Nose Riding

Without test riding everthing whats considered the best nose rider.
Without going fiberglass which would give the weight but kill you getting to the water.
What about in epoxy.
The Jimmy Lewis hanalei looks pretty low in rocker with a rounded nose?

the Jimmy Lewis Striker is designed for nose riding, I have demoed one, it is a great board for some serious nasal time!

The Star board nose rider is epic. So much fun...aaarrrrggggghhhhhhhhhhhh

Hilly I don't think they build a board you could stand on the nose

Starboard noserider the funnerest board around
Love mine

This thing nose rides unreal 9'8"x23.5" bit small as a SUP

Hi Dowls
I v got the Jimmy Lewis Striker.
Made for nose riding
: flat rocker ,single concave under the nose and deck grip all the way so you don't need to wax to walk to the nose.

For my first SUP I was so keen on the Surftech 9' 8" Takayama. This would have been an excellent nose rider and the perfect board for me to transition to paddling.. Unfortunately, just as I was ready to fork out the dollars this model was superseded. I am still hoping one will pop up. Maybe if there is enough interest Surftech will dig out the mould and knock a few out?

SP, if the Pasha Bulker did have an effect on the reef it is negligible. I am sure the reef had a bigger effect on the Pasha especially with the ongoing southerly swells that pounded her till she was showing stress marks.

What has had a bigger effect on the reef is the fact Nobbys is filling with sand. When I was a grommet you had to be careful leaving your gear on the beach in case high tide made it to the breakwall. Now there is 200 or more metres of sand. Likewise, A few years back I was mad keen on spearfishing off the Gropper. I got two big jew out of one bit of reef and was getting into the snapper around the same area. Recently the spots that once held the fish have been well and truely buried.

I am wondering though if this is cyclical? Back in the 60's big wave riders like Ted Harvey would take off near big Ben and ride through to Stockton. There must have been a lot of sand back then? Maybe it has moved due the dredging of the harbour in the 1980's?

I found this on the Herald, good story about the old days and history Of Newcastle surfing.


SWELL TIMES
Author: NEIL JAMESON
Date: 13/02/2010
Words: 2242
Source: NCH
          Publication: Newcastle Herald
Section: Weekender
Page: 8
Mostly, they were what parents and police in those days called larrikins: a little wild, plenty of nerve.
Some became captains of industry and community leaders, there were a few drug casualties, and others settled down with a career and mortgage. A hard core defied middle age, sun damage and rusting joints to keep on paddling out until time gave their leg-ropes a tug.

They were Newcastle's pioneering surfing generation the crew that saw wave-riding from its split with the surf lifesaving movement in the 1950s and '60s through to mainstream acceptance.

Nothing interprets surfing's journey from its wild-child infancy to something akin to legitimacy quite like Surfest. This year, Australia's largest surfing festival turns 25, a milestone that would have been impossible without a quarter of a century of mainstream corporate and government support.

Before events like Surfest, the surf tribe had existed largely beyond the fringe. It's fair to say, few companies or government agencies would have touched board riders in the good old (bad old) days. And that was perfectly OK with surfing's first generation. They loved being out there, outside the flags and authority, beyond rule and convention, outside of society.

As an indication of just how far it has come since its wild, wild origins, this cultural phenomenon is up for an airing this month in Surfin' Newey 1956-2009, a photographic exhibition at Newcastle Region Library.

It's billed as "a celebration of a city and its people and their special relationship with Australian beach culture".

Ted Harvey, 71, will have a community nurse dress the wound on his left shoulder where he had a melanoma removed in November and travel in from Mayfield West on the off-chance one or two of his photos will be on display. He'll look for reminders of surfers like Jim Newburn, who went suddenly, aged 61, just three years ago, and his contemporary Robbie Wood, who at 62, joined Newburn in whatever passes for the surfing beyond in 2008.

War wounds and all, Harvey survives as a keeper of the flame, at least among the old guard. His name has been a byword in Newcastle surfing since the 1950s when he was part of the great surf swimming tradition at Newcastle Surf Lifesaving Club until the day he stood up on a 16ft "toothpick" and got the board-riding bug. Today, he's frustrated his doctor won't let him in the water until the wound heels: back in the 1970s when a board speared him in the face during a contest, he simply had the cut stitched and paddled out again.

In or out of the water, Harvey remains a respected elder of the Newcastle scene, and a great storyteller. He recalls one of his earliest memories, in the 1950s, of a surfer getting to his feet to ride a wave.

"I'll never forget a carnival at Nobbys held in big surf. A bloke caught a wave out at the Groper, stood up, and rode it all the way through to the beach."

Harvey was a member of the Newcastle contingent at a Torquay carnival held in conjunction with the 1956 Melbourne Olympics when a team of Californian and Hawaiian lifeguards dragged out their new fibreglass boards and turned on a wave-riding display. Life on the coast was never the same again.

The veteran who grew up in Newcomen Street, just a few blocks back from Newcastle Beach, and became a feature at Nobbys Reef, Newcastle Point and the Cowrie Hole, has his own take on the range war that broke out between the surf clubs and the board riders.

"They keep rubbishing clubbies but, if you check history, it shows that the best of the early surfers were all top clubbies; fellas like Warren Chipchase, Graeme Sargeant and Robbie Wood."

In light of Newcastle City Council's long-running support of Surfest, it's ironic that local governments once took on the job of policing the surfboard boom by issuing owners with registration stickers. Council beach inspectors became notorious for positioning the surf flags to exclude board riders from the best waves. But some were sympathetic. Writing in The History of Merewether Surfboard Club, former world longboard champ Martin McMillan noted that long-time beach inspector Paul Kirwan was "one of the fairest in town. Very rarely does he put them [the flags] near The Rocks in summer."

The motor car freed the first generation of surfers from exclusive allegiance to one particular beach and allowed them to roam the coast in search of uncrowded waves. Harvey was among those pioneers. It took him a long way from home. He twice crossed the Nullarbor to compete at Margaret River.

In 1969, he travelled to the Australian championships with Bob Lynch, Peter Thomson and Norah Head's Graeme Wood. Riding a 7'6 board shaped for him by Sam Egan, Harvey surfed Marg's at 12 foot-plus to win the national seniors title. Ted returned a few years later. In big conditions at Lefthanders he paddled back to the beach to warn the judges that if a rival surfer didn't quit dropping in on him he would knock him out. He wasn't joking. Back home, surfers who gave him a wide berth knew him as "Punch-in-the-head-Ted".

"I got a reputation for being a bit wild in the surf," Harvey confesses today.

In those early days, surf etiquette and respect were everything, as Brian Hoy observed in the Merewether club history: "Guys like Robbie Wood and Les Feighan always had a spare knuckle or two for any cheeky upstarts."

Before Quiksilver, Rip Curl and Billabong became multinational giants signing big competition cheques, blokes who surfed in work shorts and football jumpers were happy to pick up a contest prize of a new board or wetsuit. Ted Harvey recalls his biggest pay day involved prizemoney of $5 which covered his entry fee.

In those pre-leg-rope days, young blokes who ventured out in storm surf were risk-takers by nature. They got drunk, rolled cars on the Gun Club Road, stomped at the Palais and Town Hall dances, blued with rockers and clubbies and surfed and scallywagged from Bells Beach to Burleigh and beyond. The social drugs gauntlet was a different challenge, as noted by Don Sinclair in the Merewether history. " . . . by 1971, most of the original members had moved on for various reasons, not the least being the drug problem influencing surfing around this time."

A few spent more time inside jail than locked in any tube at the Leggy, Frenchman's or Merewether. A handful were the kind of

boys you wouldn't take home to meet Mum, but that only made them more popular with the girls. Eventually, some produced kids of their own. Surfin' Newey is as much a tale of family histories as it is famous waves. A youth pursuit always considered way too young to have a heritage now has one of Old Testament proportions.

The legendary shaper Sam Egan begat former world No.2 (2000) Luke Egan, board retailing pioneer Ray Richards begat four-times world champion Mark Richards, Robbie Wood begat Nicky Wood (Bells champ 1987), Phil Baggs begat soul surfing superstar Belinda Baggs, Bob Lynch begat Travis Lynch, Brian Hoy begat world No.5 (1997) Matt Hoy, Ron Ross begat Mitchell Ross, former Merewether club champ Mick Adam begat Jesse Adam . . . and so it goes through the Smith, Brent, McCall and Benton clans. Now, some of that second generation are paddling out with their own kids.

That heritage was up and riding late last month when Merewether "lads" Luke Egan, 41, and Matt Hoy, 38, led their club to victory in the Northern NSW round of the Jim Beam Surftag at Dixon Park, but not before a big "pre-hydration" session under the stewardship of strategist Garry Back. This weekend, they're at North Narrabeen taking on the nation's best teams including Kirra Surfriders featuring reigning world champ Mick Fanning.

The old Merewether confidence hasn't waned.

"I reckon we can win it," says a straight-faced Matt Hoy. "We've got just the right mix of guys and they know what they're doing."

As a snapshot of Newcastle's surfing heritage, Luke Egan's story is as telling as any. The son of legendary boardmaker Sam Egan was weaned on the smell of resin and the sound of the shaping planer.

"I pretty much grew up in a surf shop and factory and before I knew it, I was surfing," says Luke. "Our house oozed surfing, but I was never pushed. I guess that's why I love it as much now as ever."

Living and working as a surf industry executive on the Gold Coast, he has maintained his Merewether club membership and Newcastle affiliations. His home city's surf heritage is a subject close to his heart. So much so that he has been instrumental in reviving Merewether's annual pilgrimage to compete in February's Kirra Teams Challenge. But there are limits.

"Ring me back and we'll have a real chat about this," he says. "But I gotta go now. Occy's [Mark Occhilupo] waiting out front and we're going for a surf."

In the formative days of surf journalism it was easy to believe that the bulk of Australia's best surfers lived at a handful of Sydney's northern beaches. They didn't. Similarly, in Newcastle, the focus might have been on the city area, but other locales spawned truly dedicated surfers.

Kids from Maitland and beyond, who learned to surf on school holidays, would rise pre-dawn, drive 40 minutes or so for a few waves, and be back home in time for school or work. Swansea and Catherine Hill Bay, Port Stephens and the Redhead-Dudley-Leggy Point areas hatched their own tribes. And they have their own storytelling about brilliant water men, like the late Col Smith, and magical waves.

On Sunday, January 24, they scattered Ken Blackman's ashes on the left-hander at Crabbes Creek, a powerful reef break off Swansea Heads.

"It was his favourite spot," says Mick McCall, the Catherine Hill Boardriders institution who has surfed the area for most of his life.

"To see him take off vertical there on a big day was simply jaw-dropping. "

Blackman moved to the area from Sydney some 45 years ago and soon stood out, paddling out in big swell to surf breaks never before ridden.

"He had no fear," McCall says. "The surf would be 10-foot and Kenny would be out there by himself. Every now and then he would enter the Mattara [Australia's second longest-running surf contest] and give it a real shake."

In recent years, Ken Blackman became ill and could no longer stand on a board. So, he paddled out on a boogie board. Melanoma claimed him, aged 63. Surfers from Redhead to Catherine Hill packed the church for his funeral service. Mick McCall was among them.

"I first met him when I was only 19. He sure left an impression on me. He was a legend, and a really nice bloke."

Twenty years ago, a tag-team of unknowns, a few of them the sons of miners from south-east Lake Macquarie, landed Catherine Hill Bay Boardriders an upset victory over a Merewether crew featuring five pro surfers.

At 31 years, the Catho Classic, the peak annual event for the southern beaches, is one of the region's longest-running surf events. Trophy hunters have included Justin Lee, Paul Parkes, Dan Frodsham, Christian McCall, Mick Spencer, Tyler Williams and Sam Lendrum surfers who rank among the best to come out of the Hunter coast in the past 20 years. In 2008, Caves Beach medico Dr Glen Valaire, now 43, won the open, the over 30s and over 40s at the Catho Classic.You get the impression Ken Blackman would approve.

Garry Callinan left Queensland to pursue Newcastle girl Janice Sands. His friendship with a host of surfers including Phil Woodcock, Peter Cornish and Robbie Wood afforded an easy introduction to the town. Thirty-three years on he and Janice have three kids. Like their dad, twin girls Billie and Maddie, 15, both surf. And so does their brother Ryan, 17. When Weekender called, Ryan was at South Stradroke competing against the world's best in the Couran Cove Island Resort Pro Junior event.

The Callinans are members of Merewether, one of surfing's most fabled clubs with an honour board that guarantees anyone who follows keeps it all in proportion.

On his son's ambitions, Garry says: "He's a humble kid who applies himself to every opportunity he gets. Whatever happens, I just hope he continues to enjoy his surfing."

Garry Callinan surfs whenever he can, often in the company of his kids. In fact, there have been Merewether contests in which he has won the over-45s and his son the cadet or junior division.

"It's about having a good time," he says . "I definitely try to have a surf every day. There's nothing better."

Competition success may quantify Newey's place in the surfing world, but it's not even half of the story. As Ted Harvey will tell you, he encountered the most extraordinary moments and the most exceptional people not in contests but when he was simply free-surfing for fun.

"I've sat down and supped with millionaires and slept on the beach with bums," he says. "But once you're out there in the water, none of that matters."

Surfin' Newey 1956-2009, Newcastle Region Library, February 12 to March 13.

"I'll never forget a carnival at Nobbys held in big surf. A bloke caught a wave out at the Groper, stood up, and rode it all the way through to the beach."

Competition success may quantify Newey's place in the surfing world, but it's not even half of the story.

Hi Dowls I'm riding the PSH wide 8'6" allrounder and it is an outstanding noserider. IMHO any of the PSH allrounder or wide allrounders are fine for tip time.

Bill