COULD I INVITE MY OLD SURF CLUB MATES TO MAKE A CONTRIBUTION? In johnfarls.com a fair bit of narrative and Propinquitas re-collection was the norm. It centered on and around analogies and 'stories' of my wonderfull time in Avalon Beach Surf Club. My memories will have diminished, like the Chardonnay in my glass. Any of you guys like to make a little input, a photo or two. I will be most pleased for past and not so past members for their memories. I fear that the following will be one of many, it comes from the pen of one Trevor Fuller, pen? because there is no lead in his pencil. STOMPIN' AT AVALON, BEACH SURF CLUB THAT IS. Trust me, this is exactly how it eventuated. The name of the regular band was ‘Billy Jay and the Sundowners.'  Barry Feehley became their manager. The first custom built surfboat was ‘ Margaret, named after Norman H Cook's wife. On the day ‘Margaret' was delivered, the council delivered one of their freebies and we ended up with two brand new boats. The council boat was a much better wave boat and was named Norm Cook. Cookie didn't approve so we renamed it Norman Cook II. John Fuller wanted to wind up the Stomp dance asap because of minor damage occurring to the club but the committee refused as we were making an absolute fortune. I think we shut it down April, possibly May. The club paid for the club outright with heaps left over to purchase ‘Margaret' and then some. Last time I spoke to him, Don Imison was familiar with the money side of things. What follows is how it all started. Regards,   Pogo. REAL  GONE  BLONDE  HEADED  STOMPIE  WOMPIES SEASON  1962-63 In December 1962 a phenomenon called the Stomp took an unsuspecting nation by surprise and enabled us to pay off our new surf clubhouse in less than 3 years from its opening in November 1960. While I was still at school in 1957, I remember discussing with classmates, a television news item that showed American sailors on board one of their visiting ships demonstrating a weird dance that they called the Surfers Stomp. Little did I know then, in five years time it would resurface and become a dance craze that would become bigger than the Twist. Stomp dances and in some cases surf clubs, started to appear all around our sunburnt country from Emu Plains to Kalgoorlie. During the last quarter of 1962 a Rock ‘n' Roll dance became a regular Sunday afternoon event at the clubhouse. The band was excellent, but it was a struggle to attract more than 18 to 24 people, despite much publicity. The band was confident that things would eventually improve and persevered, seemingly content to play for nothing until respectable crowds started attending. It so happened that during December that year, the club was to have its first fully open surf carnival. Being a small club at the time, the carnivals' held at Avalon were restricted to clubs in our local district that extended from Warriewood in the south to North Palm Beach in the north, a total of nine beaches and surf clubs. Being an open carnival meant that many more clubs would be competing and hopefully many more spectators would be watching, so to help alleviate the added costs, a Rock ‘n ‘ Roll dance was to be held in the clubhouse after the carnival, commencing at 8 pm. At this point in time I happened to be the club's Social Secretary, so it was my responsibility to arrange everything, but my job was made simpler by the fact that one of our honorary members was radio and television personality Keith Walshe, who was hosting a television program called Teentime five nights a week from five thirty to six on ATN 7.  Keith informed the club committee that he would approach performers on his show to appear gratis at the dance. He would have the regular band from his show provide the music, also gratis and he see would see to it that his major sponsor, Coca Cola supplied all the soft liquid refreshments free of charge. All I had to do was to make up a large sign on a blackboard advertising the dance. THE AVALON STOMP Attending the Sunday afternoon disasters was a small group of surfers from Narrabeen who spent all of their time bouncing up and down in the middle of the dance floor. Nipper asked me what the ridiculous dance was that they were doing and a memory stirred. To confirm my suspicions, I asked them what it was that they were doing and I was told it was indeed, the Stomp. Some of them had recently returned from California where, I was informed, the Stomp had a huge following among the surfing set. We later on asked them if they would approve of demonstrating it at our December dance and they agreed, provided they were granted free admission and free refreshments. The deal was done. On the Friday evening before carnival day, Keith Walshe blatantly plugged the carnival and dance unashamedly on his program and, oh boy, it certainly appeared to have an effect. On the Saturday morning I set up my newly worded blackboard that read, ‘ ROCK ‘ N ‘ ROLL DANCE TONIGHT  8 PM . As I was about to enter the surfboat to assist with the laying of buoys, Barry Feehley suggested  I change the sign to read, ‘ STOMP DANCE TONIGHT ‘ and when I returned from my aquatic duties, I did just that. Shortly before the carnival began, the sandhills were covered with a sweating mass of humanity, the ladies auxiliary was doing a roaring trade flogging all sorts of goodies and nobody had trouble finding them, as they were wedged between the mountains of Coke, Fanta and Leed lemonade that were piled up as high as the tower of Babel, enabling their location to be seen from New Zealand. In the boat race our B crew was entered as the A crew and was eliminated first heat. The A crew, which I was proud to be a member of, was entered as the B crew and we won our two heats, our quarter final, our semi final and even though we were one quarter of a boat length in front when we hit the beach in the final, we unfortunately finished in the middle of a gouged out section of sand, which meant the boat had to travel another half length before grounding. Despite our protest Palm Beach was awarded first place............. What a bummer. Before we knew it, the carnival was over, the arbour light had fallen, this probably would be our last goodbye, [What in heaven's name am I raving on about; my apologies to the Seekers] the Stomp dance was underway. As a show it was a complete success. Keith Walshe was a fantastic compere, Dig Richards RJ's never sounded better and all the other artists sang their hearts out. We were expecting around 200 to 250 to attend, but ended up with just over 500. The club's dance hall was choc a block and once again the ladies aux made an absolute fortune. After an hour or so a small percentage of the crowd were attempting to copy our stompers and by 11pm at least 80 percent were going right off big time. In the locker room underneath the dance floor, the ceiling kept dropping and rising to the beat at least 3 inches. Just after pumpkin time, Bazza asked the crowd would they like this to become a regular event. The answer was a resounding YES!!!!!!!  Everyone was advised that the next dance would have to be in early January due to the Xmas/ New Year break. This was a cause for concern, but we kept our fingers crossed and hoped to attract around 250 to 300 people. The first Stomp dance of 1963 instead of attracting 300 people, attracted 650. The second, 750, the third, 800 plus, the fourth, 900 plus and finally number five topped 1100. The regular band's perseverance had more than been rewarded and they found themselves earning more than many of Australia's top entertainers. Television appearances soon followed and they were booked into Surf City, the huge Stomp centre at Kings Cross. The licensing police demanded we reduce the crowd to a maximum of 300 for safety reasons as we were still attracting 600 plus, which became the average attendance until damage to the clubhouse forced us to shut the dance down during the first half of the year. It was taking at least 24 club members each week to police the event and as quite often happens in just about any club, it was the same 24 every week. The committee was able to pay off the mortgage with more than enough money left over to purchase our first custom built surfboat. The Stomp craze lasted approximately 2 years and like the Twist before it, died a sudden death, but life carried on as normal and it wasn't too long before it all became a distant memory. Kindley submitted by Pogo Fuller, kindly allowed by his loverly partner, Gabbi.