bondi 1958. gary moffatt
Meet Gary Moffatt.
Not so ripped in ’58 was young G. Moffatt, but you had to go with the ‘G’ on his board, and the fuck you glance up at the out of shot peanut gallery by the old shed. This is after all the guy who headed the Bondi invasion of Newport and Avalon. The Hillbilly Hamlets, their beaches manned by pathetic old dribblers riding 18′ toothpicks and all their beautiful girls with nowhere to go at night – Jack Eden only showed up to take pics for the magazines when Moffatt’s wreck was in the carpark.
And Moffatt collected them up there, the girls. Had them hanging out the car windows on his way down Beaconsfield Street to the Newport Arms. Hangin’ and fangin’. Saturday night social carnage goes back a long way. Grandfathers fucked up, a lot. You should ask yours if you’re old enough to drink with him.
G. Moffat also invented the ‘ being really pissed but staying cool ‘ image. The stoned but sober. And who hasn’t done that ..
Billabong, that’s who.
Plus the 1958 fuck you fashion look, as per below – and just in case you think that this half-formed little kid hadn’t earned the attitude he’s sharing out; he’d been pushing heavy Balsa out in the waves for about four years. At Bondi, and on most days. School days were only observed when the easterlies blew.
‘Bong missed all that too. As did Reg Mombasa, the 60’s fashion image guru – aka Mambo.
By a mile.
{Bondi} This is the local indigenous dialect for very big fkn waves that break inside this bay on a regular basis.
joolee eadie for the pic, ta again – and ten more to go
petebowes.com 
This is really interesting. The photo I took of Gary (above), in 1958, is the way I remember him. I often wonder what has happened to all those people I used to see at Sth Bondi, with their amazing boards. It’s so good to read this. I couldn’t swim and I couldn’t surf but I could take photos and write poems about them – which they put up on the wall in the cave. Reg Mombasa is known to my son, Ben Eadie, and has really helped with his music and art, the charity my son occassionally works for.
Joolee, Andy C and Magoo together with Mick Dooley were at a portrait exhibition at the Bondi Pavillion last week. I believe it finishes on Saturday 21st; some great paintings of South Bondi surfers from the time of your photos.
thank you pete for the chance to revist a the era that made us all of what we are now as the saying goes ‘you can take the boy out of bondi,but you never take the bondi out of the boy’ i have a surf on the family holidays had few morning at byron last january, regards gary
Pickles ..! where is that rangy fucker? I want him.
Hi Gary are you still surfing? Do you remember going fishing with you Dad to Byron & coming back to Wello & telling us about the surf you saw at The Pass? That was the start of the surf safaris to the north coast!!!!! Col Collyer
col i was in byron last december and every year,execpt for the 70’s,i have been in byron in some way or other,but it is finished now for surfing just like my body its a great place there is no place in the world like it,but it still has something to love about it.
Hi Garry great to hear from you.Are you living in Sydney? I was still surfing on a knee board until a knee a knee replacement. If you travel to port Macquarie call in we are at Lake Cathie.
We were surfing Byron with my 2 sons. Chad is amad surfer and sails & surfs all around the islands on a yacht! The crowds have changed Byron forever.We had surfing at its best!!!
col mobile 0439963197
The best thing about surfing Byron back in the day was that the banana-benders went home to Brisbane on Sunday nights … the worst thing was that they came back on Fridays.