New Zealand 80's classic.

I had to go to beautiful Auckland for the day last week and following my own advice I tried to log on the ebay.co.nz before my trip to see what unique NZ surfcraft would be waiting for be there.

I was shocked to discover there is no such thing, instead they use a site called trademe.co.nz

Treademe claim to have 1 million members which is pretty impressive considering there is only 3 million people in New Zealand.

Sure enough I found this little beauty up for auction, made in Auckland and in fantastic condition, ending on the day of my arrival.

Sadly a heavy night of drinking and dancing on the bar in a Cowboy bar led to completely disabling hangover that left me unable to summon the energy to find 'New Market' and barley able to make it back to the airport, so the board was left behind in its natural habitat.

Fluky camera phone.

I surfed one of my twin fins at this point today and on the way home I stopped to check it from the top of the hill. I held my iPhone up to my binoculars and clicked the button and was stoked to see I fluked a shot of a guy taking off and his buddy paddling out!







Aeriel shot by Tony Reid

When did the Southern Cross become the new Swastika?

Some surfers are idiots.

Bondi is nice, but......

Bondi can be beautiful but after 20 years of living and surfing at Australia's most crowded beach I recently moved out of town to get myself a shed and some uncrowded waves.

So far, go good.








photos taken this week posted on coastalwatch.com by Clarrie Bouma and Eugene Tan.

Larry Bertlemann- 'Anything is possible'

My new Facebook friend, Larry Bertlemann, has just released a beautiful new range of reproductions of his famous collection.
Theres an order form at the end.
Print it.
Do it.

The McCoy brothers and their Hawaiian cousin.

Tim from Pure Life Surfboards Hawaii wrote-
Aloha Damion,
I've been enjoying your latest blogs with the McCoy boards. Thought I'd shoot you over a few pics of my McCoys & accompanying fins. I dig the Lazor Zap shape, mine is 5'10"x20"x3 1/16" full "texture deck" top.
Hope all's well with you over there "down undah"...!








I was on the Far North Coast and because the surf was tiny I decided to drop in at the Mc Coy factory to see what they have been up to and I was stoked to see Geoff doing modern replicas of this historic design.

Puberty Blues- Australia's most influential surf movie

Puberty Blues is an Australian movie based on Kathy Lette's novel about growing up the the surf side suburb of Cronulla in the late 70's. The story climaxes when the two heroines overcome their hardships and prejudices and buy their own board and just go surfing. The movie made a huge impact on me as a kid growing up in love with surfing. But it wasn't till I watched Bombora - The Story of Australian Surfing that I realized just how influential the movie really was. A number professional surfers in the documentary site the movie as one of their main inspirations to get involved in surfing. World champ Mark Occhilupo actually scored a extras part in the movie as a 10 year old grom!
The highlight of the movie for me is seeing the board they buy. A square tail single fin with an unbelievable spray of a leaping tiger on the bottom. To me it is one of the most collectible surfboards in Australian surf culture history. I have been doing my research on who shaped it and where they bought it. Apparently there were two surf shops in in Cronulla in 1981 when the film was made. With help from my friend Sam who worked in one of the shops at the time (and rumor has it played the part of the shop assistant who severs the girls the chicko rolls) we have worked out is was a locally made G&S or Emerald and probably came from Steve Core's Surf shop.
This board needs to go to the Museum of Australia and hung on the wall next to Ned Kelly's helmet and Phar Lap's heart.

Regrets, I have a few.......

I found this Mc Coy single fin on a surf trip up the north coast a few years ago. It was a nice board, it had a great spray. I tried to surf it a few times but it was too small for me, so I sold it.
I didn't pay any attention to the 'Mc Coy for PAM' in the stringer, nor did i think much about the size or who it could have been shaped for.
Till my friend gave me on old copy of World Champion surfer Pam Burridge's biography. I flicked through the photos and my heart sank. The provenance of the board was clear. The board was right through the book, Pam rode it right through her career. It was probably one of the most historically important boards I had ever come across and I let it slip through my fingers.
C'est la vie.

You win some, you lose some......

You win some and you lose some and I lost this one.
A 6'2" Hot Buttered single fly, rounded pin, tail single fin.
Don't know where, don't know when...........

Huge reward offered for its safe return.

(joe dirt, this means you)

OP Pro 1985- Competitors tent.

Tom Curren feeling the pressure before the final of the OP Pro at Huntington Pier in 1985. Tom lost to Mark Occhilupo thus sending Mark into a 10 year party frenzy. That all ended happily, as we know, but what I would like to know is who do those boards belong to, who shaped them, and where are they now?

We can see Occy's Rusty Preisendorfer and Tom's Al Merrick.
but who was riding the red jet fins?

also competing in the finals that day were.....
Tom Carroll on his Byrne.
Mike Parsons.......?
Micheal Ho..........?
'Ces' Wilson on his Rex Marsel?