Bob Hosking is a successful businessman by day, but he speaks more like a surfer than an entrepreneur. His speech, typically laconic and laid-back, notably lifts a tone when he talks about his main passion – surfing. Bob won’t be drawn on his achievements in the world of business: “I just walked a lot of streets and got educated in the school of hard knocks,” is his only comment on the subject. Bob entered Phillip Island’s surfing scene in its formative days. During family holidays at Newhaven in the late 1950s, he joined the Woolamai Beach Surf Life Saving Club as a cadet. It was there he met ex-State swimming champion Dave Fincher in 1960/61. They started hanging out and surfing whenever they could.
In 1964, when Bob was 17, a few newcomers from Williamstown hit the scene. “We got a lot of pushover from the Williamstown/Torquay boys – there was Klemmy (Terry Klemm) who was number two man in the state and John (Jerka) Jenkins, Noel Goldsworthy and the Point Lonsdale boys. That was also around the time that Bob and his mates started the Phillip Island Boardriders Club. “Belonging to a club allowed us to compete in teams titles, and the standard of surfing really improved. Ross Stansfield-Smith and Bruce Richardson, who were also State swimmers, came onto the scene around that time, about 1964,” he recalls.
“Sometimes, we’d save a life and the people would give us some money and we’d live off that for a week or two.”
“Dave had his licence, and used to take me to the Island in the school holidays. Mum would lend him the car because it would save her the trip!” Bob laughingly recalls. “We’d stay in the Nissen Hut at Cape Woolamai. This was around 1960, and we’d all started surfing on the foam boards that had just come in.”
During winter holidays, the gang took a few road trips to Sydney, staying in the North Steyne Surf Club accompanied by Phillip Island surf legends Dogga (Graeme) Luke and Yardo Johnson. Their enthusiasm for their home breaks encouraged surfers they met to venture south to see what the fuss was all about. “I remember surfing Woolamai in around 1961 and the best surfer there at the time was a guy called Brian from Manly who was working in Korumburra. He later died while surfing Fairy Bower in Sydney – that was pretty tragic.”
Phillip Island was never crowded in those days. The few surfers stuck together, sharing cars and petrol money and staying rent-free in the Nissen Hut that served as the clubhouse for lifesavers at Cape Woolamai.
“We would do patrols to earn our keep. Sometimes, we’d save a life and the people would give us some money and we’d live off that for a week or two. We all played footy for Phillip Island during the early 1970s and I also worked at the Koala Restaurant in Cowes pulling milkshakes during the holidays.” His footy mates like John Townsend and Kenny Emselle, who played for the Melbourne Football Club, named him ‘Hippo’, short for Hippocrates. “It was something to do with the Hippocratic Oath, about ethics and proper conduct…” explains Bob. >
Dave Fincher looms large in Bob’s surfing memories. “He led the pack as he was quite aggressive in big surf. In the early sixties, he and Dogsy [Dogga Luke] discovered all the waves on the other side of Phillip Island and started surfing breaks like Flynn’s and Right Point.” He clearly recalls the day he met lifelong friend Bobby Matthews. “We couldn’t get over this guy who kept coming down the beach with all these tall chicks! We thought: ‘Who is this guy?’ He had a car, so Bruce Richardson (who led the Phillip Island pack then) and I rang him to ask for a lift one weekend. We got the ride, but he didn’t bring the chicks!” laughs Bob.
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