Hi Guys, I saw your web site and noticed Brian James ( we called him Blue in the old days) mentioned among other names from the past Keith"Animal" West, Derek, Ian, Terry Cole, "Little" Brian Butler. I surfed with these guys back in the old days, are any of them still about? work took me abroard for some years but I'm home in London now. Send them my regards and see if they kept quiet about GANGBUSTERS!! Ive enclosed a true story about those guys, the memory is as if it were yesterday!
Best Wishes Mitchell (aka"Mitch")

TURN LEFT AT THE FRIDGE AND MATTRESS

“Turn left at the fridge and mattress mate“!
Those were the directions “Blue” gave to me, he promised me that this would lead me to a south coast secret spot that worked on most swells, only a handful of guys knew about it, and they would probably kill me if I told anyone where it was! Oh yes one more thing, its a left, a goofys dream!
I left London on a wet and dismal Thursday evening in the autumn of 1971, the van was loaded for the long weekend, and I had my trusty Bilbo and my brand new Tris ‘7ft short board’
As I drove south on the A3 the wet Surrey and Sussex country side slipped past the window and then on south towards my destination.
I arrived at my first navigation point, luckily enough the afor-mentioned fridge and mattress were still, dumped at the side of the road, added to them now was an old rusty bike and a piece of carpet!
I turned left and Brian was waiting.
He clambered into the van with his battered ‘Keo 7’6” a wetsuit that had more inner tube patches than neoprene, a sleeping bag and a huge smile on his face!
“Listen” he said, I switched the engine off and waited for my ears to adjust to the environment, at first silence, then I herd it, a low boom and rumble, my heart pumped, the wave was working and according to my new passenger it would be good in the morning.
I turned the key in the ignition, the engine gave a groan as road gave way to tyre and we were away.
We drove down a long dark lane and turned into a farm track that lead towards a small point of land jutting into the English Channel, we parked the veedub in a corner of a field and walked to the beach about a quarter of a mile across fields.
The sky had cleared on the coast and the moon light gave a molten grey picture of 3 to 4ft clean lefts cranking around the point. We sat and watched for awhile and then returned to the van to get some sleep
We were woken by Derek and Ian, before dawn they had come over from Hayling Island. We suited up and headed off, the newly waxed Tris under my arm.
As we arrived at the beach, I could see in the twilight the perfect waves wrapping around the point like a succession of signposts, a solid 4 to 5ft and clean, and then I noticed a guy already out, stroking into a wave in the dawn light, he jumped to his feet as he dropped in with his body drooped ape like lowering the centre of gravity over the centre of his board, then he powered his turn and trimmed for the wall! “Keith’s usually the first in” according to Ian “we don’t think he sleeps at all”
Derek headed out on his 10ft Bilbo and picked off a set wave that was overhead when he dropped in, (Del was six foot tall) I was lucky enough to get a picture of it and then I was off for the cold awakening.
The foreshore was a mass of rock and shingle, not the best place to loose your board,(this was pre leash days) As I paddled out I could see the bottom and it never got very deep, I soon realised why the wave was so consistant, it was breaking over a reef of shingle and rock, not the usual sandy bottom the south normally had to offer. Ian rides past with all the grace he can muster, a real stylist, a fast crest chasing him down the line. The next wave was Brian’s, turning at the top and cranking turns along the clean face of the wave then stooping down and dragging his hand in the face of the wave as it walls up to crash on the reef, then stalling into a nice pull out.
My turn came after the normal politeness of not going for it in front of the locals, something sadly missing in the line up these days.
Airing on the side of caution I took one of the smaller waves, as I dropped I lowered my eyes below the level of the curl and felt the rush of the wall going past me, my vision blurred by the spray and then the joy of my first tube, liquid miracle rained down hard on my right and I was locked in and trimmed perfectly, Then all to soon the shoulder and a not to shabby pull out, my whole body bathed in satisfaction.
These guys referred to the break as “Gangbusters” and that’s all I’m saying!!
After a weekend of some of the best waves I had ever had I was heading back to London, but my love affair with the south coast was sealed and I would be back and “Blue” would be waiting

Mitchell Humphries