Clive Barber African Vibrations
The first time i heard of Clive Barber was in the Godfreys house in Seal Point- they have a poster from his surf film ‘African Vibrations’ on their wall, the film itself has been lost in the ether, the reels lying somewhere between here and Australia. I have since seen, and surfed Clive Barber shapes all over South Africa, during the Rolling Retro event in 2009 a wave presented itself to me and im still not sure what happened: check the photo in the gallery below by Winston Kletter for more of his work click here…
I met Clive through Bruce Gold years later, he was fighting for his health, after a lifetime of surfboards and their associated health risks his body was packing in. He had a few surfboards left that he had made, Bruce described the one to me: he said it  was a surfboard- that looked nothing like one, and that i had to try ride it. I bought it on the spot and felt even better for it knowing the money was going toward hospital bills- but Clive was going to make it, originally it was going to remain unsurfed and hopefully on auction at a future Rolling Retro event. I was having all kinds of dreams like setting up a fund to help all the legends of South African surfing like Clive and Bruce Gold- to help look after their health needs after a lifetime dedicated to surfing and the lifestyle- wholly unrealistic but still a dream of mine none the less.
So i took the Barber for a ride…
…and she had so much glide- i cant help but keep riding on her…
When Clive finally ‘dropped his body’ as Bruce loves to say, The Barber had ridden all kinds of waves, and  even become a quad. His son Craig approached me online about buying it when i was in Norway a month ago. The sweetest irony being it now is actually the only board i have to ride!  There’s a lesson here somewhere but back to the story: Clive Barber not only made one of South Africa’s first surf movies, he was also an intrepid photographer and traveller who documented his journey around Australia as can be seen in the gallery below there are many iconic images from Byron bay to Mauritius, and all over South Africa my favorites are the one’s of old Seal Point and Jeffreys bay…
A few weeks ago i saw Angie Knight posted on Clive’s Facebook page  some notes she had printed out that were from a blog i wrote that has been since deleted- from my first surf on The Barber check it out below with a bunch of other images that tell their stories for themselves…
also check out Garth Robinson’s work Surf Art Jeffreys bay for more iconic imagery
Thanks for the article. Very sorry to hear that Clive is no longer with us.
Googled African Vibrations our of curiosity because as a teenage oz surfer travelling SA in ’72 I met Clive at Vic Bay in Easter that year. Surf was epic, the crew that arrived from Capetown were awesome and included the stars of the day, Gavin, Jonathan, Peers etc. Coming from Lennox Head where Greenough had set up residence I had crossed over to knee boards. Ventured out on the classic ten foot day, saw a hilarious incident when a guy on a plywood belly board with twin metal fins ran right over the top of Gavin who rolled over to escape personal injury but his board copped full brunt with both the metal fins jammed into the rail. It took a while to seperate the boards, while a clean up set rolled through. Gavin naturally was doing his block. Anyway back to the point, upon coming in I met Clive, a really genuine bloke I recall, mentioned the name of the movie he was making and invited me to travel up the coast to be a part of the movie, unfortunately I was going south at the time so nothing came of it. Would love to know if there was a kneeboard rider in the Vic Bay sequence. Thanks again for the blast from the past at a magic place and time.
Mark W.
Just got a Barber a mate wanted to toss out
Great story here about the early pioneers
Now just great to sit with my Whitmore
Ahah! Please indulge us…and thank you for the comment. Regards. Sean
Sorry to hear about Mr Barber. i have been out the surfing scene since an accident. Wanna sell my Classic Barber Longboard now. How old was Mr Barber?