1945-1960


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Stirring up trouble++Sea wall and barbed wire entanglements on the beach front at Manly <br>Photographer unknown, 27 November 1942 Australian War Memorial ++Maroubra boardmen Bruce Devlin, Frank Adler and Vince Mulcahy at Bondi  <br>Photographer unknown, c1945, from C Bede Maxwell++Toothpick John K McLennan, Sydney, 1946, maple, silky oak, varnished marine ply<br>  Australian National Maritime Museum. Purchased with USA Bicentennial Funds++Surfoplane NARM, c1950s, rubber Australian Surf Museum, Manly Life Saving Club++Camping area, Palm Beach Caravan Park Photographer unknown, c1950 Warringah Library ++Women’s one-piece  swimming costume c1950. <br>Manly Art Gallery & Museum++Men’s swimming costume c1950 Manly Art Gallery & Museum++Gordon Woods, Bondi, c1957, varnished plywood with hardwood rails <br>Manly Art Gallery & Museum Gift of Mr Crossing, 1984++Homemade bikini c1950s Courtesy Naomi Barwick++Men’s swimming shorts Casben, 1955 Manly Art Gallery & Museum++Pig Wallace Surfboards, Bronte, c1959, balsa, fibreglass and resin. Shaped by 
Bill Wallace. Cartoon by Rollo Smith & Son++

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Stirring up trouble

At the end of World War II Sydneysiders hit the road and headed back to the coast.Returned soldiers and eager youngsters joined regimental lifesaving clubs, paddling giant hollow longboards, or ‘toothpicks’, and patrolling crowded beaches. A handful of eager ‘boardmen’, however, were surfing for pleasure.
Lightweight and agile American malibus arrived in 1956, bringing a radical change in boardriding and surf culture. Films of surfers on hair-raising waves abroad and the sugary teen-flick Gidget soon followed, stirring up trouble and sparking a hunger for adventure.

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