It was winter in South Africa, mid-1977 and the recently formed IPS World Tour was a 1-year-old baby learning how to walk; it has only a single World Champion to its credit: Peter Townend. The Top 30 surfers, joined by a big field of trialists, were fighting for the title of the former Gunston 500 (today's Mr. Price Pro) in poor, onshore conditions at North Beach, Durban.
Shaun Tomson would clinch victory and glory in front of a huge home crowd. It was his fifth straight victory in that event; one pivotal in winning that year's World Title and in setting a record yet to be broken on the history of our sport - by winning the following year's Gunston 500, Shaun became the only surfer in Pro Surfing history to win the same tournament six consecutive times. Tomson was for professional surfing in the 70's what Slater was in the 90's: a well-presented, good-looking media darling who was adored by fans and helped lift the profile of the sport.
With Durban's contest activities concluded, bucolic Jeffreys Bay seemed an alluring option for the 'pros.' They headed there and were followed by a few photographers and legendary cinematographers Dick Hoole and Jack McCoy. Hoole and McCoy were halfway through the making of their classic 'Tubular Swells' - one of the movies responsible for inspiring many surfers around the globe to pack their bags and hit the road. They had no idea what lay ahead, the dream of every Top 45 surfer of the 21st century: a 22-day mega-swell that left most of them with jelly legs, spaghetti arms and no boards left in their quivers after three weeks of massive surf. Terry Fitzgerald admits today that by the end of that swell it was hard to find a partner to share a session. Everyone was too tired or surfboard-less after many of them hit the rocks.
Even though contests would seem an unviable scene for J-Bay for many years to come, freesurfing Jeffreys was (and still is) a collective mystical Eden, the final destination on a pilgrimage in search of surfing's nirvana. In that group of searchers, amongst others, were Aussies Terry Fitzgerald and Mark Warren, Hawaiians Buzzy Kerbox and Bobby Owens and South African icon Shaun Tomson and friends. It was a great team of surfers, all in the prime time of their careers, Shaun, as we know, eventually taking the world title that year of '77, and the rest making the Top 16 by year's end. Warren #7, Fitzgerald #9, Kerbox #10 and Owens #12.
Only in 1983 we would have the first pro event taking place in Jeffreys, the Country Feeling Classic was a non-rated event that year and was won by Californian David Barr. In 1984 the contest made its ASP World Tour debut and was marked by a historical victory by a young Mark Occhilupo, before the advent of the Billabong Pro.
Back in '77, the first couple of days the group found fun, 3 to 5 foot surf that served as an appropriate warm-up session on the perfect walls. Shaun became 'one' with Supertubes. His synchronicity with the wave was perfect, the impeccable tube approach with a wider stance, front foot placement to drive the thick board through tube sections being the main focus of the ride. Most turns were forward projections in such down-the-line wave.
The swell kept showing signs of building through the afternoon, creating much anticipation and mounting excitement for everyone in the line up. Bear in mind, that back in those days we had no 'WAMs' or virtual buoy 'dotcom' sites, no surf reports like the one's today's 'modern' surfers are reliant upon. Weather forecast was simplistic and hard to find. Back in those days a surfer had to have exemplary knowledge of the ocean, wind and weather front cold patterns, but most important, you had to have feeling. Someone in your circle of friends had to have that special connection with the elements to stage bold calls about the forecast surf conditions.
Certainly everyone felt the temperature drop rapidly that night. They all woke up to a cold but sunny morning to face one of the most extraordinary sights on this planet: Jeffrey's Bay, perfect, 10 feet…and rising!
Incredible, flawless, thick 10-foot sets licked the point, combed nicely by offshore winds at the right speed, making Supertubes a picturesque God's art display. Men were the 'final touch' on it, sometimes three of them riding at the same time, a "pas de trois" between man and nature, an opera/ballet of epic proportions.
In one of the sets, Terry Fitz, a.k.a. 'The Sultan of Speed,' set one of his cosmic creations- a red 7'5" pin winger-on such rail-carving cutbacks that the sequence of the manoeuvre could be seen plastered on walls in surfer's rooms, surf shop windows and surfboard factory partitions wherever you could find a soul soaked in salt water. In a fast breaking type wave that does not allow for much surf turns ended in 'backs,' his unforgettable 'looking over the shoulder' rebound stuck in everyone's mind. A rebound that followed a gigantic carved turn, consisting on perfectly aligned arms, super-low gravity centre arch, knees slightly apart, to a stand straight up recovery, looking backing over his shoulder to the massive white water and his own high, in the wave's face track!!
Many waves recorded were to be ridden for over a minute in a swell of such magnitude that, if mirrored this year, will have the Top 45 waiting for the Billabong Pro Jeffrey's Bay 2007 unsettled in their sleep.
That night back in 1977 though, at the dinner table of a restaurant somewhere in Jeffrey's Bay, South Africans, Australians, Hawaiians and Americans gathered to celebrate the magical day. Little did they know, there were 19 days to go in that 'party.' In a small town with a country feeling, they went to bed with that inexplicable sensation of body tiredness, the type of feeling that only a surfer knows.
Renato Hickel
Foster's ASP World Tour Manager
* All frame-grabs taken from Jack McCoy & Dick Hoole's movie "Tubular Swells"
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