Bobby Brown of Cronulla, a smooth-surfing teenage finalist in the 1964 world titles, was as quiet and unassuming as he was talented. In 1967, just after filming what would be a star turn in Paul Witzig's Hot Generation, Brown was killed in a bar fight. He was 20. The following quotes are from various sources, both print and digital.

Bobby was one of the most photogenic surfers in the world.


He was a breath of fresh air. He was a prince of a guy, the whole southside felt that way about him.


Bobby didn’t care too much about trying to emulate the popular Californian surfers. He seemed to be in a world of his own—he was a beautiful surfer on many levels; very graceful and easy to watch. He was also very quiet and polite.


I first surfed on a long "banana" board which weighed 60 pounds and was 16-feet long. I was eight years old and it took two guys help to put it in the water.


I met Bobby when he was about 11. It was the middle of winter and he was wrapped in a tracksuit two sizes too big for him, lugging a seven-foot, 40-pound surfboard down to the beach.


He learned how to surf at Wanda Beach, Cronulla, in 1959, and was taught by Brian Jackson of Jackson Surfboards, who not only sponsored Bobby but took him under his wing as an unofficial son. Brian didn't have kids of his own.


I was a member of Wanda Surf Life Saving Club for six years, [then] caught the boardriding bug. I don't knock SLSCs, though. I think they're good, but I found I was restricted to a certain area, which was getting crowded. Club activities were too restricting for a wanderer like myself.


His first major contest was at Bondi in 1962, in juniors, in some very sloppy surf. Bobby won this event and was suddenly recognized by all the top surfers of the time. From that moment on, his surfing prowess was well-known.


Another trimming expert is Bobby Brown, of Cronulla. [He] can slide through section after section with almost ridiculous ease. It is a joy to watch.


What stand outs in my memory of Bobby Brown in the early sixties, apart from his surfing, was his friendly and placid nature. If you were hanging at the beach in a group and Bobby was there, you would hardly know he was around.


He was sort of an early version of Wayne Lynch. Trying new maneuvers, driving down the coast by himself looking for surf. He had so much ability, he had his own attitude, his own style. Bobby was a free-thinker and spurned all the media fanfare.


Bobby Brown was too nice a guy to win contests.


I had decided it was time I learned to ride a proper board. Several of the surfers who frequented my home beach were prepared, if somewhat reluctantly at first, to let me struggle with their heavy boards down to the shore and try to catch a broken wave without decapitating myself. But one of the older boys not only lent me his board, he also showed me what to do with it. He was the most skilled of the surfers who visited our beach, and his name was Bobby Brown. I loved to watch Bobby Brown surf. He would flick his head and shoulder in the direction he wanted to go, and his heavy board would obediently follow. Other surfers used the same dramatic flourish, but it looked like a pose. When Bobby flicked, it seemed like the most natural thing in the world. He was a teenager who had just reached driving age and [lived] near Cronulla, on Sydney's southside. Bobby probably only loaned me his board three or four times, but on each occasion, he gave me a piece of advice. One time he waded out with me into the water and showed me how to paddle hard seaward and then jump up on the board in a parallel stance and let the momentum push me through the breaking wave. It was the coolest thing in the world, and I mastered it long before I could actually ride a wave with any conviction.


When Evo [publisher-filmmaker Bob Evans] told me that Bobby was coming with us on a surf adventure to the North Coast I was completely stoked. We got on well, and it turned out to be one of the best trips I ever had. Bobby was the star of those sessions at Angourie. He fitted right into those little tubes. Crouching low with his arms outstretched, he tore along the inside section.


I met Bobby Brown on a film trip up the north coast with Bob Evans. Also on board were Kevin Platt and Nat Young. Evo always had a keen eye for talent and style. All three surfers were very different in their approach. Nat had a distinctive Phil Edwards style at the time and was determined to move forward quickly. Kevin had a great ability to do smooth turns. Bobby was a young stylist and because of his small size was able to tuck into waves. He seemed to be constantly in the pocket.


Not long after that trip, Bobby defeated Midget to win the 1964 New South Wales Championships.


Our congratulations to Bobby Brown, of Cronulla, in taking out the NSW senior title at North Avalon last week. The 20-minute "surf-off" with Miget Farrelly put both surfers under great pressure. We note that Bobby favors spinners.


His first and greatest impression on the contest scene was at North Avalon in 1964 when Bobby and I ran a tie in the senior men’s division. There was a surf-off and Bobby won hands down with fantastic, aggressive surfing. At that time I thought he had won by using a simple maneuver, the spinner, but in later years I came to realize that aggressive and progressive style was what had really done the trick.


Robert Brown, [New South Wales] Senior Champion, has surfed around the Cronulla area for about eight years. His fluid, aggressive style is largely self-taught, although he claims inspiration from Gary Birdsall. Though small in stature, Bobby lacks nothing in determination.


- 1964 World Surfing Championships program

Bobby is at a bit of a disadvantage compared with his surfing mates who work in surfboard shops. He is apprenticed as a carpenter to his father who is a builder, and there’s not much time off from work. However, he surfs at local beaches every morning and night before and after work, and every weekend Bobby travels south for the good, uncrowded waves. If keenness ever made a good surfer, Bobby Brown will be one of the best. He is having a special board made for the [1964] World Championships.


The first quarterfinal [of the World Championships] saw some of the best surfing of the meet. Offshore winds, good right-handers, and surfers like L. J. Richards, Wayne Burton, Kevin Platt, and New South Wales Champion Bobby Brown all combined to keep the spectators on their toes. Bob Brown and Wayne Burton were delayed and arrived for the action halfway through the heat. However, they surfed to such good effect that they managed to come in second and third respectively.


Considering he was the youngest person in the [World Championships] final, and allowing for the bigness of the occasion, Bobby Brown's performance was a classic. Some of his maneuvers were dramatic and beautifully executed, and his bottom turn from behind the breaking curl was the best I have ever had the good fortune to see. Brown surfs for fun and in every ride is invariably found tight against the most critical part of the wave. By making his approach a little smoother he would undoubtedly be a better contest performer, but I would prefer to see Bobby Brown retain his more radical tendencies. Surfing would lose something if he was to become too dedicated to functionalism.


[The contest results] didn't go to his head. Bobby stayed the same—a talented surfer and very humble man.


I'm an apprentice builder, and until I finish my time, I'll confine myself to local surfs. Then I will see the world.


He was taught to shape surfboards by Floyd Smith, who established the Gordon & Smith label on the south side of Sydney in the mid-1960s.


Bobby Brown, a former state champion, looks like he is making a comeback. At Avoca last week [for the NSW state championships], he came in second place, just two points behind winner Nat Young.


The exciting new Bobby Brown Stringless model surfboard is now available. Every Bobby Brown Stringerless model will be personally shaped by Bobby Brown. It's Bold, Daring, Exciting, and Fundamental.


- Gordon and Smith Surfboards ad, Surfabout magazine, 1967

Bobby was a finalist at the 1967 Australian Titles, held at Bells; it was the last contest he surfed.


He walked into the Taren Point Hotel on a rainy day in August, had a few drinks, became involved in an argument, a glass broke, a jugular vein cut. Bobby Brown died in Sutherland District Hospital 40 hours later.


Brown, Robert Eric—August 21, 1967, at hospital, late of 31 Girrilang Road, Cronulla, dearly beloved son of Mr. and Mrs. John and Gladys Brown, and loved brother of John and Terry. Aged 20 years. In God's care.


- Sydney Morning Herald obituary, Aug 22, 1967

A 31-year-old labourer was remanded yesterday on a charge of having murdered a leading Sydney surfboard rider in a barroom fracas at Taren Point last Saturday. Mr J. Scott. S.M.. in Sutherland Court of Petty Sessions, allowed the man, Clarence Robert Tasker, of Prince’s Highway. Engadine, $2,000 bail. The dead man was Robert Eric Brown.


He goes down for a quiet drink at his local and some bastard breaks a bottle on the bar and thrusts it into his throat over nothing at all. It didn't seem right that someone so close to the sea, so identified with the ocean, would die in this way.


He was ready to go to Hawaii on honeymoon with the love of his life, Lorraine McIntyre, which would have been his first trip overseas and first time surfing the North Shore. His big-wave style was perfect for Sunset and his backhand, as seen in Paul Witzig's 

 footage, would have seen him excel at Pipeline.


A hotel bar manager told George Street North Court yesterday of a brawl at closing time during which a champion surf-board rider, Robert Eric Brown, was fatally wounded. Clarence Robert Tasker, 31, was charged with the murder. Medical evidence has been given that Brown had lacerations up to an inch deep from below his right ear across the corner of his jaw and around below his neck. Lance Desmond Cowan, bar manager of the Taren Point Hotel, said he broke up three fights in the public bar of the hotel at about 10: 05 p.m. on August 19. He said that after breaking up the first tight between Tasker and a blond youth, he saw Brown bleeding profusely from the throat. Mark Gerrard Lynch, bottle department manager of the hotel, said he went into the bar at about two minutes past ten on the night of the brawl. “Clarrie (Tasker) had a glass of beer in his hand and went to throw the liquid contents at the deceased," Mr Lynch said. Prosecuting Sergeant F. Phelan asked Mr Lynch: “What happened to the glass after the beer was sprayed?” Mr Lynch: “The glass hit the deceased’s throat.” Was it still in the defendant’s right hand?" "Yes, sir." Cross-examined, Mr Lynch agreed that Brown was in a “verbally argumentative mood.” and was the aggressor while he (Lynch) was in the bar. Kevin Holly, boilermaker of Caringbah, said Brown came into the bar with three other men and began to yell “fat bastard” at Tasker from about 15 to 20 feet away. Frederick Loveday, truck driver, of Taren Point Road, said he was with Tasker and Holly when the four men came into the bar. Loveday had an unobstructed view of the defendant and Brown, and at no time did he see Tasker strike the deceased with a glass.


Tasker was acquitted of murder in the District Court: his defense successfully argued that it was an accident. Apparently, the witnesses were too drunk at the time to shed any more light on the circumstances. Either that or they had an obscured vision of what happened. Tasker did have two prior convictions without jail time. One was for hitting a policeman over the head with a milk bottle. Neither count could be mentioned in Bobby’s case since they were seen as being prejudicial.


Bobby Brown has left us but his memory lives on. Some weeks after his death, Southside boardbuilders Floyd Smith and Brian Jackson decided to pay tribute to this little fellow who had promoted the southside of the harbor, and who had never commercialized himself. A committee was formed and, after quite a deal of deliberation, it was decided that a contest would be held in his honor at Cronulla. Competition will start Saturday, with open heats. Prizes around the $600 - $700 mark.


- ad for the debut Bobby Brown Memorial, Feb 10-11, 1968

 was released the month Bobby died; everything was changing. Very quickly it was as though he had been from an age of innocence, another era, and you can only guess how Bobby would have turned out. In our minds, he will be forever young.


[Photos: Bob Evans, Bob Weeks, John Pennings]

ORAL HISTORY: THE QUIET, BRILLIANT, TRAGIC BOBBY BROWN

Subscribe or Login

Subscribe or Login

Encyclopedia of Surfing

History of Surfing

Features

The Sunday Joint

Videos

Contests