Obituary: Newcastle's Roger Clements - champion surfer and media identity, succumbs to cancer aged 71

Born on May 7, 1951, Clements had just celebrated his 71^st birthday.

At their Hamilton home yesterday, his wife of 44 years, Janelle Clements, sat with family to answer the phone calls and knocks on the door as news of his passing flashed quickly around the surfing world.

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Clements was raised at Crescent Head on the mid-north coast and moved to Merewether at the age of 15.

He was a truly gifted surfer and a charismatic individual whose rise to the upper echelons of competition happened just before the real professional era began, and so it was as much for love as it was for money that he chased waves and titles all over the country.

Even so, his surfing prowess also eased open other doors and Clements was for many years one of the "voices of surfing" in the Hunter, filing daily surf reports for radio stations 2NX, 2HD, and later 2NURFM, as well as regular columns for the Newcastle Herald.

But these were side gigs beside his main work in radio, starting as an advertising copywriter before moving into "traffic" or advertising management, and doing various shifts on air as host.

As part of our coverage of the World Surf League's Newcastle Cup in April 2021, the Herald ran a series on the Hunter's top men and women surfers, with Clements filling the #9 spot.

"Thor Svenson, who wrote for the US magazine Surfer, described me as probably the most radical boardrider in the country when he did a summary of team members in 1972," Clements recalled in that piece.

"In the early '70s I . . . spent a lot of time on the road chasing contests. I would work a few weeks, save a bit of money then hit the road. In those days the contest party scene was almost as important as the contest."

Newcastle's Mattara contest attracted Australia's best surfers in that era and the surfing magazine Tracks reported one of his two wins with a memorable punning headline - "Mereweather for Jolly Roger".

Merewether Surfboard Club patron Tim Ryan said yesterday that Clements stood with the great Robbie Wood as the only person to be club champion, club president, a life member and inductee to its hall of fame.

"They called him 'Radical Roger', he could upside down on his backhand re-entries and he was one of the top three goofy-footers in the country along with the two Col Smiths." Ryan said.

"On top of being one of our best surfers, Rog had more friends than anyone and, in his day, he could party with the best them and there was some serious competition in those days!!

"Rog was great company and was always good for a joke and a laugh.

"Our sincere condolences to Janelle and the Clements clan, we are all going miss you Rog, you were one of a kind and totally irreplaceable."

As he grew older, Clements began to add to his original shortboard collection of trophies with a string of longboard titles, including wins at one of longboarding's favourite spots, his old home of Crescent Head.

Janelle Clements said she wanted her husband remembered as a family man as well as a great surfer.

"I couldn't have wanted for a better husband, it's been a wonderful life," she said.

She and Roger had two children, Aaron and Elise. Their grandchildren are Aaron's sons Parker and Logan and Elise's daughters Charlie and Zoey.

Clements went public when diagnosed with bladder cancer and had been in remission until recently.

Funeral arrangements are yet to be finalised.

Merewether SC's Facebook tribute here

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