UP THE 'PORT
Newport Plus was formed nearly 50 years ago, fueled by the frantic energy of local surfers wanting to test themselves in competition and thus become the very best surfers they could. The Club quickly went on to become the the Strongest Boardriders club in the world at that time and some members went on to become the very best on the Planet. This was achieved by following some basic principles which are the still the ethos of the club.
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Put your hours in, Pay your dues in the lineup Master the Fundamentals, know your equipment. Understand your positioning and the natural forces you're riding. Ride every wave like you're being watched (because you are). Uphold the standard. Be a Proud local (not an ugly one).
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The Surfing world has changed a lot in the last few years, it’s booming popularity here and in previously non surfing countries now means that around the world the average standard is “Barely Competent”. Performance surfing and it’s lived experience is one of Australia’s greatest Cultural exports. Boardriders clubs like ours are the lifeblood and backbone of surfing in Australia. Our aim as a club through both competition and training is to individually become the best surfers we can and collectively perpetuate and promote the bedrock principles of our National tradition.
Up the ‘Port.
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SINCE 1975
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The club has a long history, originally encouraged by Charlie and Dale Ryan, owners of the Ocean Shores surf shop at Newport, they formed Newport Plus and had their first season in 1975. Dale Ryan thought up the name to take into account club members like Phillip Motteroz and Brian Bolar, who'd decided to join Newport even though they were from Av.
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Original members of the club included several sets of brothers: the Carrolls (Tom and Nick), the Haywards (Mark and Cameron), the Hynds (Rod and Derek, the original club captain), and the Walkers (Alastair, Gordon and Dougall). Other early members included Wayne Bale, Scott Beggs, Stuart Cooper, Greg Fearnside, Sandy Fraser, Rory Gorman, Robert Hale, Andrew Hunter, David Jones, Michael King, Peter Phelps, Steven Seiler, Michael Twemlow, and a year or so down the line, Paul and Scott Lindley, Kevin Long, Glenn Stokes and the Norton brothers (Russell, Stuart and Fraser). DJ was the only member over 20 years of age. English champ Mike Newling joined up soon after arriving from the UK in late 1976 and the club's early nucleus was complete.
Newport Plus soon attracted more good surfers from other areas of Sydney, like Richard Cram and George Wales from Bondi, and under Derek's intense rule became a near-irresistible force in club competition, taking over from North Narrabeen as Sydney's top northside club, and fighting some great duels with Maroubra Boardriders, their southside spiritual brothers.
Club members also had some spectacular individual results including Derek's world ranking of seventh, Dougall's one and Nick's two Australian open men's titles, Crammy's Australian junior crown, and Tom's pro junior win and subsequent charge up to the top of the world tour. At one major tour event, the 1980 Coke Surfabout, Newport Plus members made up one fifth of the total main event draw, something most nations can't manage today.
The club went from strength to competitive strength through the 1980s, as young surfers like Scott Lindley, Joel Jones (another Aussie champ), Will and Beau Edwards and Marc Connors began shining, and South African migrant Martin Potter joined up. National-level interclub victories included the 1982 2SM Teams Challenge, the 1984 and 85 Mango Teams Challenges at Kirra Point, the 1987 Australian Surf League at Cronulla Point, and the 1989 Billabong Teams Challenge at
Surfers Paradise.
But Newport Plus failed to nurture its next generation, and when the original membership began losing interest in the late 80s, the club went into decline. Through the 90s it all but ceased operating, until 1996, when Tom Carroll and Evan Jeffrey took the major part in its resurrection. Today Newport Plus is an energetic and grommet-oriented club run by parents and assisted by some of its original members, with a focus based on fun, inclusion and skill development.
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A TALE BY OSCAR LONG
For most grommets growing up in Australia, being a member of a sporting club means chasing a ball around an oval for 80 minutes whilst trying to avoid a concussion. However, just as surfing broke away from the traditional ideas of a “Sport,” Boardriders clubs broke away from the traditional ideas of what it meant to be a “Sporting club.”
Boardriders clubs weren’t established with the help of government grants and the acquisition of public land, they were founded by groups of mates huddled under an umbrella at the end of the beach car park.
From surfing’s more formative, more rock n’ roll and more sinister times, Boardriders clubs have grown to be the most immediate representation of Australian beach culture.
Newport Plus came into existence due to a Perfect Storm of circumstances and personalities intersecting at a specific time. A recent catastrophic storm had reshaped the coastline on the Northern Beaches. The 1974 storm was disastrous for many but a god send for the local surfers at Newport, who found their former C grade surf break had been transformed into a consistent, rippable peak.
The other contributing factor to the formation of Newport Plus came from the frustration of the younger surfers at neighboring NASA and Peninsula Boardriders clubs.
Some of the first surfers to show interest in establishing a competitively driven club included; Derek and Rod Hynd, Tom and Nick Carroll, Michael ‘Rumpy’ Twemlow and Gordon Walker. It seemed sensible for this already tight knit crew to start a club based around Charlie Ryan's Ocean Shores surf shop. This also brought in some Avalon crew like Phil Motteroz and Brian Bolar plus a few boys from the Bungan crew like Peter Larsen.
With the older peak crew relinquishing their aggressive strangle hold on the surf break, the younger boys saw a line-up gap present itself and jumped on it claiming it as their own.
Derek didn’t want the club to follow the same round structure that had been adopted by neighbouring clubs. Instead, Derek implemented a handicap system, which threw everyone in the same pool. “ I hated slow paced bullshit, the type of stuff that seemed to plague the two clubs north.” Derek explains.
This made for a much faster pace of competition, keeping everyone on their toes and ultimately producing a generation of very competitive and aggressive surfers, the results of which can still be seen at the peak today.
Nick Carroll remembers how intense the competition was: “DH was the puppet master, we were like the wild animals in his evil petting zoo. We didn’t give a fuck as long as we could do whatever we wanted. When it came to competing as a club we would come together like we were one animal.” It was this committed, winning mentality combined with fearlessness and young, male bravado that helped earn Newport Plus and the peak its reputation.
An early indication for future festive behaviour can be traced back to one of the very first Newport Plus presentations held at the prestigious Newport Surf Life Saving Club. Some mothers, wives and girlfriends had prepared a magnificent feast, as people began to sit down a man who now lives in Nicaragua threw a piece of rice at a short, local carpenter. Within 2 minutes the interior of the Surf Club and everyone in it was covered in food. It took over 20 years before any mother, wife or girlfriend attended another presentation.
By 1980 the club had completely cleared the water at Newport of any other surfers, that wasn’t their goal, it just happened. As the club continued to grow it also continued to strengthen competitively; wins like the 2SM Teams Challenge in 1983 and its infamously destructive presentation at DY pub; the two Mango Teams Challenges in 1985 and 1986 at perfect Kirra; winning the old Surf League national club comp and then the big money teams challenge in Qld in 1989 they were all epic.
It is important to remember that while the boys surfed and competed with nothing held back, they were known for carrying this mentality beyond the surf onto dry land… “ The 1980 presso night where we started off at about 4pm on a Saturday arvo by marching through Newport in full punk regalia with a dead pig’s head on a spear haha.” Nick chuckles as he recalls some of the crazy shit they used to get up to.
Many of the early Newport Plus stories have become local folklore, and while the club has earned a rock and roll reputation, the reputations of certain individuals may be tarnished if these stories were forever immortalised on the World Wide Web. If you want to hear the truth, buy an old bloke a beer. Whether you want to believe everything they tell you is entirely up to you.
Written by Oscar Long.
