Video of the Week – Bondi Mal Rider, 1957

By Dan Hutton on May 27, 2012 in Video

This rare footage by Vern Cooper of an Australian hollow mal (malibu) being ridden by Allan Levick was filmed at Bondi Beach in 1957.

These plywood boards were a local version, or ‘knock off’, of the balsawood and fibreglass boards first ridden in Australia in 1956 by a group of visiting American and Hawaiian surfers.

Hollow mals, sometimes called okanuis, had fins, curved rails and unlike the large toothpick paddleboards surfed in Sydney at that time, they could accelerate and turn.

A year or so later, local boardmakers had access to shipments of balsawood and were making headway with fibreglass and resin.

The hollow mals were only built for a season or two and fell quickly out of favour once fibreglass caught on.

Vern Cooper’s amazing footage features Allan Levick riding his hollow mal “Ike”. Big thanks to Allan Levick for providing the footage, Dennis Greaves for the excellent digital transfer, and Gary Crockett for posting this piece of gold on Vimeo.

By the way, there is no sound so your computer is not buggered if you can’t hear anything!