The Godfather of Angourie Is Gone

It is with the heaviest of hearts that Stab must report the passing of one of Australia’s barnstorming true originals: David “Baddy” Treloar, The Godfather of Angourie, died this afternoon, after a session at his beloved local. 

According to witnesses, Baddy had been surfing Angourie all afternoon and was on the beach drying off, when he collapsed against a tree, and suffered what first accounts claim to be a heart attack. His passing will come as a shock to the Australian surfing community and felt especially hard in his hometown of Yamba, where Baddy was a fixture, to say the least. 

Baddy was born in 1951 and grew up in Sydney. His brother, Graeme Treloar was an Australian National Champ, and Dave followed suit, cutting his teeth at Manly through his teenage years, before moving to Angourie in the early-’70s. Throughout the late-60s and early-70s, Treloar competed, often coming up against a young, dominating Wayne Lynch, as Warshaw notes.

Many Australians and surf film junkies will recall him in Alby Falzon’s truly genre-defining film, Morning of the Earth, alongside Nat Young, Michael Peterson, Barry K., and Gerry Lopez.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KT9kjQ3LLH0

According to Warshaw,” surf moviemaker Alby Falzon visited the North Coast that same year, filming for his new project Morning of the Earth, and captured Treloar’s idyllic ocean-based existence—making boards in his vine-covered backyard, and running down a bucolic trail to ride the long, hollow, beautiful point waves at Angourie. In 1973, a shot of Treloar banking high at Angourie landed on the cover of Tracks Magazine.”

A powerful regularfoot, a talented craftsman, surfboard shaper, and more than capable fisherman—and the step-father to Yamba standouts Ben and Dan Ross—Baddy was a huge influence on the last three generations of Australian surfing. You can count Laurie Towner amongst the countless young surfers Baddy took under wing. 

Our thoughts are with Baddy’s family, Ben and Dan Ross, and the thousands of Australian surfers who were touched by him over the last fifty years. We’ll be collecting remembrances of Baddy as they come in, below.