A breakthrough for surfers, who up until then had had to endure the frigid waters of the Western Cape, came when Gobel imported neoprene from the United States and started making Surf & Ski wetsuits. Zero Wetsuits was born.
Two Australian surfers, John Bachelador and Tony Wright, toured the coastline at the end of 1967. They were riding the revolutionary ‘V Machine’ boards by Bob McTavish and Nat Young. Suddenly, surfboards over eight feet were obsolete. Nose-riding was history. Square bottom turns, roller coasters and slashing cutbacks were the rage. Boards became shorter and surfers did amazing things on the waves. Surfing changed from riding waves to performing on them. It was the era of Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Cream and The Doors. Bell-bottom and floral-clad hippies flocked to J-Bay, freaking out the locals. The police cited the town as a drug smuggling haven. Some surfers opened Swiss bank accounts to hide the fortunes they accumulated. Durban Poison and Transkei Gold earned a global reputation, and surfing’s image took a nosedive into the soup.
Older surfers bailed to go fishing, take up golf or other acceptable pastimes. In 1968, Baron Stander started a daily radio surf report for Durban that was to last for 34 years, a world record. Meanwhile, some of the best surfers in the world were emerging from South Africa. In 1969, Wetteland, Ernie Tomson and Ian McDonald staged the Durban 500. The first world champion, Midget Farrelly, was invited to give an exhibition. Gavin Rudolph won, but it was a financial failure.
Peter Burness, secretary of the Natal Surfriders Association, took over and found sponsorship with Gunston cigarettes. The Gunston 500 became the world’s longest running professional surfing event, ending 30 years later in 1999 when Mr Price took over.
In the seventies, Burness invited top surfers to compete in the Gunston to generate overseas invites for South African surfers. Youngsters Anthony Brodowicz, 14, Shaun Tomson, 15, his cousin Michael Tomson, 16, Gavin Rudolph, 18, and Errol Hickman, 17, were invited to the 1971 Smirnoff Pro Am at Sunset Beach. Rudolph stunned the surfing world by winning the competition in eight- to twelve-foot surf – in only his second session at the fabled break. He thus became the first South African to win a professional event outside the country.
Dozens of foreign surfers began to compete in Durban, doing the mandatory pilgrimage to Jeffreys Bay, where seamstress Cheron Kraak was making board shorts for surfers on the beach under her label Country Feeling. She was later to take over the Billabong franchise in South Africa, culminating in the 2007 sale of Billabong South Africa back to the parent company for R350 million.
While Cheron was fulfilling her rags-to-riches story, South Africa was becoming a surfing superpower. Shaun and Michael Tomson joined a global brotherhood including Mark Richards, Rabbit Bartholomew, Buzzy Kerbox, Dane Kealoha and the Bronzed Aussies – Ian Cairns, Peter Townend and Mark Warren.
Other world-class South African surfers were Cape Town’s big-wave charger Jonathan ‘Iceman’ Paarman; the king of Jeffreys Bay, Peers Pittard; PE’s Gavin Rudolph; the South Coast’s Ant Brodowicz; and Durbanites Mike Esposito, Bruce Jackson, Wayne Shaw and Paul Naude, the first goofy foot to win at Sunset Beach. In 1976, Naude, Doug McDonald and Mike Larmont started Zigzag magazine. A group called International Professional Surfers (IPS), was formed in Hawaii by Randy Rarick and Fred Hemmings.
Michael Tomson started Gotcha clothing, Shaun started Instinct, and everybody from Aberdeen to Zeerust knew about surfing.
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