Gisborne is also known as "Surf City" from its numerous quality surf beaches and established surf culture.
10 March 2009
By Marianne Gillingham
The Gisborne Herald
The grommets of yesteryear are on a tidal wave of nostalgia heading towards their Easter weekend reunion, which celebrates 50 years of surfing in Gisborne.
Among them are John Logan, Peter Goodwin, Darryl Heighway, David Swann and Kevin Pritchard that were the first board riders to surf the waves at Makorori Point, in the early '60s.
This weekend the famous five were reunited as a group for the first time since the '60s, on the occasion of David Swann's 70th birthday, and were persuaded to head out to the beach to re-enact the photo that has become an icon of Gisborne's surfing history.
All five are planning to attend The 50 Years of Surfing in Gisborne reunion at Easter weekend, to catch up with numerous other long-time legends like Alan Byrne, Doug Hislop, Bob Davies and Roger Jenkins.
Registrations have come in from as far away as
Then, off course, there is the wave of "grommets" from the '80s. They include Ronnie and Ruth Amann, Chris Berge, James "Jimmy" Croskery, The Drummond boys, Jane Borrie and Mike Spence, with a collection of his photos from the era.
Also coming are the beach babes of yesteryear, including Dawney Parker,Jonette Meade, Cathy Steed, Yvonne Smith and "Gogo Girl" Lynne Jones.
The Patty twins will be united when Joan comes to join Patty for the occasion.
Althoughmany of the "surfies" of the '60s and '70s were regarded as scruffyrebels who surfed and partied hard, most of them grew up to becomepillars of society.
Among those gathering for the Easter reunionare several millionaires, and a large number of highly-successfulprofessionals and business people, not to mention members of the firstwave having retired to go on surfing trips in their Audi, Rover andChrysler surf mobiles.
Highlights of the weekend will be the meet and greet session on Friday evening, and the '60s-style party on Saturday night.
Linedup for the music is one of the most popular musicians from the oldMakaraka Hall, Sandown and DB era, Peter Kingi from Crazy Urge, who isbringing a five-piece band down from Auckland.
On the menu forSunday night is a pictorial treat from signwriting surfer John "Ducky"Duckworth, who has scanned old photos and images on to an enormousscrolling screen.
There is also a movie of local 35mm surfing footage, guaranteed to cause some hoots of mirth.
Subject to wave conditions, organisers are also hoping for an open surfing session on Monday.
Recording it all will be surf journalists and photographers from Australasia's leading surf magazines, including Tracks and Waves.
Time is running out for local people to register, although organiser Gail Patty does not expect to turn anyone away on the day.
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