"They’re all gonna come down one day."
A little before lunch on Friday a cliff at Bronte Beach, a short walk from BeachGrit’s Bondi HQ, collapsed into the sand, forcing the closure of the beach, the famous coastal walk and a whole lot of oowee, that could’ve been me under there from one of the greats of surf photography.
If you ever poured over a surf magazine you’ll know the name Billy Morris, a talented goofy footer who parlayed his love for the sport into surf photography, becoming noted for his work from the water with his wide-angle lens and, later, incorporating foregrounds into his land shots.
Billy Morris, who is sixty-five but doesn’t look even one day over thirty, thirty real tough years admittedly, had an existential experience on Friday given his usual sport for shooting land at Bronte was under the cliff.
Billy posted drone footage of the collapse on Instagram,
“Biggest rock collapse I’ve seen around here my entire life! I was videoing surfing from right under these rocks only a few days ago, like I have many times during the last few months and over the years. I don’t really like sitting under rock overhangs but I find myself doing it, either to get out of the sun or just find a better angle to shoot from above the ocean. There’s plenty of these everywhere around this area and they’re all gonna come down one day. I looked up above me at this one last week and thought exactly that. Timing and luck is all it is.”
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When I call Billy about he says, yeah, he sure does remember the Gracetown accident and that he’d been thinking how creepy it was to be shooting from under that overhang.
“I was standing there the other day leaning on the pipe right where the collapse was,” Billy says. “I would’ve got nailed. And I’m always coming down those stairs.”
In a statement Waverley Council wrote,
“Assessments are ongoing, but it appears sustained heavy rainfall may have contributed to the section of the cliff slipping, beneath which a stormwater drain – or culvert – ran… The culvert and a safety rail were badly damaged during the slip. A geotechnical assessment will be conducted to ensure the stability of the cliff area and to determine whether the exclusion zone needs to be extended.”
Next to the sixty-feet long collapsed cliff is a popular hang called The Cave where kids, including mine, me, everyone else, local surfers, have sheltered since forever.
Maybe not so popular next summer.
Billy Morris, meanwhile, was characteristically sanguine about his sorta brush with death. He wrecked his shoulder in a wipeout two months back and now the dang thing won’t rotate.
Hasn’t surfed since, which is a living hell for the surf-everyday eternal grom.
“It would’ve put me out of misery,” says Billy.
When the cliff collapses here, don’t be there
Erosion is not natural. It’s clearly goofy.
Another fuckin thing that Biden/Albo has thrust upon us.
Life can get rocky at times. I just hope Bill doesn’t collapse and give up.
Is there a concrete path under those overhangs?
Yeah injuries are fucked for surfers ” almost 65 ” look at Kelly slaters brain injury for example