During the 70s, the Northern Beaches of Sydney, Australia was a melting pot for surfboard experimentation, development and execution. The heavyweights of the industry gravitated to Brookvale, which had a rightful claim to being the epicentre of ‘Shortboard Revolution’ in the 60s. As the euphoria around the ‘Fantastic Plastic Machines’ (7’6″ wide bodied V-bottoms) subsided, there was a hunger among a younger generation to go further. Shorter, narrower, lower volume craft with different rail and bottom configurations came into focus. The younger Australians were now exerting their performance-focused prowess in Hawaii, the home of surfing. Sure, there was some conflict but the underlying love of surfing and the mutual desire to evolve the design of what was under their feet in the water prevailed.
Fortunately, I grew up surfing North Narrabeen. The most consistent quality break in Sydney, it played host to a number of surfer/shapers committed to rethinking and testing new surfboard innovations. Terry Fitzgerald, Col Smith, Butch Cooney (my brother), Geoff McCoy, Frank Latta… the list goes on. I remember Simon Anderson as one of the younger, North Narrabeen based surfer/shapers, who was learn- ing the craft of surfboard design from his peers.
In the 70s Simon Anderson was one of the Australian invaders who took his North Narrabeen-honed, trademark backhand attack to the Hawaiian holy grail of Pipeline. At Pipe he pulled the same backhand disappearing act I had watched him complete so many times at ‘Northy’. The pliable backhand attack, which featured a classic big-man’s layback, eventually won him the Pipeline Masters in 1981.
While Simon was a standout in Hawaii he was also an astute observer of surf craft who quietly studied, and adopted, some of the design evolutions making an impact on the North Shore. I took this photo in Brookvale during the mid-70s, outside the factory housing the beginnings of Morning Star, a label founded by Col Smith and Wayne Warner, the father of Brett Warner who has carried on the family tradition under the well-respected, North Narrabeen label, Warner Surfboards label. As I recall, Simon became part of the Morning Star team after cutting his shaping teeth at Shane Surfboards just a few blocks away. Without any practical experience regarding the shape Simon is holding, I reached out to him for some insights. Simon recalls, “Obviously inspired by the Ben Aipa ‘Sting’, or ‘Stinger’, this shape would have been done shortly after Ben introduced it. MR was surfing a Ben Aipa Sting during the ’77 Stubbies against Michael Peterson, which MP won. So, MR was surfing one. Mike Ho, Buttons and Mark Liddel were impressive surfing this innovation on the North Shore, not to mention Ben himself, and they looked good.”
Reminding me of our long mutual surfing history Simon added, “Growing up in the era we did, the Short Board Revolution, I was always highly influenced by other shapers’ work and wanted to try out new pliable backhand attack, which featured a classic big-man’s layback, eventually won him the Pipeline Masters in 1981. While Simon was a standout in Hawaii he was also an astute observer of surf craft who quietly studied, and adopted, some of the design evolutions making an impact on the North Shore. I took this photo in Brookvale during the mid-70s, outside the factory housing the beginnings of Morning Star, a label founded by Col Smith and Wayne Warner, the father of Brett Warner who has carried on the family tradition under the well-respected, North Narrabeen label, Warner Surfboards label. As I recall, Simon became part of the Morning Star team after cutting his shaping teeth at Shane Surfboards just a few blocks away. Without any practical experience regarding the shape Simon is holding, I reached out to him for some insights.
Simon recalls, “Obviously inspired by the Ben Aipa ‘Sting’, or ‘Stinger’, this shape would have been done shortly after Ben introduced it. MR was surfing a Ben Aipa Sting during the ’77 Stubbies against Michael Peterson, which MP won.
So, MR was surfing one. Mike Ho, Buttons and Mark Liddel were impressive surfing this innovation on the North Shore, not to mention Ben himself, and they looked good.” Reminding me of our long mutual surfing history Simon added, “Growing up in the era we did, the Short Board Revolution, I was always highly influenced by other shapers’ work and wanted to try out new stuff for myself. I found the Stinger to give you a nice pivot point in backfoot turns enabling you to carve tight in the pocket.”
Gratefully, to help me justify my own lack of detail regarding this photo from many years ago, Simon offered, “I have no specific memories of the shape I’m holding, but I believe it would have been for me and looks to be 7’0, which was the length I was generally using. Judging by the Shane t-shirt I think it was most likely shaped in 1975/76 after Ben introduced the Stinger/ Sting to the world. I thought the shape looked fast and ultra-modern.”
To state the bleeding obvious, Simon not only achieved great competitive success surfing his self-shaped single fins but hit another level when he won the Easter event at Bells Beach, Victoria in 1981 in a perfect 8-10′ Southern Ocean onslaught on his three fin “Thruster’ innovation, which changed the face of surfboard design forever.
