Eden's camera captured the golden era of surfboard riding

Jack was a first-generation Australian surf photographer from a big family from Sans Souci and the co-founder of Surfabout magazine.

Eden, who was born in 1931 and raised in Sydney's coastal suburbs, began riding waves at Bondi Beach in 1956, and two years later started taking photographs of local surfers.

Eden launched Surfabout in 1962, just a few weeks before rival photographer Bob Evans began publishing Surfing World and throughout the 60's Jack Eden supplied many of the photographs used in books and magazines around the globe.

Eden's camera captured countless images which gave new life into an irrepressible period of Australian history-it was a time of more freedom and a time when Australia came of age on the waves.

Jack published 24 issues of Surfabout magazine in the mid sixties, which gave southside surfers their first coverage. The first photos of Cronulla Point, Voodoo and Sandshoes opened up to the world the possibilities that the southside of Sydney had to offer.

Surfers like the late Bobby Brown, Frank Latta, and Keith Paull were regularly featured and copied by every grommet in town and Jack also didnt leave out the top women of the time documenting World Champion Phyllis O'Donell,Gail Couper, Judy Trim and Lyn Stubbins careers.

Many of his images captured the sport in what Jack refers to as the golden era of surfboard riding. It was all experimental - there were no rules and the surfers back then made it up as they went.

1964 World Champion Midget Farrelly and Jack were great mates, with Midget becoming immortalised after Jack's famous pictures of the finals of the 1964 World Titles in Manly and he said at Jack's 1997 Surfabout exhibition that the late 50's and early 60's were a special time for surfing.

"Suddenly new characters appeared in the surf, surfing skills, dress, cars, music and attitudes were created that reflected a carefree lifestyle," Farrelly said.

"Jack caught many of the major players of this era on his black and white film, his precision images truly convey the uniqueness of a never to be repeated pioneer period in Australian surfing life."

Jack was also one of the very few photographers who shot from the water. Water housings were rare and expensive so often photographers would paddle out with their camera in a plastic bag and sit on the shoulder on their longboards risking their equipment.

Old Cronulla surfer Ray Greenaway said that as Jack lived at Sans Souci, and started surfing at Bondi, before invading Cronulla territory. They weren't that keen on him initially, especially because he was a noisy bugger on a wave always shouting and yahooing, but it didn't take long for Jack to make it in with the locals - even if he was still always noisy out the back.

Dave Wilson another lifelong friend said the only time Jack was quite was when they were in the car going for a surf and he would fall asleep in the back seat.

One of Cronulla's most iconic surfing characters and surfboard manufacturer Brian Jackson was another favorite of Jack's camera in the early days and they grew up supporting each other through thick and thin.

Knowing Jack personally and professionally for over thirty years I think Jacks real strength was always his commercial vision - seeing an opportunity to take the surfing lifestyle into the mainstream of Australian life, whether publishing his own magazines in the 60's ,selling his pictures to the Pictorial History of Surfing book in the 70's or touring his Surfabout revisited collection in the late 90's - Jack's work was always relevant.

Jack said of the 1960's that there was an innocence in those days that was hard to explain but "my photographs have caught the mood and the feeling that people relate to.This is a record of an era that will never return".

"At the time we were regarded as surfie bums - even though a lot of those bums were the top surfers of the day. Now many of them are important people, lawyers, barristers and judges - name an occupation and you will find a surfer in the ranks."

Jack was the patron of Cronulla 's Southside Malibu Club and an Australian Surfing Hall of Fame Honour Roll recipient. In 2000 he also received the Australian Sports Medal from the Queen for his significant contribution to the sport of surfing.

Jack suffered from Parkinson's Disease and leaves behind his ever supportive wife Dawn and children John, Michelle, Danielle and Adam, many grandchildren and growing great grandchildren and also his surfing community family to whom he won't ever be forgotten.