AS Ollie Gould, Owen Graham and Anders Ravenscroft return from competing in the World Junior Surfing Championships against the beautiful backdrop of Rio de Janeiro, there are plenty of people they can be thanking for their once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Family, coaches, the Channel Islands Surfing Federation, tick, tick, tick. But it all might not have been possible were it not for a group of intrepid Jerseymen who pioneered the sport.
Although St Ouen had been home to surfing since the early 1920s, the modern scene was set following a revival in the late 50s thanks to a group of resident South Africans. However, it was the native youngsters who were enthused by watching the Afrikaners take to the waves on their longboards that opened opportunities to far-flung frontiers. One of them was Gould’s grandfather, Peter, along with, among others, the soon-to-be president of the British Surfing Federation, Dave Grimshaw, Barry Jenkins and Gordon Burgis, who would go on to become a British and European Champion.
Competing in local and national competition was all very well, but Grimshaw had the vision and wherewithal to take things further, entering British teams, mostly containing surfers from Jersey, in the World Surfing Championships, including the inaugural one in Manly, Australia in 1964. And four years later, Jersey surfers made up four of a five-man British team Grimshaw would take to the 1968 World Surfing Championships in Puerto Rico, held in mid-November but reported in the JEP on 7 December.
Jenkins and Burgis made up two places, while Islanders’ Steve Harewood and Jeff Huson, the brother of future professional footballer Dave Huson, also competed in long board with Charles Williams from Cornwall. Although Burgis could be considered one of the best surfers in Europe at the time, like the boys in Brazil, the world’s best – from long established surfing strangleholds such the USA, Hawaii, Australia, South Africa and Brazil – were on a different level, but the experience of competing against them on the other side of the world was priceless.
All would be eliminated in the heats with Burgis, by now the current British champion, giving the best account of himself in the Caribbean surf, placing third in his six-man heat behind eventual competition runner-up Midget Farrelly from Australia, the first-ever world champion in 1964, and Larry Miniard, a pioneer from the Florida scene. Grimshaw, who wrote the report for the JEP, said Burgis “matched the style of the top surfers, but was not fully prepared for the contest, partly due to inconsistent conditions in Jersey this summer and also because he wasn’t completely happy with his new board on the fast-breaking point surf waves of Puerto Rico.
“This made him noticeably slower than the top riders. But Gordon’s ability can be judged from the fact that he finished in front of [Warren] Thompson, New Zealand champion.”
Puerto Rico, itself, was considered a bit of a left-field choice of host for the championships. Competitive surfing had been largely untested on the island and competitors were unfamiliar with its potential. It also turned out that the big swell would not be there at first with the Caribbean sea coming to life only late in the competition.
What was more unusual was that the early rounds were held at Domes, a break adjacent to a decommissioned nuclear tracking station used by the American forces and not normally accessible to local surfers. Then, on the last day of competition, it was moved to Rincon. Surfers were judged on the best five waves, scored on being in the most critical position on the wave for the longest time possible, with functional manoeuvres.
Huson, who was a late entry to the team, “rode well” but could only finish sixth in his heat, while the Cornishman Williams gave a fantastic account of himself, also finishing third in his heat, as did Jenkins to whom, Grimshaw said: “A great deal of credit must be given,” adding: “Not only did he finish higher than that most famous of all Hawaiian and Makaha competitors, veteran George Downing, but he also outplaced the four-time champion of France, Jean-Marie Lartigau, rated by Surfer magazine … as one of the world’s most promising at the sport.”
Harewood, meanwhile, surfing in his usual “radical style”, finished fourth in his heat, outplacing the famous Peruvian playboy Hector Velarde.
For the quarter-finals, the field had been narrowed to 28, and enjoyed “excellent 8 to 10 foot point surf … in near-perfect conditions [that] truly fitted the ‘space-age’ environment.”
Grimshaw said: “The consensus of opinion was that the controversial extrovert, Robert ‘Nat’ Young, reigning world champion, would retain his title” though Hawaii’s Joey Cabell also “ripped the hard-breaking Puerto Rican waves with masterful bottom turns and radical re-entries using a new spectacular flicking motion to retain stability on his 18-inch wide board.”
But having crashed out of the semi-finals after snapping the fin from the pintail of his board, it was the “brash, outspoken” other surfer from Hawaii, Fred Hemmings, who came to the fore, consistently surfing the biggest waves.
With the final switch to the beautiful beach of Dona Maria at Rincon, “never before [had] the world contest been held in such a fabulous setting. Palm trees fringed the very edge of the crystal-clear sea” which was breaking in long cylinder tubes.
Grimshaw described the atmosphere as “electric”. Farrelly was outstanding in the final, admitting that this was one of the best waves he had ever ridden. Californian Mike Doyle and Aussie Russell Hughes were also performing brilliantly, with Young just off the pace. Another Hawaiian, 14 year-old Reno Abellira, struggled as he lost his board multiple times, but it was Hemmings who would come out on top, picking the biggest waves to the favour of the judges, winning by just one point ahead of Farrelly. Hughes came in third, ahead of Young, Doyle and Abellira.
In the women’s contest, Margo Godfrey of California came out on top to win, ahead of Sharron Weber of Hawaii and 1964 World Champion Phyllis O’Donnell from Australia.
At the presentation later that evening, the young Jerseymen were not to go home without an accolade though, after International Surfing Federation president Eduardo Arean congratulated the British as being the “best presented team” in the championships, wearing their sharp, tailored suits from Austin Reed. It was an honour that has given the next generations the chance to live up to, in performance and style.
