It was an effort, but your columnist dragged his gammy leg down to the Gold Coast last week for Surf World museum’s family celebration of the long-awaited arrival of one of Australia’s most iconic surfboards, the Michael Peterson Morning Of The Earth cutback board.
It had taken a couple of years of hard work to negotiate its loan from the Carl Tanner collection, quite possibly Australia’s most prized privately-held surfboard archive, and to be honest, at face value the little, once-clear-now-yellow, six-one soft squaretail (almost a double-ender) is not a chicken skin moment thing of great beauty, like, say a perfect Brewer big wave gun, a Farrelly pintail, a Terry Fitzgerald Hot Buttered flyer with a Worthington spray, or a McTavish Bluebird.
But there is something beyond timeless about this ugly duckling of a surfboard, from the simplicity of the still frame cutback from the movie sequence to the board itself. By today’s standards the cutback it depicts is hardly radical, but its grainy reality seems to put surfers of most living generations right back there where it all began, a place we often wish we could scroll to. Hell, the MP cutback is emblazoned on the tee shirt I’m wearing as I tap out these words!
Michael Peterson was the greatest and most competitive surfer in Australia – some would argue the world – for a handful of years in the first half of the ‘70s. Over that period and beyond, I spent a little bit of time interviewing MP and a lot more time analysing what he had said and what he might have meant. A unique and uniquely talented character in so many ways, he was neither verbose nor articulate. Photos and footage did him more justice, none more so than his enigmatic three-minute presence in Morning Of The Earth.
So the gang was out in force to welcome the MP board and feel its contours before it gets locked in a Perspex box, among the old-timers, collector Carl on a rare outing, Rip Curl co-founder Doug “Claw” Warbrick, Joan Peterson, the irrepressible 92-year-old matriarch of the surfing Peterson clan, veteran photographer Mal Sutherland (who took most of the shots you see here), surf legends Rabbit Bartholomew and Cheyne Horan, and the 1980 Stubbies Pro winner Peter Harris, now curator at Surf World.
There were plenty of funny and endearing stories about MP – there always are – and after the formalities I had the opportunity to talk surfboard stories with Peter Harris, whose winning Sky Cleanline twinnie is the centrepiece of the Stubbies display at the museum. Nearly 45 years ago, this former postie, fireman, part-time shaper and long-time revered barrel rider at Burleigh, won four titles in one day when, as a rookie triallist with no pro contest experience, he backdoored his way into the main event, beat a bunch of stars, including Cheyne Horan, along the way to the final against Hawaii’s Dane Kealoha, which he took out by a whisker, giving him the Stubbies Pro title, the Stubbies Trials title, best barrel award and IPS rookie of the year. Never happened before or since.
Peter finished ninth in the world that year but never won another pro event, and never cared. He told me: “Dane [who passed away last year] paddled over to me at the start and said, let’s just surf! And that’s what we did, in really good waves. No hustle or hassling, just two of us surfing. That memory is more important than the win, and Dane and I became close friends.”
Gecko wins the Midget
While we’re on the subject of gatherings of the clan, a few weeks back it was my great pleasure to MC the Midget Farrelly Lifetime Achievement Award at Bennett Surf in Brookvale, Sydney’s surfboard central. Now a function centre and surfboard museum as well as a functioning surfboard factory, what better place to present an annual Surfing NSW-sanctioned award in memory of a true great of our sport, culture and industry.
And what better recipient could there be than Brian “Gecko” Cregan, former pro surfer from the pioneer years, founder of Ocean and Earth, one of the most innovative and enduring surfboard and accessories companies, and long-time supporter of community surfing initiatives, clubs and contests from his base on the NSW South Coast. I’ve known Gecko since the ‘70s and was somewhat alarmed that I appeared to be the only person in the room who still called him that, but he’ll always be Gecko to me. Beverlie Farrelly and daughter Johanna Isherwood presented him with the well-deserved award, handed on by former recipient Simon Anderson.
FOOTNOTE: A few weeks back I wrote in this space about Creative Army Surfboards branching into specific designs for women with Anna Constable’s She Creative Army designs. At the time I was sworn to secrecy about a big move coming up for the Noosa brand. Well, now I’m not! Josh, Anna and the Constable family are opening a showroom in Noosa Junction this coming weekend with a special preview for friends, family and customers (current and future) at Shop 3, 77 Noosa Drive on Sunday from noon. Check it out on Creative Army socials.
