History of the Surf Clubs

• The Piha Surf Clubs
• History
  • Surfing history
  • Piha – first with big boats
• The Clubhouses

History

The colour of the men's rugby club, Waitemata - green, red and black - became Piha's colours, and the insignia was a winged surf-reel. With lots of enthusiasm, but not much money, scrimping and making do were the order of the day. The first reel, seen in the portrait, was purchased second-hand from the Takapuna Surf Club. Piha Surf Life-Saving Club was the first surf club to be formed on Auckland's West Coast, January 1934: (back row) Frank Ross (president), Bert Holt (vice-captain), Cliff Holt (secretary), Andy Sutton; (front row) Murray Adams; Laurie Wilson (captain); absent: Stan Holt. Photo: Piha Surf Club Collection

Photo: Henderson Library The Piha Estate donated a beach-front section and club members raised the money for the first clubhouse built to a design found in the Australian S.L.S.A. handbook. The building did not sit on conventional foundations but was perched on timber planks set in the sand. Club members often had to fill in the holes and prop up the surf club when they arrived for the weekend.

Photo: Pearce Collection Don 'The Champ' Wright (left) developed the 'teardrop' ski into a sleek, swift and efficient piece of life-saving equipment. Years of experimentation and adaptation went into the design. Wright found that there needed to a be a 'lift' of the bow of skis in New Zealand to cope with the rolling waves. The two-man ski seen in this photo was sixteen feet long and the one-man ski, twelve feet long. The ski transformed rescue work. As the largest weighed about 100 pounds, it was far easier to launch than the surf boat and could reach the patient more speedily than a swimmer in a belt. Skis built by Don Wright went to clubs all around New Zealand.

Photo: Alan Sayers photograph, Pearce Collection The first Piha surf boat was bought second-hand from the Bronte Club of Sydney in 1936. Dubbed 'The Banana Boat', it was the first surf boat in use in New Zealand. In November 1938 Piha took delivery of a specially-built new surf boat purchased from the premier boat builder, W.M.Ford of Sydney, at a cost of £130. The design of these surf boats had been developed in Australia as an evolution of the old American whaling boat. The Piha boat was twenty-two feet long with a rounded bottom and shallow draft. Copper tanks fore and aft made the boat unsinkable. The boat was rowed by four oarsmen, sitting on separate seats, each with an oar fourteen feet long.The boat was steered by a steersman with a heavy steer-sweep oar twenty feet in length. The photograph, taken in 1946, shows, from right, Tom Pearce, Hadyn Way, Warren Tyler, Jack Rae, Johnny Johnston. The Piha team won the first national surf boat championship series held at Wellington's Lyall Bay in 1940.

	Piha – first with big boats The Piha Classic Big Wave Surf Boat Series at Piha on 2 April 2005 brought back memories of Piha’s pioneering role in the introduction of surf boats into New Zealand. Soon after the opening of the first Piha clubhouse on 10 February 1935 the club passed a resolution to acquire a surf boat before the next surf season. Surf boats were an evolution of old whaling craft and were in great use by clubs in Australia for both life saving and competition purposes. There were rigid specifications as to how they were to be built set out in the Australian surf life saving handbook. No clubs in New Zealand had a boat. A second-hand boat was available from the Bronte club in Sydney for 60 pounds. After getting it inspected to ensure it was in good condition, the boat was shipped to New Zealand in September. Customs duty of 19 pounds blew the budget and without funds to erect a boatshed, the club kept it at the Auckland Rowing Club and practised on the Waitemata Harbour to learn how to handle the craft. The charging of the duty caused a great public furore and the letters’ columns in the daily papers ran hot with indignation. Eventually the Government settled the question with a donation to the club By year’s end, the ‘banana boat’ as it was dubbed, was housed at Piha in a new boathouse. The boat was taken to Piha over the rough and windy metal road on club captain Laurie Wilson’s truck - he tooted his horn all the way down the Piha hill to announce its arrival. A retired sea captain, Captain Pierrotti, undertook instruction of the crew wearing a suit and bowler hat which in no time were sopping wet. A 10-member boat crew was insured against injury: Cliff Holt, Laurie Wilson, Has Sidford, J Matheson, Murray Adams, Charlie Curtice, Wobbles Malam, Tom Pearce, Chuck Sidford, and S Gorman. Laurie Wilson was boat captain for the first year, followed by Tom Pearce from 1936 to 1952. It was trial and error with the banana boat, but the dedicated crew soon became proficient and were able to take the boat to Gisborne to instruct the Wainui club in the use of their own newly imported craft. Over 3000 came to Wainui to watch Piha demonstrate on waves so huge, water could be seen above and below the 22 foot length of the boat. There were faults in the banana boat – it was heavy to pull, threw water into the boat in a head sea and tended to broach left on waves. The Piha men hankered after their own purpose-built boat and in 1938 a new cedar boat was ordered from the premier boat-building firm of WM Ford at Berry’s Bay, Sydney, at a cost of 130 pounds. The boat was specially strengthened in the floor boards to stand up to the tough Piha surf and the fact that all the Piha crewmen were ‘heavy men’. It was the first new boat to be ordered by a New Zealand club. A large photo of the boat in action can be seen in the Piha clubhouse, one of three photos donated by Carlton Pollard. (Officials in the Big Wave series had this iconic image on the back of their tee-shirts.) The importation of the second boat ran into the same difficulty with customs duty of 48 pounds, but this time the Government was adamant, as it believed the boat should have been built in New Zealand. Boat captain, Tom Pearce, an all-round sportsman, described surf boating as the sport without peer ‘for those who crave excitement and thrills’, a judgement that was apparently echoed by the rugby, league and other sportsman who joined the boat crews for a celebrity race in Piha’s Big Wave series. When catching waves, Tom bawled so loudly at his crew he could be heard by Dulcie Ussher at the top of Piha hill. On 9 April 1939, the first ever surf boat race held in New Zealand took place at Piha against the Wainui club. Piha won the series by one race. The Piha crew took their boat to Lyall Bay in 1940 when the first national surf boat championship was held. Piha came home victorious, a photo of the winning crew with their boat is displayed in the Piha clubhouse. Sadly, the Piha crews did not fair so well in the recent Big Wave Series, but the large crowd was well-entertained, and history was made when an all-woman crew took part in one race. Sandra Coney back to top
	The Clubhouses
		A new clubhouse, built by members, was opened on 10 February 1952. As seen in this early view, the sun deck provided a look-out point for the beach and at last the club had a secure shed for the surf boat.       Photo: Sparrow Collection, Auckland Institute and Museum 2 -1968E
		A North Piha Surf Life Saving Club was formed when the road was extended along North Piha in 1947, the crowds followed, creating the need for a surf club on the 'Big Beach'. A club was formed by locals and work on the club house began in October 1950. 2000 blocks were made from local sand, using a block making machine. The clubhouse was one of the most modern in New Zealand when it opened in 1951, with electricity provided by a diesel generator and water from a dam in the hills. There were showers inside and outside, with a footbath to wash sand off the feet. The basement provided ample storage for reels and surf skis. The name of the North Piha club was later changed to United. Photo: Sparrow Collection, Auckland Institute and Museum 2-1967B
		The new Piha clubhouse was opened in 1996. Photo: Sandra Coney
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