morning of the earth anomaly

aparently quite a few different versions, received this snipet from a mate during a discussion on early 70's surf movies;

"briefly,,re MOTE vhs in UK,,this one apparently has a time code running across film,that interests me..also there is an early release one in oz(80s?),I'm after as i believe these were unedited/uncensored as the case the maybe..particulary the german hippy sequence in Bali, the original cinema release footage has the trippyhippy fellow throwing his yoyo (i mean yoyo) in his fully revealed birthday suit!..this has been removed from DVD and all later releases of VHS,with only less offensive snippet of hippy left."

will forward link to this discussion to said mate and perhaps he can answer your questions.

Mr Cutback

That is Cooney eating raw cabbage supposed to be good for you but tastes crap. I think the surfer you are refering to is Mark Warren riding a Mccoy Twin fin by the look of it. If that is the guy on the orange board you are looking at.

Open up your heart great song.

Also dig the loose Lopez section.

Brother Cutback

I dont have the movie on hand so I dont recall how all the sections link up, the tree house sequence is the surfing of Chris Brock. That is him and Cooney hanging around the tree house playing flute. Yeah he surfs with a beautiful style on that small board at lennox head. He left the city early and stayed up there which is hard to do still makes boards under his own name and surfs great.
Mark Warren I was refering to is surfing later on at Angourie with Cooney and Trealor, Steve is riding a clear board and doing some of the best surfing of the movie, pretty impressive considering he was only about 15 at the time.
I dont know if you have all the waves in the opening section that I have, but Fitz is unmistakable driving a fast backside line in a long john wetsuit. The guy i refered to as Drouyn is the one catching the sole righthander in the black iong john [ gotta love those wetsuits].
You maybe interested to know there was a magazine put out about the movie about 5 yrs ago i think Andrew Kidman was involved, you maybe able to hunt one up.

Stay Jazzed

This is what i got...
1st Russell Hughes
2nd Nat Young
3rd ??
4rd Terry Fitz
5th Nat
6th MP
7th MP
8th Paul Neilsen
9th Mp
10 MP
11th Mark Warren
12th Ian Cairns
I might have got my order wrong but thats who i think it is.

Sorry that should have been Treloar
Cheers

Hey Glenno,
You could ask Alby himself, doesn't he live up the road from you at Euangai??
I've seen him down at Scotts a few times, but was a bit embaresed/awe struck to ask him about MOTE.

Drouyn is featured in alot of movies in the early seventies, even had his own self titled movie with cool sound track, take a look at Sea of Joy in the world contest sequence at Johanna riding a yellow board. There is also plenty of footage of Ted Spencer surfing all over with Wayne Lynch, You see Ted on another couple of waves in the movie riding a blue board on a small right, it is cut with him explaining to another guy using great hand motions the turning of a board. Nat does not feature in that first section, he kicks in feeding the chickens on his farm at Byron with Cooney.

Yeah I hear what you are saying and respect the source of your informassi but personally i havent heard of a surfer from that time period by that name. All those featured in that that section were the heavy weights of Australian surfing of the time. So the must have all been around together for a contest being held in the area at the time. I always thought they were surfing at Johanna Victoria for a bells easter contest. They got alot of rubber on if it was in sydney it must be shot in winter and to have all those surfers together from all over australia was there a National titles being held in sydney? My call on Drouyn is first the style and then when paused the facial features and the lamb chops side burns{ that would give elvis a run for his money]. Fontaine would have to be a smokin hot local cat to to get a shot in a movie surfing with such high end company.

3 things!

I still believe it was Nat and not Ted Spencer or others.

I found out who the mystery guy was and confirmation that it was whale beach wedge.

Quote:
I always thought they were surfing at Johanna Victoria for a bells easter contest. They got alot of rubber on if it was in sydney it must be shot in winter and to have all those surfers together from all over australia was there a National titles being held in sydney?
This is a quote from Alby Falzon. (who made the film)
"The "lefts" at the beginning of the film with Nat, Michael Petersen, Kim "The Fly" Bradley and Mark Warren were filmed at the Wedge at Whale Beach." Source: www.morningoftheearth.net

Cool investigation work Josh there is some good slouthing going on, now we are starting to hot up. So i was always a little nervous about my call on the first surfer who I guessed at Russel Hughes. I will take that back and say the first wave ridden is The Fly Bradley, the looks the style suit I would be happy with that.
Also verified that it is the Whale Beach, that suits they were making tracks there at the time and the fly was a penninsula boy. One question what brought all those surfers from all over the country to be surfing at Whale beach that day?
But i will still stick with the call that the guy in the long arm spring suit is Ted Spencer who lived at Whale Beach, here is my theory Josh its a long shot but i will give it to you. Nat at the time was living up the coast in the middle of his country soul period as they like to call it. I reckon all these surfers had congregated for a contest of some sort, this was pre Surfabout, and Nat during this period wasnt competing, didnt jump back in until the bucks came into it. I know you got Albie on your side and who am i to argue with the big man.
I still personally believe the guy on right to be drouyn that is the only possible one that could be Nat in my opinion but he surfs different and is too squat in his style.
I am open to hear any arguement, or look at any new information.

rock steady

Mr Cutback

Just to clarify things The Fly had blond hair his style suits and lived in the area at the time, a surfer of quality local talent and early indo pioneer. (married and lives in Bali, smart guy) Another movie he can be viewed in is A Winters Tale which has a large section of surfing in Sydney shot around 1973. The Fly is surfing Little Avalon, which is the next beach south of Whale.
Just to get this straight the guy you refer to as the mystery is going right is that correct? Who Josh believes to be Nat just so we are all digging the same hole.

Get stoked

the music totally blows after a little while. i turn it down and put on my own soundtrack to watch it.

Why don't you put yourself out of your misery and
just go ask the man himself, Albie Falzon?!!!

http://www.morningoftheearth.net

......I like fights, I've dove through windows, I've eaten light bulbs, I like sharks, any kind of blood. If you gave me a gun, I'd shoot you in the face just to see what it looked like when the bullet hit

speaking of 'M.O.T.E'....


did anyone happen to notice a young Rabbit [bartholomew] in the baddy and nat at Angourie section of the movie ?

watch closely ...i think you will recognise the tube , the cuttie and the pullout ...classic rab style , on a single fin [bear in mind how young he was in 1972 !]


cheers !

ben

In regards to the music, i didn't really know what to think the first time i watched it. but now the movie wouldnt be the same without it, and the words especially go along with the film. I kinda associate each scene with the song.

Plus the treehouse sequence and the surfing after it is classic. Nice to fall asleep to after a long day of good surf.