Bra Boys

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Bra Boys
Founded	1990s
In	Maroubra, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Founded by	Koby Abberton
Years active	1990s-present
Territory	Maroubra, Cape Solander
Ethnicity	Predominantly young male Caucasian surfers
Criminal activities	Intimidation, Assault,Petty crime,
Allies	None known
Rivals	Various Gangs

The Bra Boys are an Australian surfing group founded and based in Maroubra, an eastern suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, who were the subject of a controversial feature-length documentary Bra Boys: Blood is Thicker than Water.^[1]

Dating back to the 1990s, the gang has achieved notoriety through both violent clashes with members of the public and police, as well as community involvement. The gang gained national and international attention when they released a feature-length documentary about themselves in 2007.

Contents 1 Origins 2 Notoriety and violence 3 Documentary 4 Surfing 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Origins

The group began as a small surf club in Sydney's East during the 1960s.^{[citation needed]} In an interview on JJJ Radio, Koby Abberton pointed out the "Bra" is a reference to the gang's suburb, Maroubra, and not an acronym for the Board Riders Association.^[2] Some members of the gang tattoo "Bra Boys" and Maroubra's post code "2035" on their backs.

[edit] Notoriety and violence

Prominent Bra Boys members include Rugby League players Reni Maitua, Lachlan Gordon, Ben Watson, John Sutton, as well as the Abberton brothers, Sunny, Jai, and most infamously Koby.

In late 2002, around 160 members of the gang 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 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 but was then found not guilty of perverting the course of justice in the same matter.^[4]

In August 2005, the gang led a 100 person protest against parking meters near the local beaches.^[5]

After the riots, in which the gang did not claim any involvement, Maroubra was the target of retaliation by Middle Eastern gangs. More than 100 car windows were smashed and a girl was punched in the face in the attack. ^[6]

Following these revenge attacks, the Abberton brothers held well-publicised meetings with other uninvolved groups to help ease tensions.^[7] "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.^[8]

The Bra Boys were made the subject of satire by The Chaser.^[9] In the skit Julian Morrow approached gang members while wearing a pill-filled brassiere and sporting a tattoo similar to Koby's saying "mybrothersalibi". A gang member responded by removing one of his thongs (footwear) and throwing it at Morrow.

In November 2008, Koby Abberton was jailed for three days by a US court after being found guilty of assaulting an off-duty police officer in a fight outside a nightclub in Honolulu, Hawaii.^[10]

[edit] Documentary

A documentary film about the gang, entitled Bra Boys: Blood is Thicker than Water 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 gang, particularly the Abbertons. Sunny Abberton wrote and directed the film. Actor Russell Crowe provided narration.^[11]

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.^[12]

The documentary became Australia's highest-grossing non-IMAX documentary following its release in March 2007.^[13] 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.^[14] It is being distributed internationally and in the USA by boutique distributor Berkela Films.^[15]

[edit] Surfing

The Bra Boys is held together by surfing as well as community ties. The gang 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 several 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.^[16]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Bra Boys movie
• Maroubra Surfers Association