Bob McTavish (1944-present)

 A placeholder for all things McTavish.

From our Facebook group, July 2025:

Words by Brent Flaaten

Adapted from the interview with Jaime Brisick and Bob McTavish on Soundings

Photos: Bob McTavish Collection:

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1FobyFB8x5/

“When you cast your fate to the wind, you’ve got to learn how to sail” -Bob Mctavish (and others)

   Here’s a tale as old as time and one that has been repeated throughout history by surfers worldwide. Bob McTavish was a 19 year old shaper/surfer working in Sydney, Australia in 1963 and he had surf on the brain. Walking the streets, every two-story building was pictured as a giant Hawaiian style wave. Each telephone pole, with the wires reaching to the other pole, he would picture the wires as a wave face cresting over. 

   He had seen the photos of Sunset Beach, Haleiwa and Waimea and read the terms used to describe them. “Waves the size of two-story buildings” or "swells telephone pole high”. Once he laid eyes on waves of this size, he became an obsessed young man. He had to get to Hawaii and ride these huge waves. The obsession became a reality when he learned of a group of friends who were boarding a ship next week in Sydney Harbor. Bob’s close friend, 17 year old Dave Chidgey had recently been let go from his job as a landscaper, and this made him ripe for the picking. Bob posed the question and Dave was in, they would leave in the morning aboard the SS Orsova from Sydney Harbor.

  The next day seeing the other group up on the rails waving, he devised a plan. Simple enough, he asked the ship’s officer on the gang plank if he could say a quick good-bye to his mates up top. The ship’s officer gave him 15 minutes, with that, Dave and Bob were onboard. Once onboard they were blending in as best as they could when the ship’s horn blew. The group of boys said to Dave and Bob,”You boys can sleep in our room, under our bunks”. That’s exactly what they did for the 10 day trip to Hawaii.

   The ship stopped in Tahiti and Fiji, finally arriving in Hawaii and now Bob and Dave could realize their dreams. A bartender named Patsi helped the boys obtain a fake “Exit Pass”, which they could use to disembark once all of the passengers had left. Once off the ship they hitched a ride with a Pineapple truck and found the group of Aussies they accompanied. Bob borrowed a board and caught his first wave in Hawaii at Haleiwa that afternoon. 

    Bob and Dave would sleep on pieces of cardboard on the beach at Sunset Beach, surfing all day long and really tuning into the North Shore surfer lifestyle. There was a surfer article that appeared regularly in the Sydney Sunday Herald and each week the newspaper was sent to Hawaii for distribution. About five weeks into their trip, the American Consulate's son, who was a surfer, read the article about, “two missing surfers from Australia last seen waving to their friends, aboard the SS Orsova, headed for Hawaii”. The article even mentioned the two surfers' names, “Bob McTavish and Dave Chidgey”. The surfer told his father at the US Consulate about the article and the very next morning when Bob and Dave were at Sunset Beach, the FBI showed up. The “Gray Suits” rounded the boys up and hustled them over to the local jailhouse for questioning.  Two days later at their court appearance on Christmas Eve, the judge asked,”Why do you come here to our Island?” Bob, matter of factly answered, “Well your honor, it’s your waves of course.  Why, they are the best waves in the world.”  

The judge replied, “I Understand. You know boys, I know the Duke Kahanamoku personally, and as a Christmas gift, I’m sending you boys back to Australia. If you boys come back here again legally to surf, I’ll introduce you to the Duke.”

     Bob and Dave were given two one-way tickets to Australia for their first ever flight on a Pan American airplane, accompanied by an FBI agent of course. Once in Australia Bob would face the music and be fined for the stowaway trip, by having to pay for the plane flight, which was 600 pounds. Bob borrowed the money from his friends, Ma and Pa Bendel, older surfers he knew.

   Once he paid them back he was invited back to Hawaii in 1967 to surf the Duke Invitational contest. This trip was paid for by sponsors and he actually did meet the Duke. There was a dinner at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel for the competitors and Bob was there. He was approached by Jeff Hakman and Jock Sutherland, who were both underage for drinking. Jeff asked if Bob would get them both beers, as he did this, he looked over in the corner to see the Duke. He was sitting all alone quietly, once Bob got the boys their beers, he sat down with the Duke and had a chat. They spoke all night, Duke talking about the first time he traveled to Australia and introduced the solid wood surfboards back in 1915. The Duke radiated the same stoke about surfing that he did when he first started surfing and Bob had come full circle. He  realized his dream of surfing in Hawaii and now of getting to share a special moment with the Duke.