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 ...