1960 - present

Cheyne Horan holds a special place in Bondi’s surf history, becoming a force in international surfing, achieved 12 professional tour victories and 7 top-five year-end finishes in an impressive 30-year career. Six years after leaving the tour, he won the World Masters Championship in France.

Horan, the son of a speed skater, was raised by his single mother and moved from Petersham to Bronte as a 10-year-old, then to Bondi at 13. His surfing career did not start until he arrived at Bronte, but Horan was already a capable skateboarder by then. The surf soon became a skill, then a life passion and career.

He endured the sewage-polluted waters of Bondi before attitudes to the environment changed – helped by events such as the Poo March and the Turn Back the Tide concert. He remembers surfing with the Bondi crew among a sea of brown sludge, many of them contracting serious illness such as Hepatitis C. It is not surprising that he marched alongside Peter Garratt to help change attitudes towards ocean dumping of sewage and industrial waste.

In 1974, Horan won the NSW Juniors title and was the Australian schoolboys champion in 1976. That year, he also won the Australian Open Skateboard Championship, putting him in the unique position of holding skate and surf championships at the same time.

Selection for the pro tour started Horan’s 30-year competitive surfing career. Despite his fame and 12 pro-tour victories, Horan always returned to Bondi, working with the South Bondi Board Riders and ITN (In the Nude surfers), becoming somewhat of a hero and mentor.

Horan was also a key figure at a time of change in the skate world, when wheels evolved from rubber to urethane, and the surf and skate industries were cross-pollinating. His experimentation with surf fins and his establishment of a surf school at Surfers Paradise gave him a career long beyond the pro circuit. Horan was honoured with a place in the Surfing Hall of Fame in 1986.

Courtesy Cheyne Horan and Tracks Magazine.