Bondi bodysurfers

Frank and Albert "Bung" Coulson (both with heads down, left of centre), James Burke (far right), Victor Coppleson and others. South Bondi, ca. 1910. Photographer: Mortimer C. "Crit" Stevenson.

South Bondi, ca. 1910. Photographer: Mortimer C. “Crit” Stevenson.

Frank and Albert “Bung” Coulson (both with heads down, left of centre), James Burke (far right), Victor Coppleson and others. The photographer “Crit” Stevenson, was Frank’s brother-in-law, and according to the “family story”, he waded out into the surf with a camera on a pole to keep it above the waves, took the shot and then went over to the nearby rocks and passed the camera to a woman waiting there. The only way I can see him doing this would be to lower the camera, set up the shot, take it and then raise it above the waves again. No Go-Pro’s on poles in those days!! The image appeared in one of the Sydney papers (possibly the S. M. H.), apparently with attention focusing on the quality of the image, rightly so. We know, as we can clearly see his face, that the man on the far right is James Burke, a great mate of Frank and Albert. The family also say that the two men just left of centre, with their heads down already on the wave, are Frank and Albert but we don’t now who is who. Frank, Albert (“Bung”) and other brother Edward (“Tibby”) were all Life Members of the Bondi Amateur Swimming Club.

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