Photographer Dick Hoole recalls a time when Burleigh Heads was surfing's 'centre of the universe'

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Burleigh Heads on Queensland's Gold Coast was where the 'real men' surfed during the '70s and '80s.

And veteran photographer and filmmaker Dick Hoole, was there with camera in hand to capture it.

Key points: Photographer Dick Hoole says there was a time in the 1970s and '80s when Burleigh Heads was the centre of the surfing universe

While the barrels of Burleigh still roll in, Snapper Rocks is now the home of surfing competitions at the Gold Coast

Mr Hoole was a member of the team that made surfing films Tubular Swells and Storm Riders

Now living in Byron Bay, there was a time when Mr Hoole called the Gold Coast home and was living the surfing lifestyle.

"In 1975, Burleigh was the main arena," Mr Hoole said.

"Just like Hawaii had Sunset Beach and later Pipeline — on the Gold Coast, Burleigh was the arena," he said.

"Burleigh was the centre of our surfing universe since and still is."

''There was no superbank. If someone said 'I'm going down to surf Snapper Rocks', you'd probably say 'okay, when you develop your ability and you get good enough to come out here and surf with the real men at the Burleigh'.

"We knew where the quality waves were."

Media demand for surfing

To find the best surfers of the era, Mr Hoole followed them to the competitions.

Before there was the Quicksilver Pro or even the Billabong Pro there was the Stubbies at Burleigh.

"In the beginning it was only the Coke contest in Sydney, and the Bells [Beach] contest in Victoria," he said.

"The Stubbies event put the Gold Coast surfing on the map.

"It was the most spectacular performance and surfing was in demand by the media.

"It was like Young Talent Time, everyone was interested in surfing, it was like a surf movie a tribal gathering."

Mr Hoole started his career as a surfboard shaper in Byron Bay where he moved to from Sydney in 1967 as a 17-year-old.

"I remembered how polluted the surfboard manufacturing industry was," he said.

"I was doing the glassing and sanding and I remember the environment was so polluted and toxic that I swore to myself I didn't want to be still working in a surfboard factory when I was a senior citizen.

The pay wasn't much

While he worked in the shaping shop, the stories of the Hawaiian pilgrimages made by his older co-workers inspired him to take the same path.

He figured the only way people would believe he made it all the way to Hawaii was to start taking photos to show them he was really there.

"That's basically where my interest in photography happened," Mr Hoole said.

"One of the photos I took there was put on the cover of Surfing World — Tom Stone surfing Pipeline.

"Seeing your name in print and seeing your photos published, that was about as exciting and rewarding as it needed to be, because remember you didn't get paid much.

After bouncing around Honolulu for a while he met fellow photographer and filmmaker Jack McCoy and his career changed gears after the two connected.

Bringing surfing alive on screen

Mr Hoole returned to Australia to make the Gold Coast his home and embark on a film-making career.

"Basically, without a script or the Indiana Jones formula, we decide we're going to make a film," he said.

"There was no script and no budget."

"We bought the camera and we just started filming the surfing that we saw around us," he said.

"It was just the simplicity back in those days that made it so unique.

"It was purely to make a film that was shown in the theatre on the big screen and that's when it came alive."

Mr Hoole and Mr McCoy made history when they made surfing film Tubular Swells.

"Tubular Swells was the first feature film made in Queensland, it was more incidental because there was no film industry up there," Mr Hoole said.

"All the processing and sound mixes were done in the facilities of Sydney, but the film was actually made in Mermaid Waters."

They followed Tubular Swells with Storm Riders, starring surfers like Mark Richards, Wayne 'Rabbit' Bartholomew, Gerry Lopez, Wayne Lynch and Tommy Carroll.

Mr Hoole said he was glad of the opportunity to document surfing history "because after all, we were just living our surfing dream".

Topics: surfing, history, lifestyle-and-leisure, human-interest, photography, burleigh-heads-4220, mermaid-waters-4218, byron-bay-2481, southport-4215

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