Any given Easter, you can find the founding fathers of Australia’s oldest surf brand sitting in a purpose-built, two-metre by two-metre box.
If there are waves at Bells Beach, Doug ‘Claw’ Warbrick (82) and Brian ‘Sing Ding’ Singer (81) will barely leave their “plywood palace” over the course of 10-12 hours.
Family, friends, Rip Curl staff and surf industry types will drop in and out throughout the Bells Beach Pro, as will a steady stream of soup, sandwiches and drinks.
But Warbrick and Singer will stay put. More than happy on a pair of office chairs, with pen and paper, a TV on a card table, a water cooler and not much else. No insulation, no surround sound, no worries. Just a pair of permanent fixtures at the world’s longest-running surf contest, watching every single heat from a viewing box set up and pulled down every tournament – sitting on the Bells boardwalk between the crowded stands and rolling breaks.
“Well, I missed the first one,” Warbrick deadpans when asked why he and Singer don’t take up a more comfortable seat in the VIP or athletes’ areas.
“I can’t recall why. They moved the date back in 1961 [the first Bells ‘surf rally’ was actually held a year later than first planned on Australia Day, 1962], I imagine that caught me out.
Doug ‘Claw’ Warbrick, in the purpose-built Bells Beach viewing box he and fellow Rip Curl co-founder Brian Singer watch every heat from every year.Credit: Cait Miers/World Surf League
“I came down in 1963, and both Brian and I surfed in the event in 1964 because it was a selection trial for the world championships that year.
“We might have missed a day or two here or there over 60-odd years. But this here, this is our happy place. It’s a palace compared to sitting out in the open in bad weather. You’re out of the wind, you’re not getting sunburned.
“We’ve got it live in front of us and the TV as well to watch the replay. I used to write down my scores and judge it personally as well, because I was also a judge on tour, but I haven’t done that for a while. The current judges get it right so often now, I don’t need to debate their scoring, even if it is part of the fun.
“Those [WSL] judges might be the only ones with a better view than us in here. But what more do we need?”
Doug Warbrick and Brian Singer together in 2019.Credit: Rip Curl
Singer could do without the interest if we’re being honest.
Friday’s shortened day one at this year’s contest presents the chance for photos and an interview. And Singer, never a huge fan of such things, takes his chance to take off. There’s no more surfing to watch after all, today at least.
It’s probably to be expected as well given the summation he once gave of Rip Curl’s founding with Warbrick in 1969 – “we were just looking for a quid to fund our next surfing holiday”.
The iconic brand and sponsor of the Bells Beach Pro since 1973 was sold to Kathmandu for $350 million six years ago.
Singer has long enjoyed telling an origin story that begins around a campfire on the sands of Bells. Warbrick loomed out of the shadows wearing a tartan dressing gown, bearing a tin of baked beans for cooking in the fire’s ashes.
“I don’t know about the dressing gown,” Warbrick counters. “But the baked beans, well they’re a good energy source aren’t they? Perfect for surfing in winter.”
Bells at its coldest is winter surfing defined. And those “evil, freezing cold winds” can strike up smack bang in the middle of summer, so the Rip Curl boys turned their attention to crafting surf wetsuits along with boards by 1970.
Until that point, Victorian surfers donned old woollen football jumpers to fight off hypothermia in the 12-degree waters.
“I actually had one of those white cricket vests and the wool knots up really well and shrinks tight to your body for a bit of warmth,” Warbrick chuckles.
Rip Curl co-founder Brian “Sing Ding” Singer poised on a little Lorne Point peeler in 1965.Credit: Courtesy The Rip Curl story
“You would also get these big old plastic garbage bags. Cut a hole in the bottom for your head, a couple more for your arms, and you’d put that on under your jumper for an extra insulation layer.
“Oh, that would chafe your arms, though, anywhere that was exposed to the edges of the bag would just get shredded.”
On behalf of all surfers across the southern half of Australia, a sincere thanks to Warbrick, Singer and co. for developing wetsuits with the flexibility to ride a wave. From a Torquay garage in which Warbrick shaped four boards a week, while Brian did “the shittiest job in the world” of sanding and making fins in the backyard, Rip Curl and surfing have transformed into multi-million (and billion) dollar operations.
The Bells Beach Pro has endured throughout and delivered some of surfing’s most iconic scenes. Warbrick knows the question is coming, but guffaws anyway.
Highlights? Even if it is a bit much to be boiling six decades of surfing down into a sound bite?
“1981 with Simon Anderson on the thruster board [the three-fin design first debuted at Bells, which went on to become industry standard], that’s hard to go past,” Warbrick says.
“Every year is a special victory for someone, but that was special for everyone given the impact Simon’s board and surfing had. We’ve certainly tried, but we haven’t improved on his design have we?
“That was probably the second-biggest surf we’ve had for Bells, second only to 1965. That was a proper-Hawaiian-sized year where we had 20-foot, gigantic waves, that was a great year too.
“Mark Richards winning four Bells on boards he shaped mostly himself. There was Mick [Fanning] beating Kelly [Slater] in 2012, that’s one of the great finals.
“And I love watching all the girls too, someone like Steph Gilmore. Over the years, the girls have proven they’re just as good at surfing Bells as the boys.
“There’s always a good show to watch, put it that way.”
When Bells comes back to the party with some more waves, the show will go on.
