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| 1910
Baker, Reg "Snowy": General Physical Culture. With Articles On Special Subjects By Leading Australian Athletics. (Health Strength Skill). Melbourne. G.Robertson & Co., 1910. Hardcover, 126 pages, black and white photographs and diagrams. Cover image: Mitchell Library, Sydney. |
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| 1963
Banks, Joseph : The Endeavour Journal of Joseph Banks 1768 - 1771 Edited by J. C. Beaglehole The Trustees of the Public Library of New South Wales in Association with Angus and Robertson 89 Castlereagh Street, Sydney. First published February 1962. Second Edition 1963. Two Volumes. Review Tahitian surfriding, page 283, Tahitian canoe construction pages 319 - 320, Tahitian carpentry pages 363 - 364. See Banks : Tahiti 1769. |
| 200
Barr, Matt; Moran, Christopher and Wallace, Ewan : Global Surf Nation : Surf Culture, People, History and Places Hardie Grant Books 85 High Street Prahan, Victoria, 3181, Australia. 2005. Soft cover, 112 pages, colour photographs, black and white photographs, Picture Credits. Review World surfing presented by country with notes on History, Locations, Surfer Profiles, Manufacturers and/or Shapers. Photography is mostly current as of 2005. Despite being edited (rather than written) from a number of diverse uncredited sources, the is no bibliograhy or attempt to credit them. The book has a large number of errors. In Australia, the Gocher Myth is again repeated (page 55), and the section on Duke Kahanamoku (pages 55 to 57) has several inaccuracies. The entry for Narrabeen (pages 59 - 60) describes the location as ... a penisular comprising a three mile stretch of sand, with Collaroy Beach in the south and rocky Long Reef to the north. This is so inaccuate that even if the earth's polarity was reversed, it will still not be Narrabeen. Furthermore... Occy, Tom Carrol (sic), Damien Hardman, and Pam Burridge have all gone more or less from Narrabeen's beaches ... to take world titles. Damien Hardman is from Narrabeen, but Occy is from Cronulla, Tom Carroll is from Newport and Pam Burridge is from Manly ! The enties for Manufacturers and/or Shapers are, at best, feeble. This copy, courtesy of Shoalhaven City Library. |
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| 1964
Bascom, Willard : Waves and Beaches Anchor Books Doubleday and Company Inc. Garden City, New York 1964. Soft cover, 267 pages, 25 black and white plates, 77 black and white illustrations Bibliography, Index. Review The definite account of breaking wave dynamics and their effect on coastal landforms. Of specific interest to surfers are Surfing on Waves, pages 126 to 129 and Chapter VIII The Surf, which includes Willard Bascom's method for estimating breaking wave height, page 173, Figure 56. A detailed dicussion of this method is at Estimating Wave Height. |
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| 1988
Bascom, Wllard : The Crest of the Wave - Adventures in Oceanography Harper and Rowe Publishers, New York 1988 Hard cover, 318 pages, 54 black and white plates. Review Entertaining account by one of the pioneers of the science of oceanography and the author of Waves and Beaches, 1964. Chapter I Surveying the Surf, is of most interest to the surfing reader - note in particular a simple method to measure wave height, page 7 and the associated plates, facing page114 and following. Chapter XII Ocean Pollution? is well argued and flys in the face of many commonly accepted theories. Of obsure intest are Chapter IV : From Cancer to Capricorn and Chapter VI : Living with Nuclear Explosions, detailing the study of waves produced by nuclear tests at Bikini Atoll, 1951 - 1954. Despite the enormous energy released in these explosions, "the waves produced ... were less than phenonomal." - page 164. |
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| 1996
Batholomew, Wayne ‘Rabbit’ With Baker, Tim : Bustin’ down the door Harper Sports, Harper Collins Publishers 25 Ryde Road, Pymble, Sydney NSW 2073, Australia 1996 Soft cover, 368 pages, 46 b/w plates, 5 b/w maps, epilogue (cast), index. Review Dynamic surfer and personality (contrast MR) provides an entertaining story of the boy from the wrong side of the tracks who made good. Covers a vast range of surfers, waves, contests and countries. Production is less than satisfactory – poor binding and the limited number of photographs are cramped. Tim Baker is a former editor of Tracks and Surfing Life magazines. |
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| 1
875 Bird, Isabella L.: Six Months in the Sandwich Isles- Amoung Hawai'i's Palm Groves, Coral Reefs and Volcanoes. John Murray, London, 1875. Pages 14, 69-70, 203, 281-282. G. P. Putman's Sons, New York, 1881. Mutual Publishing, 1215 Center Street, Suite 210 Honolulu, Hawaii 96816. 1988, 2001, 2004. Review Isabella L. Bird's Six Months in the Sandwich Isles is a wonderfully written book and valuable historical resource. Apart from her engaging style, the account (based on a collection of letters originally written to her sister) reads as an authentic voice. See Isabella L. Bird : Surfriding at Waikiki, Hilo and Kauai 1873 |
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| 1961
Blake, Tom Hawaiian Surfriding Nothland Press, Flagstaff,Arizona, 1961 Soft cover, 41 pages, 58 black and white plates, 3 black and white illustrations. Review Outstanding book with minimal text supporting informative photographs. Many are unique to this book and most have been subsequently re-published, often cropped. Highlights include an advanced 'learning' board with substantail nose rocker, paddling position pad, swallow tail with foiled fin (pages 4 and 5) and Tom blake with boards from the Bishop Museum collection. |
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| 1978
Bowker, R.M. and Bligh, Lt. William: Mutiny!! Aboard HM Armed Transport 'Bounty' in 1789 Bowker and Bertram Ltd. Old Bosham, Sussex, England 1978. Hard cover, 387 pages, black and white illustrations and photographs, Other works, Glossary. Review. Bowker notes,page 252, in the preface to Chapter 6 (an account of the five month stay on Tahiti): "There is not the space in this volume to include the entire log for this period, so I have selected those parts which bear upon the ship's mission and upon the mutiny to come; and I have included other items which appear to be of particular general and nautical interest." See
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| 1986
Brash, R. : How Did Sports Begin ? - A Look at the Origins of Man at Play Revised and enlarged edition, Fontana /William Collins Pty Ltd, Sydney, 1986 David McCay Co. Inc., New York 1970 Longman Australia Pty Ltd, 1971 Longmans, Green and Co. Ltd, 1972. Soft cover, 437 pages, black and white plates, Index. Review An expansive account of the origins of various sports, that puts surfing in a global context. The surfing entry, pages 329 to 338, largely relies largely on Finney for early Polynesian developments. The adoption of surfing by Australians and their enthusiasm for surf life saving is appears to be sourced from Maxwell. An early surfing woodblock print and a photograph of Bondi S.L.S.C., circa 1907 are included in the second section of the black and white plates. |
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The visit to Bondi of American surfer and
film star Peter Lawford with his Dave Rochen "10 and a half foot, banana
nosed, solid balsawood" and fibreglass board in 1950 is detailed on
page 216.
Dave Rochlen was a favoured sufboard builder
amoung Hollywood actor-surfers, noted for the outstanding quality of coloured
decor and finish of his boards.
Brawley reports the board was ridden by
Aud Laidlaw, Basil McDonald and
female surfer Pam Pass.
Significantly, Pam Pass's recollections
question Albie Thoms'
(2000, page 63.) claim that the board was finless, see Notes Chapter 8
#19 page 323.
He notes the board was generally known
as a "Zip board", but by it's Bondi riders as "Peter" and
states
"Lawford never called the board a Malibu".
This is difficult to reconcile with the accompaning (previously unpublished)
photograph of Lawford and the board at Bondi, dated 13/12/1950.
The board is clearly the same as the board in a photograph of Peter
Lawford, with fellow film actor Richard Boone and surfing legend Duke Kahanamoku,
at Waikiki in the early 1950s, printed in Surfing
- Historical Images from the Bishop Museum,
edited by DeSoto Brown, page 143.
Not so clear, but certainly identifiable
in both images, is the word "MALIBU" in offset script across the
nose.
In not Lawford, then someone (the second candidate would probably be
the builder, Dave Rochen) labelled the board Malibu.
This may also be of some interest to those interested in the development
of surfboard design in California, 1946 to 1950.
In explaining the failure of Lawford's technically advanced board to
inspire reproductions by Bondi riders, Brawley argues:
Third, reputedly; 'Peter' did not possess what the 1956 Malibus
had -a 'skeg' (fin): It would be the power of the fin that would mesmerise
surfers in 1956.
Given Pam Pass's report apparently questions
whether the board was finless, note that the Wakiki image indicates a +10
foot round nose, wide-tailed balsa and fibreglass board and certainly not,
as I had previously conjectured, a narrow tailed Hot Curl design.
The board closely resembles a Simmon's
Spoon, a revolutionary design closely associated with Californian shaper
Bob Simmons, circa 1949.
These boards were noted, amoung other
features, for their shallow long based fins as illustrated by a photograph
of Lawford in The Pit at Malibu, circa 1953, see Lueras,
Page 115.
There is a very slight possibility that
the board with a fin, directly behind Lawford, is in fact his Bondi board.
.
Examining the events of Black Sunday (the
most celebrated rescue in the history of Australian surf life saving),
6th February 1938, Brawley comments on the development of the Surfoplane
(page 134).
The surfoplane had been introduced
to Bondi Beach a few seasons earlier by Stan McDonald.
On his retirement, McDonald had
designed a rubber surf mat that he called a 'beacher'.
Along with his chairs and mutton
oil tan: spray, McDonald leased the mats in their hundreds;riding them
became a popular surfing activity at a time when board riding was still
a marginal and almost exclusively surf club activity.
The surf mats soon became more popularly
known as 'surfo- planes', the name of a rival surf mat manufacturer.
This is in conflict with the substantial
claim by Thoms
(2000,
page 40), and others, that the craft was invented by Dr Ernest Smithers
circa 1934 which, at the worst, parallels Brawley's estimated time frame.
Unfortunately, despite the involvement of Bondi club members, there
is only a scant reference to the Australian representative team to the
1939 Pacific Games in Honolulu, Oahu.
Hermie Doerner capped off such representative
honours for the club in 1939 when he was selected for the SLSA team that
visited Honolulu. (page 146)
Doerner captained the team, which was
also accompanied by Bondi club stalwart, Tom Meagher.
Jaggard
(2006)
page 192.
A minor point, but out of character with
Brawley's intensive research, is a photograph on page 214 titled "Bondi
members compare an old board with two 'toothpicks' ".
The image also appears in C. B. Maxwell's
Surf
(1949),
clearly identified as "Maroubra board-men Bruce Devlin, Frank Adler,
and Vince Mulcahy", facing page 177.
More obscurely, in his treatment of the
development of the surf reel (pages 41 to 43), Sean Brawley considers
the contributions of the usual suspects, Ormsby, Bond, Flynn and Olding.
Strangely, he does not cite possible international
precedents he personally identified in Chapter 2 of Between
the Flags (2006) pages , a collection of articles edited
by Ed Jaggard published to celebrate 100 years of the Australian surf life
saving movement.
identified by Alleyn Best in Chapter 5, Best notes Walter Biddell's development of the Torpedo Buoy with a hand held reel at Bronte, circa 1902-1906 (pages 109 to 110).
The appliance is illustrated in an photograph
of Bronte members circa 1908 with their current and the superceded model,
reproduced in Brawley's chapter, page 35.
| 1997
Brimner, Larry Dane Surfing Franklin-Watts A Division of Crlier Publishing, New York. 1997 Hard cover, 64 pages, 19 colour photographs, 1black and white photograph, Publications and Organisations, Internet Resources, Index. Photographs by Peter Sterling. Review Basic juvenile introductory How -To book with well selected photograghs of unknown/uncedited surfers. History section incorrectly credits Faye Baird Fraser, San Diego California in 1925, as the first documented female boardrider (pages 13 to 15) - see Isobel Letham in Duke 1914 |
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| 2004
Brisick, Jamie : Have board, Will Travel - A Definitive History of Surf, Skate, and Snow. HarperCollins Publishers 10 East 53rd Street New York. NY 10022. 2004. Soft cover, 195 pages, extensive colour and black and white photographs, Acknowledgements, Credits, Index. Review Although an origininal combination linking the histories of three board sports, the book can hardly be described as "definitve".The surfing section has a considerable number of historical errors, which casts some doubt on the validity of the other sections. There are also conceptual problems - "Unlike surfing, skateboarding does have a utilitarian purpose." (page 18) ignores the early use of surfboards for transport by Polynesians. See #500. Like some other commentators, Brisicks ignores the direct influence of windsurfing (another Board sport?) on the development of tow-in surfing. Of most interest is the revelation that snowboard design dates back to 1939 - the Wunderlund board, page 159. |
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| 2001
Bryant, Edward : Tsumami - The Underrated Hazard Cambridge University Press, The Pitt Building Trumpington Street, Cambridge, United Kingdom. 2001 Soft cover, 320 pages, 40 black and white photographs, extensive black and white illustrations, diagrams, maps, graphs and tables, References, Index. Review A scienticific analysis of the effects of tusami on coastal landforms, the book includes expert discussion of wave dynamics. The majority of tusami generated landforms examined are Australian locations, although the book fully covers tusami disasters through history and around the world. Special note : the Preface comments of the use of online references .... Internet... material may not be readily available because the addresses have changed or because of the lack of an archival tradition for this new resource medium. - page XXV. This is a major headache for Internet researchers, and echoes advice on the Web LInks page... If you find something that is really important to you, then either save it digitally or print it out. There is no guarantee that it will be there the next time you look for it. |
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| 1998
Brystrom, Chris : The Glide – Longboarding and the Renaissance of Modern Surfing Duranbah Press (Publisher). Wakefield Press (Distributors) Box 2266, Kent Town, South Australia 1998 Hard cover, soft cover, 128 pages, 191 colour photographs / sequences, 41 b/w photographs, 49 illustrations. Review Stylishly produced with excellent photograghy, this work has a strong U.S. perspective. Historical chapters (Bob Cooper, Peter Troy and Pat Curren) are very interesting. ‘Twenty Surfers’, like most attempts at ranking, is strictly subjective (see Cassidy). ‘Water Women’ is a worthy inclusion. ‘Art Forms – Art / Poetry / Music / Photography’ is almost exclusively American – four pages devoted to surf poetry is four pages too many. If it is the intention of the author to prove or demonstrate a thesis (‘The Renaissance of Modern Surfing’), then the result is less than satisfactory |
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| Buck, Peter Buck
(Te Rangi Hiroa): Arts and Crafts of Hawaii.
Section VI Canoes. Bernice P. Bishop Museum Special Publication 45. Bishop Museum Press. 1525 Bernice Street PO Box 19000-A Honolulu, Hawai’i, 1957. Reprinted in separate sections in1964 |
| Buck, Peter Buck
(Te Rangi Hiroa): Arts and Crafts of Hawaii.
Section VIII Games and Recreation. Bernice P. Bishop Museum Special Publication 45. Bishop Museum Press. 1525 Bernice Street PO Box 19000-A Honolulu, Hawai’i, 1957. Reprinted 1964, 1994. Surfing pages 384 to 386. |
| 1998
Burgoyne,Patrick and Leslie, Jeremy : Board : Surf Skate Snow Graphics. Watson-Guptill Publications, New York First edition 1997 Laurence King Publishing, London. 1998 Softcover, 145 pages, all colour photographs. Surfboards pages 16 to 46, and some discussion in the Introduction. Review The surfboard section of this book is a major disappointment. The text makes scant reference to the period before airsprays (the earliest example is 1968) and there are no references to decal art, tints and pigments, or pinlines. There is no appreciation of the personification of board graphics with their famous riders, the Jerry Lopez/Lightning Bolt combination the most obvious of many. The photographic examples have no identifiable themes or classification. Some of the photographs are poorly reproduced (eg page 22), there is a restricted number of manufacturers, and many are poorly titled. This latter problem is at its worst pages 36 to 45, a series of board graphics by Mambo's Paul McNeil, all lacking their specific titles. A large number of these images, with their titles, can be found in Mambo: Still Life With Franchise, pages 42 and 43. For example the design pictured on the cover, left, is titled the sepster - a pun on a Australian rhyming slang for Americans, "septics/sepctic tanks", that is Yanks. Note that these are not real boards, but a series of designs on a basic Malibu template. The Skate section is interesting and apparently is the main focus of the book. The Snowboard section appears to suffer many of the defects of the Surfboard section. |
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| 1993
Butler, Roger : Poster Art In Australia National Gallery of Australia, Canberra ACT 2600. 1993 First published in 1993 in conjunction with the exhibition The Streets as Art Galleries - Walls Sometimes Speak : Poster Art in Australia National Gallery of Australia, Canberra 5 November 1993 to 6 February 1994 Curated by Rodger Butler, Curator of Australian Prints, Posters and Illustrated Books. Soft cover, 104 pages, extensive black and white and colour illustrations, Notes, Exhibitions and Reviews, Bibliography. Review Exhibition catalogue notable for the work of Gert Sellheim, pages 20, 37 and 42, and the single known poster by William Dobell, page 40. See Posters and Postcards. |
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