Fresh from claiming back-to-back WA Australian Boardriders Battle titles, Margaret River Boardriders Club has once again shown the strength of a surfing culture built over generations.
Long before Margaret River became one of the world’s most recognisable surfing destinations, surfers were piling into old cars on Friday nights and heading south in search of powerful waves, rough coastal tracks and empty line-ups where finding someone else to paddle out with could be half the challenge.
Through the 1970s, a growing number of surfers began making the South West home. Some of WA’s best surfers were drawn to the region, boards were getting shorter, surfing was becoming more progressive and a tight-knit local surf community was taking shape.
In 1978, Margaret River Boardriders Club was established by a group of local surfers including Bill Gibson, Ken “Macka” MacKenzie, Keith “Woolly” Hawkins, Jeff Sedovic, Ric Gath, Shaun Atkinson and Shane Wilton.
Gibson, who moved to Margaret River chasing waves in 1975, remembers a push from the Western Australian Surf Riders Association (WASRA), now Surfing WA, to grow club membership across the state.
“We were all involved in the competition scene and wanted some representation from the South West,” Gibson said. “We didn’t want to join a Perth club, so we decided to form our own Margaret River Boardriders.”
As the founding generation began stepping back from competition and family life took over, a new generation started coming through. Gibson recalls Andrew Sheridan as one of the club’s first grommets, while Brad Cowan became another enduring presence, competing in early boardriders battles and remaining heavily involved with the club across the decades.
Those early club competitions weren’t always smooth sailing. Gibson remembers one particularly memorable contest at the Margaret River River Mouth, when he left a carload of grommets at the beach while he went to collect more young surfers.
“By the time I got back, they’d dug the river out and we had a giant rip, with four grommets sitting out the back,” Gibson laughed. “That was one of my first memories of trying to run a club comp at the River Mouth.”
The era also saw the emergence of the Margaret River Classic, born from the local boardriders community and growing into one of WA surfing’s longest-running and most prestigious events.
Over the decades, Margaret River has produced generations of exceptional surfing talent, from Dave Macaulay and Yadin Nicol to Jack Robinson, Bronte Macaulay, Jacob Willcox, Creed McTaggart and Shaun Manners.
And that competitive tradition is showing no signs of slowing down.
This month, Margaret River Boardriders went back-to-back at the WA Australian Boardriders Battle Regional Qualifier at Trigg Point, with Jerome Forrest, Jack Mitchell, Ben Spence, Willow Hardy and Brody Mulik combining to secure the title and another ticket to the national Grand Final at Burleigh Heads in March.
In a fitting full-circle moment, captaining the winning team was Andrew Sheridan, one of the club’s first generation of grommets.
Almost 50 years after the club was established, carloads of grommets and makeshift club contests may have given way to LiveHeats and team tactics, but Margaret River’s competitive spirit hasn’t gone anywhere.
Pictured: Founding Margaret River Boardriders member Ken “Macka” MacKenzie after winning the 1980 Margaret River Classic. Credit: Ken MacKenzie.
Events
