Meet the locals: 'Kenno'; Crescent Head's source of surf culture

I find Kenno sitting in the sun with a cup of tea, looking at the garden through well-worn shirts hanging out to dry.

He's just ended a call on the landline. It's likely someone needing to drop off a board with a fresh dint from the weekend.

The radio is on, loud.

I'm worried I'm interrupting a peaceful afternoon break after putting down the tools in the workshop.

But when I tell Kenno I'm here because I'd like to write a story about him, I'm quickly assured he'd like nothing more than to tell his story, but more than that, to teach me about the history of surfing.

"There's a lot of history in surfing," he said.

There is a book inside he borrowed from a friend he'd like to show me.

"I'll tell you how good it is, I dropped it on my foot and smashed my big toe. That's how thick it is."

So over the next two hours I listen and learn, and become envious of the life lived by Kenno.

After a chat in the sun, I'm invited inside to to look at photographs exhibited on living room walls like a gallery.

There's memorabilia stacked on shelves, and examples of the first surfboards made.

It's a museum of memories and history.

Robert "Kenno" Kennerson fixed his first surfboard at 12-years-old and has been repairing them ever since.

At 80-years-old, that's a lot of boards repaired.

But he hasn't just mended boards, he's made them. Not to mention rode a number of waves around the world on all shapes and sizes.

"I've surfed the lot," he said.

Mr Kennerson was part of the first generation of Malibu riders in Australia.

"I was a grommet when they came out," he said.

Then he jumped on the short boards when they entered the scene in the late 1960's.

The first generation of surfers and shapers were only a few years older than Mr Kennerson.

He was around, not only witness the making of the history we know today, but was part of its creation.

Born in 1943, Mr Kennerson was part of the early days of surf culture in Australia.

Mr Kennerson grew up in Collaroy, Sydney, in a house where the back gate was the beach.

So it's no surprise that as a young teenager his beach outings involved a board.

"It was just a natural thing to be a surfer," he said.

"It was something in my blood."

Mr Kennerson recalls meeting a boy in high school who surfed and thinking he better try it out, too.

He even grew up with Australian surfer Nat Young.

"We lived next door to each other... we're still great friends."

He surfed his way through school and when his studies were complete, he got a job shaping boards and saved up enough money to buy a plane ticket to visit the surf breaks he'd seen on the pages of a magazine.

"The first surf mag came out and then I wanted to go to Hawaii," Mr Kennerson said.

"So I saved up and ended up getting there when I was 21, which was in 1965."

Along with a bunch of mates, Mr Kennerson travelled to California by boat, and then onto Hawaii with a six month visa.

This was the start of a lifestyle that went shape, save, surf, repeat.

Like a lot of 20-something-year-olds, Kenno didn't necessarily have a plan.

"I didn't know what I wanted to do. You get to a certain age where you go away, you go surfing again somewhere, you go to the states or Hawaii," he said.

After Hawaii he began working for Gordon Woods in Brookvale.

"That was in 1966. I remember that 'cause that's when decimal currency came out."

Mr Kennerson stayed working for the Sydney manufacturer for two years before setting off on another overseas stint.

"I pulled the pin and went to Africa for about 15 months.

"I made boards over in South Africa, surfed J-Bay and all that," he said.

Mr Kennerson said he and friends were probably the first Aussies to surf the famous South African break.

He was awarded 'runner up' in the first comp hosted in Africa and continued travelling the world "chasing competitions".

"I wasn't a world leader but I could get into finals," he said.

After Africa, Mr Kennerson jumped on another boat and went to Europe for the summer.

"I surfed France, Portugal and Morocco..."

In 1979 Mr Kennerson travelled to Bali inspired by the 'Morning of the Earth' film (the documentary is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year) which lead to three month stay, surfing throughout Indonesia.

He lived a free-spirited life, finding new surf breaks until the money ran out.

"Back then we never had insurance. We just bought a ticket and went and had a fist full of dollars."

"You never thought about where you were going and what you did, or if something happened," he said.

Mr Kennerson returned home again at 30-years-old.

Back in Australia he found himself in Brookvale, Sydney, where he began working for Shane Surfboards.

"We did 100 to 150 surfboards a week for department stores," he said.

"Those were big numbers in the 70s."

Mr Kennerson suspected "Shano" made the most boards at the time.

"He had good orders and good PR...[the surfboads] were going out of stores left, right and centre."

The pair used to shape all boards by hand.

Mr Kennerson recalls these days as "hard work" with late nights and a time he had to be "nasty" as a boss who managed a team of shapers.

Mr Kennerson first discovered shaping boards at a young age and made his first wooden surfboard in his shed using a home-kit.

"You could buy a kit and I knew a beach inspector who was a carpenter, come builder...and he worked for Gordon Woods who I got the board off," he said.

"Then foam came in around the early 60s which made it easier and you got another kit."

"It's all changed now with the introduction of machines," he said.

The owner of Shane Surfboards had property in Crescent Head, and with the business doing well in Sydney, he decided to expand.

"Shano had an idea that he could make surfboards in Crescent and he had a bit of property...he shifted half the concern up here," said Mr Kennerson.

In 1973, Mr Kennerson was asked to 'man the new ship' on the Mid North Coast.

"So I had to run the business up here as well as [manage] ten guys, to make 50 to 60 boards a week," he said.

"I more or less ran the business for Shano [who] was in Sydney still."

Having surfed much of the east coast "from Narrabeen to Noosa", Mr Kennerson had visited Crescent Head to surf the point on occasion and enter a competition or two.

He was more than happy to make the move.

For the next five years they continued making boards from Crescent Head, during which time they began building catamarans, skis and more.

"You name it, we did it," said Mr Kennerson.

While the successful business was keeping him busy, it didn't stop Mr Kennerson taking over the contract as the local mailman in Crescent Head.

"In the middle of all that I became the mail contractor, delivered the letters out here," he said.

"I had that for 30 years, as well as making boards and going surfing."

He got even more involved in the community in 1973 when he helped start The Crescent Head Malibu Club and stayed president of the club for decades.

With this he started the Malibu Classic surf competition in 1989, which continues to run annually.

"It has got bigger and bigger throughout the years," said Mr Kennerson who has since handed the president title over the Roger "Fergo" Ferguson.

Mr Kennerson said he's had a good life, and it's not over yet.

"I've had a good lifestyle and ticked all the boxes," he said.

"I've done everything I wanted to do."

While Mr Kennerson says he can no longer stand up on a surfboard, he's still a surfer.

"I still know in my head I can do it. You don't lose it, it's just the body has run out of puff."

These days Mr Kennerson does most of his socialising from home.

You can find him in his shed surrounded by boards that need his expertise, sipping on a 'cuppa' in the garden, or answering his landline that rings off the hook.

He is welcoming to visitors.

"I get to meet a lot of people without even having to go to the beach."

As a traveller at heart, Mr Kennerson enjoys living in Crescent Head because of its transient nature.

"You meet a completely diverse group of people from everywhere living in Crescent," he said.

While he is open to meeting new people, nostalgia plays a big part in Mr Kennerson's life with people he grew up with dropping in every once in a while to "tell stories and reminisce".

Family is important to Mr Kennerson who is visited often by his daughters and grandchildren.

"I'm happy with this home...I don't want to go anywhere else."

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