In praise of westies
There’s an old adage that the further a surfer lives from the ocean, the more surf stoked he (or she) is likely to be, and in my experience it’s true.
Those of us who are fortunate enough to live in close proximity to good surf are wont to get a tad sniffy about the presence in the line-up of “westies”, “Brissos” and all the other snide epithets applied to people who actually have to drive a car to get to the waves, and yet I see evidence every day that you can often measure the depth of the stoke in direct proportion to the distance between home and the beach.
In my neck of the woods, the shining example of this is the Brisbane Boardriders Club, which began back in 2004 on the opening night of the Noosa Longboards store in Brisbane, when a bunch of old mates decided to car pool to the beach. The city surf shop is long gone but the club remains strong. You’ll often see stalwarts like Mick Henderson, Barry Davis and the Stewart twins, Bill and Tony, surfing Noosa’s point waves or sipping on a latte at the Bean Drop. But you are just as likely to find them at Currumbin Alley or Burleigh or Moffats or The Bluff. Coming from nowhere, they are at home everywhere! And in a nice little nod to their Brisso roots, the boys ride old mals by Ray Woosley, the original Brisso board builder in the ‘60s.
Growing up on the street closest to the mountain and therefore furthest from the beach, I was technically a westie, even though I could see the surf (and the Port Kembla steelworks) from our front deck, and the surf was only a 10-minute shuffle through the three Sturmey Archer gears of my Speedwell Special Sports. Ironically, our local break was invaded every weekend by surfers who said they were escaping the westie hordes at Cronulla, but on closer examination, most of them actually lived in Rockdale or Bankstown or points even further west. But they could surf, no doubt about that.
My future wife was a certified westie who never surfed but minded the towels for the crew at Cronulla every summer weekend. She’d often share a carriage of the Revesby train with schoolmate Graham “Sid” Cassidy, who went on to run the ASP, and remains the most stoked grom in the Sandshoes line-up. But Sid was by no means the only westie to make a name in the big game. Bob McTavish grew up a Brisso, Quiksilver founder Alan Green was a Melbourne westie from Moonee Ponds, Rip Curl’s Doug Warbrick a Port Phillip Bay storm rider from Brighton, and Shane Stedman got his start building surfboards in Sydney’s landlocked Eastwood. And moving swiftly through a couple of generations, let’s not forget that Mick Fanning hails from Penrith.
The same rule applies on the other side of the Pacific. Former Quiksilver boss Bob McKnight was the best known of a large posse of committed surfers from landlocked San Marino, east of LA. When I spent a couple of years living in California, my most surf-stoked buddy was a weekend warrior who worked in Pasadena and lived in Los Feliz, 40 minutes from the nearest surf with a good run on the freeway.
The nearest surf happened to be a forlorn beachie at the end of the east-west runway at LAX. Sometimes we’d drive up for a Friday night barbeque, and the rule was, no weather checks, no surfcams, just get up at dawn and go, and then get your board off the car and go out. Regardless.
Strangely, some of the best surf sessions I’ve ever had in California were on those cold, grey – don’t look, just paddle out – mornings at El Porto, caught up in the whooping, hollering enthusiasm of surfers for whom surfing is a pleasure, not a right.
These days so-called “resort surfers” are not uncommon. Cash rich, time poor, they’re the ones that want every wave at Cloudbreak and Nihiwatu because they only get to surf four times a year and they damn well paid for them. Pain in the arse really, and just as likely to be FIFO workers as stockbrokers. Speaking of which, I knew a stockbroker in London who would check the swell charts every Thursday night and decide whether he’d catch the Ryanair sardine can to Biarritz or Shannon for the weekend.
Personally, I prefer the common or garden westie. They’re hungry but they’re happy. And if they’re getting wet, they’re stoked. //PHIL JARRATT
Comments
I don't feel so bad now, thanks Phil. Every weekend I head for the coasst to get my fix, some of the locals even think I am a local, share the stoke I say.
Times have changed, phil..... Burleigh, the gatta, Maroochydore, Manly, Cronulla back in the 70s was full of working class kids.... Fibro shacks, cheap houses..... Real "locals"..... At Palmy on the goldy, even "avenues" were local lol..... Now, with a budgie box setting you back 1/2 a mill, and a house rental the best part of $600pw, there is only pseudo localism.... No more "animal noise thumper" at narabeen, bongs on the burleigh headland, beach bonfires.... I laughed at the "2 minute locals" who moved into Coolum. Most of us real locals fucked off... A few remain, but they are the minority now......The cafe latte set can have it......
I'm not sure how helpful that approach is Phil. You know, just go where the waves are best. Localism has its faults but it is the time tested way to share the limited resource and it's not about where you live but where you surf. You're a local if you're here surfing lower quality waves when there are better on offer a few kilometres away. The pay off is the respect you get when your local is good. The crew who flit from spot to spot trying to claim equal rights with the locals everywhere they go are just a pain in the arse. Shit if every capable surfer on the northern beaches followed that approach you would have absolute chaos.
Incorrect. You're an idiot.
Would you like to offer an explanation? Or do you prefer to just throw random insults?
Don't worry BB - meant in the third person.
Better waves only a few clicks away? I'm grabbing the keys 100% of the time. Mind you, I'm a Westy to begin with, so I've already driven probably 20 times that and had 2 coffees just getting to the beach.
Fuckin' Brizzos...
I also feel a bit better,being life long surfer for 30 years with great surf 5 minutes away.Surfing before work and after,it was my life!
Then it happened,met my wife from NW Melbourne on my annual surf trip tp Indo.
She moved interstate to live the life,had kids,she got homesick,got dragged kicking and screaming 100km inland.
Spent the last 9 years trying to replace the surf,please someone let me know when they find it !
My tip is if you want to live your life around the surf do not get involved with an inland girl.
But when i do get in the surf,10 times a year it is sooo much sweeter.
So anyone who lives more than 3 kms from the coast is a westie? Sheesh, tough crowd.
The sign in the picture? It was all I could find. Strangely enough there aren't any road signs advertising surf beaches 50 ks inland.
Yep, west of Anzac Pde = Westie! :)
Abc -od..... Back in the dinosaur days lol, some briso's would actually gain respect... They were the ones that gave respect... Were modest.... Didn't paddle inside.... They usually would surf the same spot every weekend.... Made a few good briso friends that way....
Some of us still do Sheepdog, important word respect but it goes both ways
Yeah 50young... But alot of weekend warriors used to come down to the goldy and throw their weight around... You get what you gave... (I'm talking the late 70s early 80s).... It's the same deal in other areas of life, mate.... When you go to someone elses town, dont just barge into the pub, rub everyones name off the blackboard and take over the pooltable (i don't mean you personally)..... Say gday, shout a drink or two, rub shoulders...... Surf breaks are no different..... Especially down here in taswegia....
Your right sheepdog , we are I guess of the same era and thee same still goes on today on the Goldy but it can be said that there are still the locals who are just as bad if not worse but on ya few black sheep cuse the pun. There are some real chilled sessions but maybe that's because I always show respect and etiquette in the lineup but I appreciate the same in return. I prefer to take a lesser quality wave and lesser crowd
Cheers 50young.... Ended up on the sunny coast by the mid/late 80s.... Goldy went mad..... But so did the sunny coast in the "noughties"......... Bailed a few years back.....
And yeah, a sideshore 5 foot sketchy beach session with a few mates was always more fun than 2 foot noosa with 100 blokes.... Do you ever "jump on the ferry", if you know what I mean? Midweek "rostered days off" would still be ok aye?
Bit different down here..... It's gotta be perfection before I peel myself away from the fireplace.... Cheers, bloke.....
Awesome, love it.
"the three Sturmey Archer gears of my Speedwell Special Sports"
Had the "Raleigh Chopper Mk2 70" that was when I wasn't a westie, closer than 3km, 1km downhill to the beach, hated going home, steep hill...;)
"Personally, I prefer the common or garden westie." Finally could I be called a westie..? Phil, a bush westie..! Please let me know ;)
Just remembered, Phil can add Gary Green to the westie list. The first 'soul' surfer of the modern era was also an illustrious former student of Narwee High School.
Isn't Ken Bradshaw from Texas? The ultimate westie!!!
When living inland, that first glimpse of the ocean never fails to provide a little thrill.
So what are they called in WA? Or SA and Vic? Where is the line drawn in Tas or mainland Aust were you are suddenly an Eastie?
"There’s an old adage that the further a surfer lives from the ocean, the more surf stoked he (or she) is likely to be, and in my experience it’s true"
Couldn't agree more with this. Germans are probably the most stoked nation of surfers I have ever come across considering for most of them they are at least an 8 hour drive to the Atlantic coast. makes my 50 minute drives to surf on the Mornington Peninsula seem not so bad after all!
.... Although with Europe's west facing coast, I guess they are technically easties.
What about " Prince Albert"...!
No I'm talking about a piercing on the end of our bell end...?
I'm talking about a place in the middle of Saskatchewan BC Canada.. Middle of nowhere. How are you a Westie or an Eastie living in this place...?
Or so back in this beautiful land, living in Alice Springs...?
Westie/ Eastie/ Southey? Northey.
Note the Southey.
How many e's can one be!
A BEACHIE....
When the midcoast and adelaide suburbs was separated by green fields we called them townies or eggrolls panel van driving hodads with 45 degree surf racks and 45 mins sth we had the victorhardboileds now we're joined almost
Grew up in Doveton and started surfing in the early 70's.My mate come from Hallam and we used to surf the Mornington Peninsula and ultimately Phillip Island after joining the boardriders club.That was a two hour round trip at best and turned into three hours when I moved to Richmond.Thing is,it wasn't unusual with most of the guys down there coming from Frankstonand other Bayside suburbs.No-one called themselves locals and the surf had to be beyond crap to not get wet.If we went over to the West coast we i guess we we,re Easties,but still no real localism.Funny ,till i read that article I'd never given it two thoughts coz thats what everyone did from Melbourne and a bit the same for Adelaide,where i am currently domesticised.
SABF,
Greenfields what a great ride on mower..?
That bloke on here, "Shaun" looks like a Westie...?
As I understand it a Westie was originally used as a derogatory term in the 70's/80's for people who looked like the typical Sydney western suburbs resident, typical outfit consisting of AC/DC or flannel shirt, tight black jeans and a nasty mullet. From my understanding the term westie is closest what we in South Australia would describe as bogan, can anyone here correct me if im wrong? Has anyone here seen the TV show Bogan hunters, if not google it, its worth a laugh.
think Elizabeth, Parafield or Hackam West
First time poster. I started surfing in 1983 while living in Springwood in the Blue Mountains NSW. There were two us, and we both discovered kneeboarding after seeing a guy getting barrelled at Little Garie! We used to catch the 4:40 am train, get to Central and catch the 395 or 396 to Maroubra. After the first couple of times catching the bus we worked out that we would get off the bus one stop before the terminus (I remember when the old wooden pavilion was still around) so that we would look like locals walking down the hill. We started surfing at North End unaware at first of all the heavy locals and aggro! We stored our board bags and stuff under the steps at the North end of the beach; we never had anything nicked or touched. Because we had travelled for 90 minutes on the train and bus we learnt to surf in all sorts of mad conditions. We would paddle out regardless of the size; from 1 to 10 ft! I kept at it but my friend gave it away. I remember a local asking me where I lived, I pointed in a westerly direction. The guy said "you live at the Junction?" I replied a "bit further west than that". Eventually I told him that I lived in Springwood and everyone around laughed. Even though I was and still remain a kneelo, I never got hassled about not being a local. I eventually moved up to the middle and south end and made life long friends. I got see Mark Matthews, Sunny Abberton, Steve and Lynette Mackenzie become incredible surfers. Richard Cram used to surf at North End when it was good; he was a really genuine and friendly guy. Due to knee problems (surprise, surprise) I haven't been back in the water for nearly 2 years (only bodyboarding) but have got the bug again. I still live a distance from the beach, not in the Mountains but have nothing but admiration for anyone who travels to surf! Long first post and I await a ritual disembowelling from the regulars!
Great yarn, condec, you're the guy I was writing about!
I knew two kids who used to catch the train from Emu Plains to North Sydney and get the bus to Dee Why every weekend. It's not where you live it's where you surf!
The can of worms has been opened I've been waiting to confess my sins for the longest time...try living in the cane fields and expecting surf in a mining town, there is a sub category in Queensland called the 'Troptie' as mitchv and others might attest. Imagine living west west of a town which doesn't even have surf and becoming a 'surfer' it fucking happens, if you don't want to pounce around in footy shorts and say 'yeah bruz let's go uptown and get fucked up aye'.
Great read and being a brizzo, and getting the opportunity to be a 'coastie' as well I have always thought this to be true.
I used get up on a school morning and stuff surf gear into my school port, dress in uniform and walk up the street and wait for my parents to leave for work, then race back home, grab my board and get changed and meet my mate on the cleveland train, where a courtesy bus would pick us up from cleveland station for free and drop you at the Straddie barge.
We'd spend the whole day at main, walk up to the bakery for a feed and get the island bus/barge/courtesy bus/train home exhausted.
Then when we were old enough to get cars we would always do big east coast missions and try and stop at every headland on the nsw coast to try and find secret spots... we'd even wake up at 2am in Brisbane sometimes, drive 3 1/2 hours to score an empty spot on the north coast nsw all morning and drive home that arvo.
I lived on the goldy for a bit while I was at uni, then got a job in Brisbane. The first promotion I ever got offered was in Emerald in the middle of QLD, so naturally I rejected it and a few months later got the opportunity to take a job on the Clarence. I lived in Yamba for two years absolutely frothing on my luck landing in butter!
What blew me away was that half of the town would surf pippies, the other half the point/backbeach. Yamba is stacked full of incredible waves only 1km apart at best and only a handful of locals would venture from their preferred break given conditions were perfect at another spot.
But then I look back on those two years and realise I was just as guilty at being lazy, probably spoiled for choice . I rarely left town when the waves were good, and often wonder why I didn't try to score other spots in the area in good conditions that I had seen potential or heard about.
Now after having to relocate back to Brisbane i'm hungrier than ever to find a way to ge a wave in, & when I see conditions perfect for my favourite reef which is now 3 hrs drive away I need to sit down and talk myself out of a meltdown haha.
Yocal, I'm also a Brisso, landlocked when my parents moved from near Cronulla to Brisbane in 1966/67. Was obsessed till then, riding a Coolite whenever I could get to the ocean. Got my first taste of a real surfboard riding my dad's mate's log at the mouth of the Noosa River, aged 11, and then mostly body surfed at Bribie Island when my parents went there on Sundays.
Got my first board aged 13, for my birthday, and drew it in tech drawing while dreaming of what it was like either up or down the coast. Joined Tallebudgera SLSC soon after - it was a free ticket to the Goldie every week - or, if I couldn't get a lift from a member, it was a bus to Mt Gravatt and thumb out.
As I got a bit older, one of my mates, a few years older than me, would pick me up from outside the school, Kelvin Grove, and we'd motor up the highway for a day of waves at the Sunny Coast. Once I got my car, though, it was so-long to the beer-swilling clubbies and off into the yonder, exploring north and south of Brisbane.
Moved to the Goldie on 1977 and joined Kirra SLSC after it was decimated by heroin use. The club was made up of a lot of blow-ins as well as locals (even had a few Brisso-living members for a while there), under the leadership of Graham Scammel (a Newcastle boy). It was interesting times, with the rivalry with Snapper and the prerequisite 'must be a local' ethos to be accepted.
Got involved in the competitive side of surfing, too: VP of the Gold Coast Branch, Pres of KSC; inaugural member of the first pro judging panel on the Goldie with Terry 'Ween' Baker; manager of Qld scholastic team to WA in the early '80s.
Have been living in Yamba now since 1991, still surfing as much as I can, although I have to be careful around crowds - my old back sends me out of control at times.
Funny though, I've never been able to shake that feeling of being an outsider after all of these years.
Yeah agree Pigdogger, there's a tight nit community especially up at Angas, everyone I met was really very friendly but the more I asked & the more stories and history I learned about the town and the characters which shaped the community over the years, the more I realised the intricate connections everyone had to the community that I would never learn about & appreciate in 10 years of living there, let alone two!
Nothing better than waking up looking out to rainforest, listening to a fresh solid swell pounding the rocks at Angas down the road on those clear mornings. Surfing twice or 3 times a day then grabbing an awesome turkish feed at Beachwood or mowing the lawn inbetween. Time of my life! Hope you are loving every minute of it.
So being a westy has shaped who you are? Not such a bad thing, means you can move and adapt. Besides insider status ain't quite what it's cracked up to be.
Stu: Yeah it has, it's just a feeling though, I've been an 'insider', too: being an 'outsider' just seems to be a state of my mind - one that allows me to see all sides of the story.
Yocal: Yeah, I love it here and have had the privilege of hearing and sharing stories, too.
It took a while to lose my Goldie ways in the water - a few well known locals rightly put me straight - but that was 22 years ago - a lot of water under the bridge since then.
Haha very much so!
I just never complained when being dropped in on. I'd just concede that i'd had my share. more often than not I was frothing on overdrive and needed to be pulled back into line haha.
Well I can relate to this, as I come from a landlocked city called Canberra, which is 2 hours away from the nearest beach! Instead of being called a Westie, the 'locals' would sometimes call us Canberra surfers Yogies! Why? Because all Canberra number plates started with a Y. Anyway, the surf stoke is still there after 30 years of living this far away, even with the extra effort it takes just to get a wave. Mind you, sites like this make it easier these days to decide when to go down!
Should be called 'Canberra Surfie Yowies" instead chamber...!
Lot of action round your neck of the woods, lots of unexplored dark bush:)
Y?
So what am I? I moved to Adelaide 3 years ago from Europe. Grew up on the Adriatic Sea before moving inland. Continental climate, snow, ice and that crap, 2000 kms from the Atlantic Ocean. You can only surf when you get conditions that rarely anybody surfs around here, even in Adelaide. So I had to catch a flight to get some solid groundswells, drive to Italy for 6 hours and then 4 hour flight to Morocco. Obviously, this wasn't sustainable in the long run so I had to move to a completely different country. So how keen do you think I am? 3 hour round trip to Victor is just a coffee and a podcast :-).
Denisp....all that effort and you ended up in Adelaide. Congratulations mate, hope your wave count goes up.
Just remember - what happens in SA stays in SA . You'll get more waves that way.
Yeah too right Blowin what stays on your podcast stays in your head.
In Canadian terms Densip, thats a 6 pack and 3 joints.
I don't think I could paddle out after that aftermath...?
Adelaide is actually a beautiful city, really nice, clean and safe. But getting to the surf is quite frustrating, especially when you take into account what is it that you're travelling to. Most of the times is dodging closeouts at Waits, Middleton or Mid Coast. When Mid gets 'solid' 2 to 3 ft swell it gets insanely crowded. Definitely the most crowded place I ever surfed. The only other place that I could compare it with would be Noosa. BTW: I moved here because I got married.
I've been to Sydney few times and I love it there. We stay at my wife's auntie place just above Manly. Sydney's got some incredible waves and way less crowded for those with time flexibility. Might move there one day, there's f... all work in Adelaide anyway.
@wellymon Mate, it's very, very easy to just give up and like you said; 6 pack and 3 joints day in day out. And many are doing exactly that. I'm finding it a bit funny that people are praising these 'westies' and their determination. Driving 2h to and 2h from something you love that much isn't that big sacrifice. It's pain in the ass but it's not the end of the world
"Driving 2h to and 2h from something you love that much isn't that big sacrifice. It's pain in the ass but it's not the end of the world"
No its not at all Densip, what I mentioned above was a classic call from Canadians when I used to live there in the seasons. Its just a way how Canadians measure their drive.....;)
I honestly laugh at people who have lived right on the beach all their lives, where good surf is. They are so spoilt and have no idea at all, about how to travel in their cars for good waves/even shit waves...?
Trust me Densip, I grew up on the West coast on the bottom of the North Island, sometimes great waves :) but had to travel either 3-4hrs sometimes 6hrs, ie Taranaki, Mahia, Raglan and East;) To get real quality waves and I loved it, an adventure...?
But I absolutley loved the drive the thrive, and to say the least the journey, which makes all things in life an awesome perspective.
A Journey...?
Especially when you score.
I am a first time poster and Phil's article has brought me out of hibernation.
In the 70's the surf magazines particularly Tracks used to slag off Westies all the time. To be fair to Phil this probably commenced before he became editor.
Tracks published a satirical letter I wrote in 1972 defending Westies signed Peter Petrolhead on behalf of the Outer Suburban surfers, but probably the satire was lost on most Tracks readers at that time.
I was living about 7 km from the surf then and now live about 3 km from the surf and apart from 18 months in Europe have always lived near the surf so I guess I have been spoiled.
Phil omitted to mention Geoff McCoy, who according to the excellent web site surfresearch.com.au started out at Ron surfboards in Belmore & Lakemba and then moved to M & M surfboards in Auburn ( now the home to the Turkish community) before moving to Brookvale.
The irony was that Geoff wrote an article for Surfing World in the mid 70's slagging off Westies yet it is Westies who have probably purchased a fair proportion of his Nuggets.
If I'm showing respect to every body, getting a few waves, having fun and the beach has public access and you don't like it because you happen to live there, I say get the fuck over it!! The worst locals are expats anyways!!
Times have moved on. I live 20 mins from surf and live on north shore but I am a Westie by beach definition. I surf same breaks 3 times a week and over the years have a rapport with with some known locals, no one has ever asked me where I'm from in 12 years of surfing these breaks, my biggest fear isn't being outed as a Westie but some one who pretends to be a local, either way I've had great surfs with strangers who are real locals and guys who are obviously from somewhere else. As long as you can surf and have etiquette all sweet. Being 50 and on short boards and driving a piece of shit does help. But tell me is there anything worse than a bunch of 40 something locals carrying on about everyone else when they have let themselves go and over rate their surfing ability.
I grew up a 20 minute repco ride away from West Beach, Adelaide.
Every stormy or "mega" mid swell I'd ride there, usually into a 30 knot headwind.
Most of the other grommets had no idea of how far I'd ridden to surf that junk, being the core locals that they were..
So, I guess I was, and still remain, an Eastie to Westies.
Har. Har.