Smith reflects on Rip Curl, Bells and surf history

AS a surf historian and long-time competitor, Bob Smith has witnessed just about every chapter of the Rip Curl Pro at Bells Beach.

The 79-year-old still gravitates to an earlier era, where there was no jet ski assist or paddling assistance, and it was just big Bells and the best surfers in the world.

 

If he could drop himself back into one moment, he doesn’t hesitate. He says it would be the 1981 Big Saturday event, named for powerful surf that pounded Bells throughout the day.

“Just for one session it would have to be that day,” Smith said. “[There was] a men’s and women’s separate expression session.

“We’d have jet skis for paddling assistance and tow in speed take offs ensuring continuous action.

“Throw down the challenge to surf the biggest beast from way outside Bells, through the button and down through the Winkipop valley. Everyone’s a winner.”

 

Through his work as a historian, Smith has handled some of surfing’s most significant artefacts.

A 1979 Rip Curl tinker tail stands out from the crowd.

“It was shaped by Wayne Lynch, with glassing and lay-up coloured single fin by everyone’s great friend, the late Torquay legend Russell Graham,” Smith said.

“Tinkler tails are arguably the rarest and most difficult Australian surfboard to find. The concept is about incorporating flex into a board and based on George Greenough’s flexible spoons.

“Maurice Cole snapped several trial models out at Bells. The surfing public and manufacturers didn’t get behind them.

“A Wayne Lynch shaped though is rare, rare, rare.”

 

Smith’s association with Rip Curl spans more than five decades, a period that has delivered no shortage of behind-the-scenes stories – many of which, he admits, won’t be told.

They might be “legendary, hilarious and sometimes outrageous” but sadly he insists his “lips are sealed”.

He does, however, offer one glimpse.

“In the mid-90s during the Rip Curl Pro, a group of unknown 15-year-old musicians from Newcastle were signed up cheaply for the following Easter event,” Smith said.

“The single Tomorrow from their first EP became a smash hit, followed up by their hugely successful LP Frogstomp. That was Silverchair.

 

“I was bar manager at the time, and it was like Genghis Khan and his Mongol hordes charging across Bobby Johnson’s paddocks as well as all accesses in and out. Hells Bells!”

Smith will sit back and watch the Bells event from his home in Torquay this year, but will almost certainly make an appearance at the Surfing Victoria Pioneers Day at Bells Beach later this month, where the sport’s history is still very much alive.