Tribute to true waterman
Shocked mates bid goodbye
LIFELONG surfer Robert Henderson had a reputation for paddling into fearsome waves aged in his 70s.
That’s why his death two weeks ago is still hard to accept according to mates to gathered for the 73-year-old’s funeral on Monday.
“A tiny wave, that’s what brought him undone,” said mate Peter Remond, 72, during Robert’s wake at the Rainbow Bay Surf Life Saving Club.
Robert broke his neck in June at Currumbin, a wave he surfed “like clockwork” for 30 years, in small waves on an average Wednesday morning.
The wipe-out sent Robert to Princess Alexandra Hospital where he would spend the last four months of his life with his family by his side.
Peter said he couldn’t believe his friend’s accident because the pair had been surfing huge waves with their sons off remote Indonesian islands less than a year earlier.
“In November, we went on a father-son surfing trip to the Mentawai Islands,” he said.
“At one stage he was surfing 10 foot (3m) waves. We thought we were doing well until we got caught by a fivewave set; we thought that was the end.
“They had boats out everywhere trying to get to us but we were stuck in the middle of a reef. But then he goes and gets wiped out on a two-foot wave. Unfortunately, as we get older our reflexes are a little bit slower.”
Robert was among the first members of the Maroubra Surfing Association in 1964, one of the oldest boardrider clubs in Australia, and his friends joked they were the original “Bra Boys”.
The news of Robert’s injuries sent shockwaves up and down the coast and devastated his wife Marilyn and son Shane, who were by his side almost every day in hospital.
Friends like Jack Dennett, 72, made regular trips from Sydney to be with the mate he said was a superb waterman.
“We’re just dumbfounded he’s gone, it was hard to see someone so fit for his age fading away,” Jack said.
While Robert was a regular site surfing at Currumbin, Jack explained he wasn’t much of a talker on the water.
“Peter (Redmond) would ask him why he never spoke to anyone out here, and then Robert would say: ‘I’m out here to surf Peter, I’m not out here to direct conversation’,” Jack said.
“Most people didn’t really know about his past – he was a very good sailor, fishermen, and good surfer.”