Lots has been said about this character over the years. NC has commented that its almost a rite of passage for surf journos to write about him at some stage. I came across this version and thought a few others of you might enjoy it as well. I especially like the early Bondi reflections. I know its long Scotty but I think you will like it




Bondi Beach wasn?t always a beautiful place for beautiful people. Back in the 50s and 60s it was ****sville - a working-class catchment for crims, deviants, wastrels, the unemployed... and surfers. It was a place that smelt of sewage and saltwater, a seaside slum of zero population growth. Kevin Brennan was a classic Bondi boy - tough, damaged, lost. Dad shot through early. Mum drank. Her boyfriends monstered the boy. ?Troublesome, jockey-sized, with an Irish pugnacity, an improper regard to discipline, a feral cunning and admirable deftness in the surf,? as decribed by surfing commentator Peter Bowes, Kev?s tiny frame and mega-bonce saw him dubbed ?The Head?. And with his home-made haircut, busted teeth and appetite for danger, he was the archetypal delinquent for whom the Bondi surf was both babysitter and battlefield. But Kevin Brennan was a genius on the water. Despite his size, the boy?s ability to control the heavy boards of the era seemed effortless. He switched stance at will, performed floaters and re-entries 15 years before they even had names, and was always perfectly balanced, eyes intent on the breaking line, feet feeling out a path. Back on land, Kev?s footing was less assured. ?Legend has it Kevin could pick your pocket, suck your dick and betray you within the hour,? says Damien Lovelock, frontman of the Celibate Rifles and author of their 1994 song ?Kev the Head? and an as-yet-unfilmed screenplay on Brennan. ?Australian surf culture took off through these tough kids locked out of home. Kevin was one of them - a lone boundary rider travelling an uncharted interior landscape.?

Even before he hit manhood Kev was mythic. There were tales of him being caught breaking into the Bondi Boardriders clubhouse, bashed senseless, pissed on, then tied up by his thumbs to bake in the south-Bondi swelter all day. But Kev could take a beating - and give one. Maybe his pre-surf breakfast gave him the balls - reported by his friend Bowes to have been double milk and two raw eggs, a teaspoon of vanilla essence and a slab of ice cream whipped up hard with an overripe banana and a squirt of cream, all chased with a Cherry Ripe. But myth merged with legend in 1965. It was the year the Beach Boys outsold the Beatles and over 30,000 Sydneysiders packed Bondi Beach to see the 140cm, 42kg Kevin Brennan easily win both the juniors and men?s divisions of the NSW State titles on a borrowed board with a busted fin, beating the cream of Australian surfing including future world champ Midget Farrelly. Suddenly Kev was front-page news the twintitle feat had never been achieved before (to this day it has never been replicated) - but photos of that day show the Head clutching a trophy almost as big as he is with a look in his eyes, not of pride or joy but of distrust and foreboding. That was Kevin Brennan?s day in the sun. Although his snap-turns at Noosa and Burleigh found fame via the 1967 film Hot Generation, Kev fell into the drug scene, flipping out on LSD and getting himself hooked on heroin. While Midget made a motza, Kev crashed and burned - the first casualty of Australian surfing. In the years that followed Kev Brennan lapsed into lore. The last sighting of the Head was of a shambling figure in red Speedos and trenchcoat walking into huge storm surf at Bondi with his Volley OCs still on, dropping in, wiping out.

What a good read that was ..... cheers mate

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thePup said..
What a good read that was ..... cheers mate

you can't read past 20 words pup wtf,Ted thanks

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asea said..

thePup said..
What a good read that was ..... cheers mate

you can't read past 20 words pup wtf,Ted thanks

asea said..

thePup said..
What a good read that was ..... cheers mate

you can't read past 20 words pup wtf,Ted thanks

Get a large thin skinned melon up you Prezzo

Pup this topic was online you just fkd it now fk off

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asea said..

Pup this topic was online you just fkd it now fk off

Fellas there is a surf rage thread already - this one was about good times in the past

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Ted the Kiwi said..

asea said..

Pup this topic was online you just fkd it now fk off

Fellas there is a surf rage thread already - this one was about good times in the past

hahaha ..... ahhhhhhhh Prez Asea is bringing the heat yeeeeeeehaaaaaaaa time you slapped your coin on the table for a sweet Coffs Harbour Board Prez Asea

Pup why would i do that i'll be on you'rs

Lacey - I think you were talking about a manoeuvre that we called "bicycling" back in the early '60's. The "Head" was an expert at it. Another of his innovations?

He also tried his hand at..was going to say shaping..but prob more like learning at..Keen - Davis Surfboards 1962 - 1964

16 Market Street North Sydney
116 Mount Street, North Sydney
Phone: 92 0738.

In 1962 Warren Cornish, along with other Bondi surfers Kevin Brennan, Frank Pickford and Mick De La Rue, answered an add for experienced workers, despite having only previously repaired dings.
Other employees included Gordon Merchant.

I nearly got a stitch.
Nice read Ted

They'll be talking about this modern day Bondi local for a long time.
Dimitri is former KGB and been living in Bondi for 12-15 years (guess).
A Brazilian guy backed himself and once challenged Dimitri.
Dimitri won, cut off the Brazo's ponytail and climbed up a light pole and sticky taped it 20ft up.
It's still there.
Here's a more recent story and funny too.
www.dailytelegraph.com.au/nocookies?a=A.flavipes

a couple of clips and a few photos here!



http://encyclopediaofsurfing.com/entries/brennan-kevin

?

Australian teenage surfing genius from Bondi Beach; the 15-year-old winner of both the juniors and men's divisions of the 1965 New South Wales State Titles. "Known as 'The Head,' due to his disproportionately large noggin," Aussie surf writer Wayne Golding noted in 2010, "he was a prodigy who could surf the pants off riders twice his size and double his age."

Brennan stood 4' 9" and weighed 94 pounds when he entered the 1965 NSW state titles, and on his way to a double victory beat the cream of Australian surfing, including Midget Farrelly and Nat Young. Brennan also rode beautifully at Noosa and Burleigh in Paul Witzig's 1967 surf film Hot Generation, snap-turning where other riders maintained trim, and tucking his small frame into the tube almost at will. The section in Hot Generation featuring Brennan and smooth-as-silk regularfooter Bobby Brown, riding alone in sparkling blue waves at Tallows, has become a touchstone for Aussie surfers of a certain age.

Early adulthood found Brennan addicted to heroin and petty crime, and he died in 1975 of an overdose in a King's Cross nightclub. He was 24. Australia's Surfing Life magazine in 1992 named Brennan as one of the country's "Fifty Most Influential Surfers"; a surf art show was held in Brennan's honor at the Bondi Pavilion in October 1997.

^ thanks for the clips PH.
And good post Ted.