop in town.  That was Sandy McGilleray’s shop in the old city parking garage next to the Hong Kong restaurant.  The other surfshops in Rink Street came years later.  From what I can remember, all the boards were imported from Oz and the USA at the time, although both Cape Town and Durban were soon making pretty good boards.  Then Bobby Joubert started making really fast boards in EL – I still remember a 10 year old Gavin Rudolf asking me for a wave on my new board at the fence.

Taking about the Fence, I thought you may be interested in a couple of old surf shots.  The first one was taken on a big day at the fence.  The shot was taken around 1966 (46 years ago).  Note where the break was compared to the double stacked harbor wall block versus where they are today.  That section of the wall is now high and dry and the break is far more out to sea.  The bounce off the wall was far more pronounced and had a lot more effect on the waves.  Those were the days!!

The second shot was of me on a nice glassy day at the Pipe, again taken around about 1970 – note the old fashioned cargo boat in the background.

Sorry I don’t have some better action shots to show you.  But I do have years and years of good memories.  I still surf a longboard, now at 66 and intend to keep going until I can’t stand up anymore.!"

Thanks Geoff! Anyone out there with more old pics of PE surf and the beach scene from back then, please pop em to me on [email protected].