IN AN ERA WHEN SHAPERS FEEL OBLIGATED TO FLAGRANTLY SELF- PROMOTE AND CONTRIBUTE TO AN EVER-EXPANDING MALAISE OF SOCIAL MEDIA BOARD PORN, TOMMY PETERSON’S STRATEGY IS A LITTLE DIFFERENT. “If they find me they’ll be right. I haven’t got a telephone number or anything out there that they can look up…they’ve got to track me down and find me and order a board. I won’t be going out doing letter drops and mail drops telling people I want work… F&5k, I’ll be 66 in eight weeks.” With his highly refined marketing structure, Tommy estimates he shapes a maximumof 35 boards a year. However, there are long-term customers, like the Ho family, he is always happy to look after. Blessed with an encyclopaedic memory for surfing facts, Tommy readily recalls how their families were first connected. “Michael (Peterson) met Michael (Ho) in San Diego at the 1972 World Championships. Michael Ho was surfing as a junior for the American team and he was about 14 years old.” Since then the families have stayed close, with Michael Ho a regular lunch companion for the Peterson’s when he’s been in Australia over the years. Almost half a century after the two Michaels met in San Diego, brother Tommy finds himself making boards for Mason Ho. If Tommy’s brother Michael was the brooding, enigmatic genius, Mason is the charismatic entertainment machine whose dizzying freesurfing sessions frequently morph into a game of chicken with exposed rocks and reef. Despite being cast from different moulds, and generations apart, both Mason and the late MP share an onscreen magnetism. Tommy typically makes Mason a version of the Fireball Fish – the board which helped usher in the modern fish movement after Tom Curren’s celebrated session at giant Bawa, in 1994, on a 5’7” Fireball. According to Tommy, this one is a slightly tweaked take on the last one he made Mason, “It’s 5’3” with a step and channels in the middle under the front foot, and a rolled Vee through the back.” Quizzed about the purpose of the step and channels underneath the leading hoof, Tommy suggests it ensures Mason can keep his craft micro-sized in big waves. “It’s so you can ride it in 12-foot surf and it won’t slide out… no problem. It’s got nice, big blocky rails so it can’t catch anything. All you do is slide over the water and you go like … Read more