An ex-PE surfer, Barry White, got in touch and dropped us a coupla great old shots. Barry surfed in PE from the late 60's until about '79 when he moved to Cape Town. Given the article I just did yesterday about how good Fence used to be before the sand built up, it was kinda ironic that the first shot is from there - yet more proof of how good it was back then. He also had a few interesting words about the whole sand management debacle that clogged up Fence: "Have you heard of Joseph Lister? He was the guy that came up with the bright idea of seeding the dunes with Port Jackson to stop the harbor silting up in about 1883. There used to be a memorial to him across the road from the Bird Rock road house (± 7th Ave.) They built a railway line from just past Happy Valley into the dunes and dumped all of PE's rubbish on the dunes and then seeded them for about 10 years. When we were growing up in Summerstrand you could walk through the bush and pick up all kinds of old bottles, dolls heads and clay pipes."
Richard Turner
2/4/2013 04:40:44 pm
Totally cool, what fantastic old pics!!
Malcolm Turner
2/5/2013 02:45:59 am
I have old pics mainly circa 1972-1978 (thats when I bought my first camera) I also have many old storys about Jeffreys and PE
millerslocal
2/5/2013 03:20:03 pm
Hi MT....will get in touch for SURE!! Would love to see those shots, and keen to get some of those stories into print too!
Simon Browne
2/5/2013 07:20:32 pm
Cool pics Barry, believe it or not, Barry White is my cousin and my name is Simon Browne, no bullish!t
millerslocal
2/5/2013 07:47:12 pm
What other colours are there in the family!?
julian
2/6/2013 01:00:04 am
Nice article on The Fence. Surfed there plenty in the 80s. Just recently I spent a few days in PE and surfed the Fence again. Last time I surf here was in the late 80s before moving to better pastures. The wave is not the same. The peak is now unpredictable, smaller(or narrower) and the wall a lot flatter. There used to be at least 4 good peak, with the last being a lot longer and flatter. 2/6/2013 04:07:21 am
Unfortunately nothing they do will change the sand build up on the harbor wall, the sand migrates down the coast and someone built a great big wall in the way that traps it all :)
Graham Louden-Carter
2/7/2013 08:51:42 pm
I used to live directly opposite Millers, in Berkeley Court and started surfing there in 1963, as an 11 year old, when I used to lug my 9'6" Whitmore 3-stringer across the grass, dropping it a few times on the way...!! I began to see a new side to life, met some amazing characters and saw some great surfing over the years, as the boards got shorter and the things we could do on them got more radical.....!! Good times never forgotten.... Comments are closed.
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AuthorMillerslocal Archives
July 2021
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