
Biography
Dave Milnes
photographer

DAVE MILNES
I grew up near Wollongong NSW. My home beach has always been Port Kembla - one of the best beaches south of Sydney. I started board riding in 1958 on a 16 foot 'tooth pick' (old style paddle board), which you had to steer by dragging a foot over the side. One of the surf club members bought a hollow ply malibu which never got dry as everyone lined up to borrow it.
My first board was a balsa board followed by several Jackson boards. In 1963 Bob Evans (the editor of Surfing World) ran a photo competition. I submitted some photos and was highly commended. Bob then asked me to write some articles on the South Coast area. I also was writing articles for Jack Eden's Surfabout. In 1967 I went to Canada where I worked three seasons in ski resorts.
I came back to Australia in the 70s but was told that mals were gone and would never come back. I tried one of those silly little short boards but gave up and went sailing for thirty years - skiffs, dinghys, cats, sailboards, TYs and off shore yachts. Always taking photos.
In 1999 I was encouraged to get back into surfing and had a photo layout in Pacific Longboarder. This was followed by articles in Australian Longboarder. I still sell many of the early 60s B&W images. In 2004 I switched to digital photography as the quality was as good as film and now sell many colour photos.
still surfing
Vintage surfing photography, classic surfing images, old school surfing photos by Dave Milnes.

Dave Milnes
Dave Milnes was one of the Legends Of The Lens in the Switch-Foot II book released December 2009.

Dave Milnes photography showcases mostly southern Sydney surfing in the 1960's with some timeless classics of many of the surfing characters from that era.

Our personal favourites are the one of Kevin 'The head' Brennan on the nose and also some classic photos of the late Bobby Brown. Midget Farrelly is a subject of many of Dave Milnes photographs.
Dave Milnes makes an annual calendar of his photos and sells them at the local markets down south of Sydney.
If you want to contact Dave Milnes please email him at milnesdj@exemail.com.au
To enquire about these images as photographic paper or canvas prints, signed prints, please email ac@switch-foot.com
Selected Work
