Find out a bunch of stuff about Dave I bet you never knew.....
Age: 56
Local Spot: Supers
Weapons: Stubby 10ft'r, and my shortboard is a 9ft4 Glen D'Arcy
Wheels: Volvo Stationwagon
Graft: Da boss at Surf Centre
Favourite surfer: Johnny Paarman and Sean Holmes, and Jordy of course.
Favourite spot: Supers
Local Crew: Mush Hide & Alan Byram
Achievements: EP & WP Men's & Master's, headed both EP and WP surfing associations at some stage or other, coached & sponsored a host of SA's top surfers including Martin Potter, Sean Holmes, Justin Strong and Wendy Botha (ex-Women's world champ).
Local Spot: Supers
Weapons: Stubby 10ft'r, and my shortboard is a 9ft4 Glen D'Arcy
Wheels: Volvo Stationwagon
Graft: Da boss at Surf Centre
Favourite surfer: Johnny Paarman and Sean Holmes, and Jordy of course.
Favourite spot: Supers
Local Crew: Mush Hide & Alan Byram
Achievements: EP & WP Men's & Master's, headed both EP and WP surfing associations at some stage or other, coached & sponsored a host of SA's top surfers including Martin Potter, Sean Holmes, Justin Strong and Wendy Botha (ex-Women's world champ).
The burning question everyone's too scared to ask - what's with the gloves?
Yah, no-one's ever asked me why I wear gloves actually. I started to use them when they first came out back in the early '80's, and just never stopped. They definitely give you more paddling power, and I need all the help I can get!
So how'd you get into surfing?My family owned one of those bathing houses on the beach at Muizenberg. When I was about 8 or so we went to Garlicks and bought a surfboard to leave there (Ed - one of the original department stores, a bit like buying your board at Edgars).
That's when the bug bit. Up til then we'd been mucking about on lilo's and bellyboards. |
 M'berg beach houses |
You were one of the original locals in JBay back in the '60's, what was it like back then?
We surfed the Point to start with, and the good guys like Shaun Tomson surfed Tubes. It wasn't until the Aussie guys came and surfed Supers that we decided to brave it. Our original equipment just wasn't a match for the speed of Supers. By the 70's I'd started surfing there more regularly.
What was the vibe like back then?
In those days you could still get 20-30 guys in the water. It was much more aggressive then than it is today, surf etiquette wasn't a strong point of the visiting Australian and American surfers. Guys like Larry Levin and Peter Daniels were the original JBU and klapped the ou's stukkend. You could get away with it in those days.
What were you riding?Single fin 7ft2 Larry Levin swallow wingers were the board of choice!
Nommer assesblief?We had those old wind up phones back then, with an operator that asked you "Nommer Asseblief" in order to connect your call. I still remember my Jbay phone number, it was 252.
|
 Dave back in the day |
Any classic sessions stand out?
There were plenty. I remember getting a few waves from behind Cheron's house up at Boneyards all the way through to Albatross! Did it maybe 2 or 3 times - and this on a single fin! (Ed - that's about 1.5km's!!) JBay just held it's size better in the old days, maybe there was more sand or something. It didn't section out or get mushy. It didn't connect all the time, but there were days when it did happen.
You got to have some funny stories from old JBay days.
There were plenty. One that stands out is when I was surfing with Robby Meiring, he was an old Cave Rock legend. It was a real misty glassy morning at Supers. He was sitting about 5m away from me and the next thing I see him literally flying through the air, his legs completely out of the water. Something hit him hard from underneath.
He was white as a sheet and swam straight over to me and climbed on my back! I had to paddle with him on my back in to shore, whilst towing his board! All this on my 5ft10 twinnie. He sat on the beach for the next 3 days and refused to get in the water, even tho the waves were cooking!
He was white as a sheet and swam straight over to me and climbed on my back! I had to paddle with him on my back in to shore, whilst towing his board! All this on my 5ft10 twinnie. He sat on the beach for the next 3 days and refused to get in the water, even tho the waves were cooking!
 |
 |
So what's the story behind Surf Centre, how did it all start?
I was Larry Levin's digsmate back in the old days in Jbay. He upped n offed to Australia in 1979 and I got this phone call to ask whether I wanted to take over his surfboard factory, which I did. Well, 3 months later Larry was back! So Larry operated under his label again and I continued production under a new label I started, called Seaflight.
I hired the best shapers I could find, and did the airbrushing and glassing myself. Glen D'Arcy joined me from Durban. John Whitmore even shaped a few boards for me when he was down this way. Robby Ponting hooked up with us in Jbay under the Faith label, and when he left I bought the Faith brand from him. The business grew so we could bring Ken Freeland back from Australia to shape, with Des Sawyer joining us from Cape Town.
In 1979 I bought Paarman's Surf Centre in Cape Town from Mark Paarman (I'm from Cape Town originally), and changed the name to just Surf Centre. It made sense as we had this surfboard factory and now we had an outlet to retail the boards from. Alan Byram's brother, Grant, was my partner and ran it for me.
Glen and I went over to Hawaii in 1982 and bought Local Motion back to South Africa. By 1984 Surf Centre had grown too big to manage from afar, so it made sense to sell the surfboard factory and move back to Cape Town, where at this stage I had 4 stores.
I hired the best shapers I could find, and did the airbrushing and glassing myself. Glen D'Arcy joined me from Durban. John Whitmore even shaped a few boards for me when he was down this way. Robby Ponting hooked up with us in Jbay under the Faith label, and when he left I bought the Faith brand from him. The business grew so we could bring Ken Freeland back from Australia to shape, with Des Sawyer joining us from Cape Town.
In 1979 I bought Paarman's Surf Centre in Cape Town from Mark Paarman (I'm from Cape Town originally), and changed the name to just Surf Centre. It made sense as we had this surfboard factory and now we had an outlet to retail the boards from. Alan Byram's brother, Grant, was my partner and ran it for me.
Glen and I went over to Hawaii in 1982 and bought Local Motion back to South Africa. By 1984 Surf Centre had grown too big to manage from afar, so it made sense to sell the surfboard factory and move back to Cape Town, where at this stage I had 4 stores.
 |
 |
So how come you ended up back in PE then?
I stayed in Cape Town til 1998. My son had just started primary school & I didn't want him growing up in Cape Town. So we moved back to Pepper Street in JBay (Ed - the road to Supers). At this stage I was semi-retired. However, Lifestyle in PE closed down and there was a gap in the market to open a surf shop (I'd never done so til then as Niel Dorwood who owned Lifestyle was my mate). Turtle Morris managed the first shop up in 4th ave Newton Park. My son was in school in PE and it became a mission to drive through so we ended up just moving here. We then opened stores in GreenAcres, Dolpin's Leap and Walmer Park.
Rumour has it we have you to thank for the resurgence of longboards in SA.
Yah, Grant and I started up the longboard scene again back in the mid '80's. There were no longboards in the country during the 70's. We started shaping them at the factory after Kenny Freeland began making a few, and that's what got the ball rolling. I started the South Africa Longboard Surfing Association (SALSA) in about 1987.
You mentioned going to Hawaii, how was the surf?
I went there in the winters of 1979 and 1983. Surfed all the premier spots. Waimea at 12-14ft, Sunset at about 15ft, and solid Pipe - got some barrels!
Tell us something about you we don't know!
I'm a qualified chef. That's how I earned my bread to start with. Worked all over, from Wilderness to Byron Bay and everywhere in between.
