I joined the Kirra Surfriders Club in 1981 with a girl called Teresa Davies, I met her surfing at Kirra one day, she said "Hey do you want to join the club. its a great club, lots of fun". So I joined.
The Kirra club was always a very social club; we had lots of kegs and gatherings.
The guys would look for any excuse for a keg. We had lots of contest, all over the Coast; sometimes we would go down the coast looking for waves.
At times there were so many people in the club, contest would start at 6:30am and would not finish until dark, a long day, especially if the club contest was held at back Fingal.
Once we had a contest at Hastings Point I can remember the waves were unreal just like Kirra on its best day. Which is rare to get that spot like Kirra, but it does happen, anyway that day it was 4-6' clean and dredging, it was really sus getting out jumping off the rocks.
I can remember Sam Watts and "Scat" weren't too keen to go out but with a bit of assistance from guys like Scott Oakes and a few of the other guys they were really stoked when they did go out.
They were so young, when I look back and think about it. They were pretty gutsy for grommets.
The club was like a big family; everyone was always looking out for each other.
The women's division back in the early 80's was always very competitive, Serena Townend and Donna Couch were standouts.
In the late 80's early 90's so many young girls came into the club giving it a boost with new energy. The club was a very strong club as more and more girls joined the club and the guys were always very supportive towards the girls, which was a great attraction to the young guys, as Kirra consisted of so many nice girls like Cherese Scammell, Billy O'Toole whose auntie Carol Charlton was one of the first women to join the club in the mid 1960's Simone, Kylie Matherson, Vicky Burton, Tami Rand, Kelly Flynn, Daniel and Lisa Hamilton from Ocean Shores, they travelled all the way up to Kirra from Ocean Shores for the club comps which was a big effort. Debbie Long-Phillips put a lot of time into the club in mid 1980's, Debbie and Poe (Paul Cross) were the two best judges, the club had always reached high averages at all the Teams and State events.
Trudy Todd spent some time in the Kirra club, before changing to Snapper; Trudy had big dreams, which she has gone on to achieve in her career.
Our presentation nights were pretty radical with a lot of raging, everyone forgot what club you were in that night and there was no rivalry until the next day.
Maybe some of the young guys had there first taste of beer on those nights, I am sure they weren't too good on Sunday morning but at least no one called for a club round after preso night.
One year I became Vice President it was an honour, Scammell used to keep the noise down at the meetings and hold things together a lot, Mrs Peterson was always a very big supporter of the club taking time out to help give out trophies and supporting the Juniors with money and a free surfboard each year to the most up and coming junior.
In 1984 I received the most improved surfer in the club, Kirra gave me a lot of support and encouragement and later that year I won the Kirra Open Women's Classic.
Some of my other results were: Kirra Open Women's Club Champ-1985 and 1986. The most prestigious of all was the Peter Evans trophy, for the club's most outstanding surfer in the club as well as competing in contests outside club comps for 1985-86 season.
I can still remember receiving the trophy at Greenmount Surf Club, it was a great honour as some of the guys on the trophy were exceptional surfers, I received this award in front of Terry Fitzgerald who was with Wayne Deane at the presentation, it was such a buzz as Terry Fitzgerald was one of the all time legends of surfing in Australia.
I have had many great memories of the Kirra Club, like when the time I received Life Membership in 1990 and became the 1st Women's Life Member In 1991 my son Jimmi Deane was born and then my life changed. I became a mother and a wife, my husband Wayne is a life member and founding member of Snapper Rocks and I am a life member of Kirra. Who knows what club Jimmi and Noa will be in if they choose to be surfers - Kirra or Snapper?
I would like to dedicate this story on Kirra SurfRiders to John Charlton. Without John Kirra would not have been the first Surf Riders club.
My most funny,memorable, best, insane, surf contest, experience,party etc. in Kirra Surfriders Club was when we went down to Byron Bay for a surf with a lot of the Kirra guys and we booked into 'The Great Northern Hotel' which was owned by Peter Burke (who was one of the Aussies who went to Hawaii in 1960) at that stage there was a craze called bottle top flicking, sometimes they could be flicked an incredible distance.
We were on the balcony of the hotel and someone flicked a top, you wouldn't believe it, the cops were driving by at that moment and it hit the car.
The cops were straight into "Burkey' and told him to either throw us out or they would close the pub down. Once again the Kirra boys had created another first.
Colleen Deane