JOHN SCHULTZ

A very interesting surfboard from the early 1960s recently came into our Point Leo store for some refurbishing. The new owners, brothers Richard and Les Stokes from Shoreham, had been gifted the board by a neighbour whom they had met surfing in Western Port Bay.

The 10-foot Okonui is an old George Rice "Island Model," designed specifically for the big waves that had become the ultimate challenge down at Bells Beach in the early sixties. Just to ride these heavy boards back then, you had to be big, strong, and in most cases, the owner of a thick footy jumper to keep you warm.

Photo: Keith Platt

The original owner of this vintage surfboard was Western Bulldogs (Footscray) football legend John Schultz, who played 188 games from 1958 to 1968, all alongside the great Ted Whitten. In 1960, at only 21 years of age, he won the prestigious Brownlow Medal.

The interesting piece of history behind this particular surfboard is that it was actually the second board passed on to him that had been designed specifically for big waves—hence the 10-foot length and triple stringers.

John recalls his very first surfboard (a Max Gill Okonui) came via Rod Olsson, a Hawthorn player in the '60s (116 games) who later coached Geelong for four seasons. Rod’s brother was, of course, Tony Olsson—the long-time President of Surfing Victoria and owner of The Melbourne Surf Shop, which was originally located in Clarendon Street, South Melbourne, and later right in the heart of the city (making it the first real surf shop in town).

This particular board could very well have been one of Tony’s own, as he had a massive reputation for riding big waves. This is captured beautifully in the classic shot of Bells Beach, showing Tony flying across a massive 20-foot wall on Easter Sunday, 1965, during the Bells Beach Competition.

Tony Olsson Bells Easter 65 Image used with permission from Barrie Sutherland ©, WaterMarks Gallery

A word from John Schultz on these early days in Westernport Bay.

“Surfing at the Pines Shoreham in the early 1960s. The prompt for this story arose when I recently gave my George Rice, Island Design, Triple Stringer Surfboard away to Richard, who collects old surfboards. It weighs a ton and it is impractical to surf with now but it has been renewed and rejuvenated at Trigger Brothers for historic reasons. All the old dings in it, as a result of surfing at Suicide before someone thought of attaching leg ropes to boards, have been repaired. I was not a good surfer and I distinctly remember how well the board performed when I was not on it as I watched it cruising in on the wave after I had fallen off. Of course the board always settled and crashed against the Suicide rocks, hence all the dings and it was always a long swim in to recover it. The boards were very heavy and the easiest way to carry them was two surfers one behind the other with the boards under their arms. Despite being very heavy they still flew up into the air if you were dumped so you had to dive deep until you heard the board hit the water again.

We did not have wet suits in those days and wore woolen football jumpers. I was sacrilegious and often wore Polly Farmer’s 1961 Western Australian State Jumper. We had swapped jumpers after playing on each other in the 1961 Australian Football Carnival in Brisbane. Polly is now a Legend in the Australian Football Hall of Fame. Despite wearing the woolen jumpers we still got very cold and I was often shaking with Hypothermia as we drove home in the car. My surfing mate Nick Thomas who I bought the board off second hand always liked to be out on the water as the sun came up."

Photo: Keith Platt

"Best days for me were spent at the Pines in the early 1960’s. If you had twelve surfers out on the water it was a big crowd. Some of the regulars were Rod McKillop, Richard Horn and Chris and Ian McLennan. I have fond memories of those days and of the waves always being good and having a great shape.”
-John Schultz