MICHAEL PETERSON REST IN PEACE

To Mrs Peterson, Dot and Tommy deepest sympathies at the passing of your son and brother.

Your dedication to Michael in his later years has been a wonderful thing.
Mick will of course be remembered forever in Australian surfing.He was arguably the greatest Australian surfer of all time dominating contests in Australia for most of the 1970's.

I was fortunate enough to compete against Mick during this period and was privileged to see a lot of his ground breaking performances in the surf and glimpse some of his state of the art shapes taking surfing and boards to the next couple of levels.
You could also argue that Michael was the greatest surfer, shaper designer of all time anywhere.

His contribution to surfing and influence on surfing and board design, pushing it to previously unknown levels can only be compared to Kelly Slater.

Michael's hero was Nat Young, he wanted to surf like Nat, he did that for sure and will always be held in the highest esteem in the lofty halls of surfing freaks.
Mick you touched surfing with your magic and surfing is forever better for it.





Image by Frank Pithers - Mike flying on his way to winning '73 Bells.

Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach 2011 Official Trailer

Thruster inventor Simon Anderson into Hall fo Fame

Thruster inventor Simon Anderson into Hall fo Fame

Surf History

Simon Anderson joins roster of 2011 Surfers' Hall of Fame inductees

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 4 April, 2011 : - - Simon Anderson, an Australian surfer/board shaper best known for developing the “Thruster” design of three equal-size fins, will be inducted into the 2011 Surfers’ Hall of Fame. Anderson will join George Downing, Taylor Knox and Chuck Linnen as they have their hand and footprints immortalized in cement for the ages on Friday, August 5 at 10:00 a.m. in front of Huntington Surf & Sport.

Famed sports announcer/commentator David Stanfield and five-time U.S. Surfing Champion Corky Carroll will serve as Masters of Ceremony. Information is available at hsssurf.com/shof

Raised in Sydney, Simon Anderson began his competitive career in 1971 with a juniors win at the Australian National Titles and the Bells Beach Classic contests. Known for his power and easygoing style, Anderson became a frontrunner in many local and international competitions, placing second in the Australian National Titles in 76’, fourth at the 77’ Pipeline Masters, and winning the 77’ Bells and Coke Surfabout. Those wins in 77’, on single-fin boards, put him into the top 10 on the ASP Tour and gave him a chance of taking the title, until the twin-fin intervened.

Fellow Aussie Mark Richards had created a twin-fin design which greatly helped sharp turns on steep waves, by always having one fin deep in the wave. The twin-fin was capable of performing in the poor wave conditions and locations that the ASP events were often held at that time. Within months, surfers on this design were winning most of the competitions, but it was badly unsuited to Anderson's size (over six feet tall) and style. He simply overpowered the twin fin and didn't like the idea of having to 'nurse' the board through turns, and stated at the time that he wasn't going to compromise his surfing to adapt to the design.

That’s when Anderson went to work on perfecting the existing three fin concept (a single fin with two smaller outer fins) for added power and stability. His prototype featured three equal-size fins so he named it “Thruster” because the water gets pushed through the fins in the turn. According to Anderson, the single fin (just) holds that speed through a turn whereas with the twin fins, obviously the speed was quickly released and you'd just zip along. The third fin was controlling that thrust throughout the turn.

Anderson’s Thruster design was met with skepticism initially, thought perhaps merely a gimmick, or only for Anderson's particular size and style. Following design enhancements in 1981, he won the Bells Beach Classic and the Coke Surfabout in Sydney, for a second time, then later the Pipe Masters at Banzai Pipeline in Hawaii. Those victories silenced the critics and brought the thruster to everyone's attention; from 1984 onward every world champion has used a thruster.

“What Steve Jobs (CEO of Apple) and the “iPhone and iPad” have done for the World, Simon Anderson and the “Thruster” have done for the Sport of Surfing’” said Surfers’ Hall of Fame founder Aaron Pai. “Just as the iPhone and iPad revolutionized consumer technology; the Thruster revolutionized and advanced our Sport of Surfing!

“Simon has given generations of surfers the gift of progression and the ability to do what they can do today! We are honored and extremely excited that Simon Anderson will be inducted into the Surfers’ Hall of Fame this summer!”

The nation’s first imprint collection of legendary surfers, the Surfers’ Hall of Fame celebrated its first induction in 1997 inside of specialty retailer Huntington Surf & Sport where several slabs remain. Four years later with the blessing of the City Council and a stunning bronze statue of sport’s spiritual leader Duke Kahanamoku serving as a backdrop, the ceremony moved outside to the corner of PCH and Main; less than 100 feet from the famed Huntington Beach Pier, site of the U.S. Open of Surfing.

The Surfers’ Hall of Fame induction ceremony is open to the public, free-of-charge.

http://hsssurf.com/shof

S BOARDS 2011

There will be a few things happening in 2011, primarily with board development. I'm working on a new SXE model called not surprisingly SXE3, a new Mollusc, a new DSC and you can't help but work on more small wave boards. We will continue to refine and hopefully improve most of the range,probably drop some models out while bringing new ones in.

This year is the 30th anniversary of the Thruster's unveiling at the 1981 Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach contest, so that's a decade for every fin.

Machines - I'm very excited about the way our machine is cutting the pre-shapes we use, and that is cleanly and consistently, giving me a great foundation to work from. With the APS machine cutting consistency I can really get creative on the software program and develop the designs beautifully. What this means to you is that custom orders or the Simon stock boards you see in the shop will be accurate with the right balance of rail volume, thickness distribution, rocker curve and outline curve.


Surftech –
We are introducing the XFC and Mollusc models to the Surftech Tuflite range this year. So if you are a fan of the sandwich construction boards have a look at our small range in Surftech Dealer Shops.

In the XFC model the 3 board range are all single to double concave, rounded square tails and FCS fin system.
The XFC dimensions -
6'6 x 20 x 2 11/16 6'4 x 19 x 2 1/2
6'2 x 18 3/4 2 3/8
In the Mollusc the 3 boards are all FCS including -
6'10 x 21 x 2 3/4 Swallow tail single to double concave with vee at the swallow.
6'4 x 20 1/4 x 2 5/8 Roundtail single to double concave
6'2 x 20 x 2 /12 Roundtail single to double

Surftech also have a new range called Ultraflx, which is a new style epoxy board with interesting flex patterns.

You can check out my range of boards and get info on these technologies if you go to the Surftech website:
www.surftechaustralia.com.au
They are not listed in the US Surftech website as yet.

The Ultraflx range includes 4 XFC boards all rounded square tails, and 4 DK quad model boards all swallow tails, and all featuring the FCS fin system.
The XFC's include -
6'3 x 19 x 2 7/16 single to double concave
6'2 x 18 3/4 x 2 3/8 single to double
6'1 x 18 5/8 x 2 5/16 single concave
6'0 x 18 3/8 x 2 1/4 single concave

The DK boards are single to double concave but with vee in the back half of the board on the bottom, the double concave cuts through this moderate vee deepest at the forward fins and still substantial at the swallow tail.
Dimensions include -
6'0 x 20 1/4 x 2 1/2
5'11 x 20 x 2 7/16
5'10 x 19 3/4 x 2 3/8
We will be adding to the Quad Ultraflx range with a 6'6, 6'4 and 6'2 DK board.

Team - To see a few waves of Adam Robertson surfing his home turf way down South of Torquay last week go to: http://vimeo.com/18523644 . See you in the surf,Simon

US JUNIOR - CHESTER NEWLING

Chester Newling surfing in the San Francisco area on an XFC 6'0 x 18 1/2 x 2 1/4 rounded square, single concave board manufactured in the US.

Chester is the son of Mike Newling, the former Australian tour surfer who came 3rd at the Rip Curl Bells contest in 1982. A former team rider of mine from that era, Mike relocated the family to a place near Half Moon Bay and has enjoyed the good waves nearby, teaching Chester and Marlon his other son how to surf in the cold grey waters. It's nice to be able to make Chester and Marlon a few boards at the start of their journey in surfing and keep the name Newling around the Simon brand.

Mike is in Australia at the moment enjoying a break with the family, away from the photography industry he is involved in back there. All the Newling's, including Mom Nicole and little sister Leilani, have been taking advantage of the good swell and warm weather at Newport Peak, camping out on the beach all day surfing, swimming and relaxing.

EUROGLASS FACTORY FRANCE

 Simon, Greg Pastusiak multiple former French champion and Christiaan Bradley at the factory.


Christiaan Bradley and touring serial pest Marc Harden (from Shoreham by Sea near Brighton) at Euroglass in Soorts Hossegor


Christiaan repairing Kelly's contest winner from Trestles, a 5'9 with 5 plug FCS for quad and thruster options.

signing a shape

the light in Phil's bay is pretty good

Simon shaping in the Phil Grace bay at Euroglass. All photos by Pam Newman.

SIMON IN HOSSEGOR, FRANCE SURFING A DSC 7'0

All photos from Pete Frieden of a session North of Estagnots on a shore
break bank in the afternoon prior to the Quik Pro around 6pm.

The surf was glassy with beautiful peaks left but primarily rights, in
the line up was Taylor Knox, Jordy Smith, Taj and Dan Ross.
Earlier the boys from Globe CJ and Damo Hobgood along with Gabe Kling
and Patrick Gudauskas were throwing themselves along with their boards
through the air in a mind numbing display of speed, power and new age
innovative surfing.

Kierin Perrow was also out laying down his brand of deep rail gashes and
high line floating air drops.

It was a real pleasure surfing with Taylor and the other boys, the spot
was uncrowded and not yet really discovered by the masses as the best
alternative for 3-4 feet plus during high tide on the Hossegor stretch.
Taylor and the others graciously allowed me to catch a couple of waves
and Pete kindly activated the camera coming up with some nice shots of
the old boy.

I'm riding a 7'0 20 1/8 2 13/16 Rounded Pin DSC model with slight single
to double running through a vee in the back half of the board.
The double concave ends at the forward fins so the vee running out the
tail in the last 12 inches is flat sided vee.

I'm really enjoying the wider dimension board in this for me step-up board.
It paddles well catching waves efficiently but still surfs well and
doesn't have the twitchy feel of a narrower just concave bottom board.
This is a nice compliment to riding fish style boards in smaller surf.
When you ride a wider fish board the effect is slower rail to rail
transition, this becomes a smooth feel through turns that you become
familiar with and going back to normal width step-up boards can be
unsettling because they are twitchy and want to initiate the turn too
quickly.

So maintaining a wider step up is generally a good thing especially for
the older, average, unfit or weekend warrior type surfer.
This board also has a foil thickness which essentially is a 70's early
80's style thickness distribution, thicker nose and thinnish tail.
I have incorporated quite a thin tail with flat deck and blocky rails
through the back 2 feet of this board.

This rail makes the 7'0 feel a little slidey at times, which is good for
smaller waves, but can be problematic particularly here in the Atlantic
ocean of France with it's power and tidal influence causing the wave
surface to develop numerous little lumps and currents within the wave
that can make the board slide or drift every now and then in turns.
So I think for here and for step-up boards the normal rail and thickness
distribution is the go, but I do like the vee component in the bottom I
think you can see from the photos that the board gets up on a rail nicely.

You should be able to catch up with all Pete's shots of this good
afternoon of surfing in France through Pete Frieden Surf Photography
somewhere on the world wide web.

Cheers Simon