Bondi Stories, vol.1.

39
Panache
Victor: We were really fanatical. Like, this sounds crazy now,
but we had a rule that no girlfriends could go over to
Narrabeen with us, because a chick would take up the place of
another surfer.
SW: You’re not serious?
Victor: I am! I said to Bruce Raymond, just recently, how
much we’ve changed over the years. Like, Robert has now got
a girlfriend with a car. There was a time when he’d have been
in disgrace if, in a week, he hadn’t organised racks for her car,
loaded half his mates in, and figured out how he could leave
her behind. We bought the combi specifically to pile up with
kids and hit Narrabeen. We were trying to expand the outlook
for kids over here. Beforehand, we’d almost written off Bondi
as ever having good surfers again. But, I think that Bondi’s as
good as it is now, simply because we went to Narrabeen. We
started improving because of that, and in doing so, forced the
other groups here to either get better or get out.
Brad M: I got out.
Victor: But, he’s back, and he’s in it now and he’s in it at our
level. Like before, there were social surfers and hard core
surfers. Now, Brad’s back here, but not as a social surfer. His
attitude is more professional.
Brad J: Mark Warren was telling me, the other day, that North
Narrabeen had a contest in 8-foot waves. It worked right up to
the final, but everyone either went off and played basketball or
they went up the pub. They just said, stick the final, and Mark
was left sitting on the beach.
Victor: I think we got better, because we were in Narrabeen.
But, I think the Northy kids would get better now, if they
were with us. The push, enthusiasm, competition, whatever
they had then, is here now and we’re going to try and keep it
here, force each other to improve and hold it at that
progressing level. Clubs normally get bigger, get more social,
then die.
SW: What can you do to stop that? I think most clubs start out with
this “tight group” plan. But, it always seems to fail.