SURFBOARD CLIVE BARBER ORIGINAL 'S IN SOUTH AFRICA

The Arrival of Surfing at Supertubes Clive Barber, one of the original JBAY surfers and resident (RIP) and Surfboard shaper in Jeffreys bay, finally arrived in here in (He was looking after John’s shaping bay in Cape Town when the Endless Summer crew came here). He remembers the time vividly It was just too good to be true, off the main dirt track there was a farm gate which you went through and you would come to this tall dune. I would park my old Volvo up on that hill and watch these perfect lines peeling past. The sand used to blow straight off the dunes and into the sea, filling up any irregularities in the rocks, resulting in these completely perfect endless lines of empty waves. Myself and a few friends would camp out there for weeks, wondering if we were just dreaming this all up, it really was that pristine. Clive also remembers when things began to change. By , Surfing had transformed from a select few individuals who knew the art, into popular subculture. Added to this was the overcrowding of the worlds surf spots, and the temptation to escape the draft, as less and less young men were returning home from the mess of the Vietnam War. When we first arrived it was peaceful, we were here for the waves and got on fine with the locals, but by it had all changed. Surfers and hangers on were pouring in and the local farmer even tried to put up a fence to stem the tide. Yet there was little the original Dutch settlers could do, the perfection and regularity of the waves simply could not be ignored. Inevitably this led to clashes between the farmers and the surfers, and the campsite at Surfers Point was regularly raided by the police.