Bra Boys

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The Bra Boys are a Australian surfing group in Sydney's East. The group is centred on the Sydney suburb of Maroubra.The group began as a small surfer club in the 1960s.^{[citation needed]} The group is named after the suburb Maroubra and not the Board Riders Association as some people may think. Members of the group often tattoo "Bra Boys" and Maroubra's post code "2035" on their backs.^[1]

1 Notoriety
2 Documentary
3 Surfing
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Notoriety

Prominent Bra Boys members include Rugby League players Reni Maitua, Lachlan Gordon, John Sutton and Byron Ford. Surfers Josh Klein, Ben Watson, Sean Green, Mark Matthews, Evan Faulks, Richie Vaculik, Sunny Abberton, Jai Abberton, and most famously Koby Abberton.

In May 2005, Jai Abberton was acquitted of a 2003 murder of stand-over man Tony Hines. However, his brother Koby was handed a suspended nine-month jail sentence after being found guilty of perverting the course of justice in the same matter.^[2]

In late 2002, around 160 members of the group attending a birthday party at the Coogee-Randwick RSL Club were involved in a brawl with off-duty Waverley police officers leaving a Christmas party on the same premises. News reports numbered the combatants in the incident at around 120, with 30 police officers left injured after the event.^[3]

In August 2005, the group led a 100 person protest against parking meters near the local beaches.^[4]

Following the Cronulla riots, in which the group was not involved but was subsequently targeted, the Abberton brothers held well-publicised meetings with other uninvolved groups to help ease tensions.^[5] "I think that this is the start, the boys have agreed to come down and talk to us, to start some dialogue between the groups, you know, to try and ease some tension", said Sunny Abberton in a group interview on The 7.30 Report.^[6].

[edit] Documentary

A documentary film about the group, entitled Bra Boys premiered in Sydney on the 7 March 2007 and was released on the 15 March 2007. It details a story of the Bra Boys from the viewpoint of the group, particularly the Abbertons. Well known actor Russell Crowe provided narration.^[7]

Australian reviewer Margaret Pomeranz gave the movie an overall positive review, while her At the Movies co-host David Stratton criticised Sunny's amateurish direction and questioned how objective a documentary can be when it is directed by its subject.^[8]

The documentary became Australia's highest-grossing non-IMAX documentary following its release in March 2007.^[9] The movie saw a limited release in the United States beginning on 11 April 2008, and was played at select locations in Southern California, New York and Hawaii in a total of 22 theaters.^[10]. It is being distributed internationally and in the USA by boutique distributor Berkela Films.^[11]

[edit] Surfing

The Bra Boys is held together by surfing as well as community ties. The group is often linked with the Maroubra Surfers Association, with which a number of its members are associated.

The group is known to have taken control of a lethal Sydney reef break, known as 'Cape Solander', located in Kurnell, and renaming the break 'Ours'. In July 2007, the Sydney Morning Herald reported about an altercation that took place between professional bodyboarder Mitch Rawlins and a group of four Bra Boys, including Koby Abberton. Rawlins was allegedly approached by a Bra Boy member and told to "Fuck off". It is believed an argument broke out and then turned physical with Rawlins being punched in the head. A spokesman for the Bra Boys confirmed there had been "some sort of small incident" but denied any major violence.^[12]