DV8 Malibu Riders Shellharbour Inc. History

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DV8 Malibu Riders Shellharbour Inc. was established in June 1985 at Shellharbour on the South Coast of NSW. The club was a small loose affiliation of members who met and surfed socially. It lacked any formal structure at this point.

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The decision to form a club was also in response to the renewed and revived interest in Malibu/Longboard surfing during these years. Some members had attended the Australian Longboard Titles at Manly of that year and were surprised at the extent of the revival of interest in longboarding. On the South Coast interest was isolated and individual at this stage.

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Some club members were members of the local shortboard club ‘Southbridge Boardriders’ so any formal competition participation was entered through their organization, otherwise DV8 Malibu Riders remained basically a social organization of individuals with common Interest.

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In January 1986 ‘Malibu Rum’ in conjunction with a local board manufacturer ‘Byrne Bros’ held a longboard competition at North Beach Wollongong. This proved to be a defining moment as it bought many longboarders from the South Coast to the one place for the first time. It was also important that many members of shortboard clubs provided members who had an interest in longboarding as judges and officials for the two day event. The event was a great success in its own right and ran for many years, but pivotal for the DV8 Malibu Riders was the connections that it allowed club members to make with other longboarders in the area.

Seeing the potential and the extent of interest that members were previously unaware of, it was decided to run a competition at North Beach Shellharbour in the view of increasing membership and developing the DV8 Malibu Riders into an independent organization with enough members to fully fund and sustain itself.

The competition, which was named ‘The Banana Malibu Classic’ was a successful event attracting about 40 entrants from which about 16 expressed an interest in joining the DV8 Malibu Riders. Later 12 of these names would be recognized as the founding members. The club now had a mailing list and $15 profit after the expenses of the day.

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However, despite the enthusiasm of the day, the DV8 Malibu Riders still failed to attract enough members to run its own monthly pointscore, but fortunately ‘Southbridge Boardriders’ allowed 2 heats of longboarding in their monthly meets which proved invaluable support until the DV8 Malibu Riders could support itself.

The DV8 Malibu Riders circulated a monthly newsletter and supported its distribution by printing club t-shirts for 50c each. These funds and the original $15 allowed the DV8 Malibu Riders to keep communication open to those who had expressed interest. Without doubt if it had not been for the support of ‘Southbridge Boardriders’ the DV8 Malibu Riders would most certainly collapsed.

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In June 1986 the DV8 Malibu Riders were invited to a 4-way longboarding competition between Central Coast, Southside Cronulla and host club Manly. This also proved a defining moment as it meant that members went away as a club for the first time and as the team did well it galvanized the members as such. It did however bring the DV8 Malibu Riders to a crossroads as we could not expect ‘Southbridge Boardriders’ to support us indefinitely and we needed to be able to support ourselves. A make or break was issued and one final attempt would be made in the same month to hold our own independent pointscore or not persue the clubs development any further. Word must have spread as 40 surfers turned up and signed up on that day.

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From then the club attracted more members every month and from up and down the South Coast, Illawarra, Canberra, Goulburn and southern suburbs of Sydney. The DV8 Malibu Riders was now able to equip itself through member donations, like homemade competition singlets and through funds raised through membership.

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The DV8 Malibu Riders went on to be a great innovator, promoter and supporter of longboarding, running many successful events, including NSW state titles. The Banana Classic has continuously run for 35 years and still enjoys a healthy patronage. The club still has a solid membership and continues to develop to this day. The club has produced many excellent surfers, many of which went on to be State and National champions. Some surfers of note from the early years are Geoff Fanning, Terry Ford, Bruce Gaddes, Norm Brokenbourgh, Ray Mahoney, Sam Mahoney, Kye Epe, Bill Morris, Frank Latta and Mullet. Notable surfers from the clubs more recent history are Kevin Holt, Dan Rowlands, Jeff Dunn, Josh Dunn, John Skinner, Ross Murphy, Bernadette Murphy, Lara Murphy and Josh Brown.

 

Ref: Ray Mahoney – Life Member DV8 Malibu Riders, Life Member Southbridge Boardriders.      

 

Life Members

Ray Mahoney

Neville ‘Nifty’ Weaver

Steve Vickery

Troy Keen

Darrell Reeve