Wayne Lynch and Gail Cooper named number 1 at Surfing Victoria's  Top Ten Men and Top Woman Modern Surfers at 50 year Anniversary in Torquay.

 

Fifty years to the day when Hawaiian and Californian surfers  were at Torquay Surf Life Saving Club for an  international carnival and rode their Balsa Boards in a display that became a catalyst to modern surfing in Australia, Surfing Victoria have recognized their top ten surfers of the modern 50 year era.

As an adjunct to the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne, this carnival took place with the final weekend being the December 2nd weekend of 1956 and quite a few people who were present at that weekend fifty years ago relived their memories at Saturdays function which included a board riding display on the craft over this 50 year modern period.

Numerous distinguished and memorable surfers attended, too many to name them all, but special mention must go to Simon Anderson who came down from Sydney to participate and appropriately represent the Thruster surfboard at the display.

In front of a packed house of over 400 at Surfworld Museum during the evening, the final top ten men and top woman  announced highlighted the incredible quality of surfers who have evolved out of the surf rich state of Victoria over this 50 year period.

Like all top ten listings, the names and orders would differ among most people and the list that was eventually agreed upon by the final selection panel actually did not match any of their own personal listings!

But it is an agreed listing that was achieved through an extensive and well thought through process that has delivered an outstanding result.

The evening was extremely well received and possibly in a decades time another top ten from the sixty year era will be announced and with all the outstanding present talent surfing in Victoria hopefully it's a list of entirely new faces who have excelled at the sport!

The listing, in order,  is as follows -

 

Number One Woman - Gail Cooper (Lorne)

Men's

1. Wayne Lynch (Lorne)

2. Tony Ray (Jan Juc)

3. Glyndyn Ringrose (Phillip Island)

4. Greg Brown (Lorne)

5. Troy Brooks (Jan Juc)

6. Gary Taylor (Flinders)

7. Maurice Cole (Warrnambool)

8. Rod Brooks (Torquay)

9. Terry Wall (Torquay)

10. Peter Troy (Torquay)