Welcome. It’s Adrian Bo from Ray White Park Coast Eastern Suburbs. And today I’m back on Marine Parade at Maroubra Beach where I grew up to talk about another local institution that was instigated to recognise the Bra’s incredible connection to the surf. The Surf Walk of Fame was established right here in 2006 to celebrate outstanding achievements of Australia’s leading surfers and surf lifesavers. Inductees are considered “Legends of Surf” and are immortalised with a bronze plaque recognising their achievements and contribution. The very first cohort to be awarded this honour back in 2006 were Charles “Snowy” McAlister, Nat Young, Midget Farrelly and Barry Rodgers. Snowy McAlister was born in 1904 and is considered the Father of Australian Surfing. Snowy heralded from Manly when his parents moved there from Broken Hill when Snowy was a kid. He originally started surfing on his mother’s pine Ironing board, would you believe? Then a self-made Plywood board before receiving the O.E Downing Surf Shooting Board, eight feet and five and a half inches in length as a gift from another surfer and board maker, Oswald Downing. Snowy became unbeatable in the Australian Championships at his home beach in Manly between 1923 and 1926. He was in the vanguard of surfing changing from just a hobby to a sport.

The second member of the inaugural Surfing Walk of Fame was Nat Young. Nat is widely regarded as the pioneer of an aggressive surfing style that was born in the mid 1960s, leading to his nickname of “The Animal”. He won the World Championship in San Diego in 1966. He and his mate Bob McTavish also swam against the surfboard design tide by creating a line of much shorter surfboards, cutting several feet off the traditional 11 foot Malibu of the time. The shorter board providing Nat greater manoeuvrability. Bernard Farrelly was the third initial inductee to the Surfing Walk of Fame. Known as Midget Farrelly by all and sundry, he was virtually unbeaten for the whole of the 1960s including becoming the first official World Champion in Manly in 1964. In fact he had such cult status at the time he was given a 10 part ABC TV series in 1967 called the Midget Farrelly Surf Show. Barry Rodgers was the fourth inductee. He joined the Maroubra Surf Club when he was 14 in 1954 and became a prolific winner of State and National Swimming titles in a range of events. He went on to win three consecutive National Iron man titles between 1966 and 1968 and captained the Australian team during an era of being unbeatable. So McAlister, Young, Farrelly and Rodgers were the first four inductees in 2006. Since then there have been plaques for 25 other legends including six ladies, added to the Surfing Walk of Fame. Then a couple of weeks ago four new additions were made during the Beach Breaks Surfing Event. Pauline Menczer, who grew up in Bondi and for many years surfed the Bondi to Maroubra stretch.

She won many big titles including becoming World Champion in 1993 and has been a strong advocate of women’s and disabled surfing. Pam Burridge is considered Australia’s first female pro surfer and went onto win the ASP World Tour in 1990. After retirement she setup a surf school which now operates out of Mollymook Beach on the south coast of New South Wales. Jacqui Russell joined South Maroubra Surf Lifesaving Club as a nipper. She went onto become the World Champion in the Open Women’s Surf Race in 1988 and was named New South Wales Sportswoman of the Year in 1988 as well. John Holt joined Cronulla Surf Lifesaving Club as a 16-year-old in 1967 and a few years later started to train at the Des Renford Leisure Centre and here at Maroubra Beach, eventually becoming World Ironman Champion in 1971 and 1974. He also holds an extraordinary record of winning 95 of the 123 Ironman events he entered and was considered a pioneer in creating cross-training programmes that the modern day Ironman will use. So those are the latest four legends to be honoured right here on the Surfing Walk of Fame. In future episodes I will talk about previous cohorts of inductees as this facility is a special acknowledgement to Maroubra’s iconic status in Australian Surfing culture. Having grown up here in Maroubra, I’ve sold many houses and apartments over the 34 years that I’ve been selling real estate, if you’d like an up-to-date evaluation on your property, please don’t hesitate to give me a call on 0418-278-316, or email me at adrian.bo@raywhite.com. Keep smiling and always remember your home is worth more with Adrian Bo.