Going through some old slides, came across this. Not quite over the nose but close enough I think.
The break was then called, Surf Beach with just bush track Access, it's now suburbia and called Secret Harbour.
Yep, Southern Surfrider board shorts.
You can see how old it is from my Knee bump, you can also make out the one on my foot if you look close. The result of Knee paddling all the time. But they were starting to wear away at this time. This board was too thin to knee paddle. It was just before the transition to short boards, when they went thin.
This was an experimental board, circ 67. Tail heavily influenced by Greenough's spoon.
flexi fibreglass tail and fin. Used to fly out of a bottom turn. But it also had no rocker, boards at the time were getting less rocker to try and increase speed, so I took it all the way to see what would happen. I think the flex tail still gave it manoeuvrability, in the turns. But takeoffs were a problem, had to be a quick top turn or you'd pearl.
After wiping out it was wise to stay well under water until you heard the splash. No rocker meant the board would nose dive, bury it self deep, then emerge from the back of the wave at neck hight with a lot of speed.
I named it suicide because of that.
You may even notice the Midget influence, it has no stringer. And despite what a lot of people predicted, it didn't suffer from it
Select to expand quotedecrepit said..
Going through some old slides, came across this. Not quite over the nose but close enough I think.
The break was then called, Surf Beach with just bush track Access, it's now suburbia and called Secret Harbour.
Yep, Southern Surfrider board shorts.
You can see how old it is from my Knee bump, you can also make out the one on my foot if you look close. The result of Knee paddling all the time. But they were starting to wear away at this time. This board was too thin to knee paddle. It was just before the transition to short boards, when they went thin.
This was an experimental board, circ 67. Tail heavily influenced by Greenough's spoon.
flexi fibreglass tail and fin. Used to fly out of a bottom turn. But it also had no rocker, boards at the time were getting less rocker to try and increase speed, so I took it all the way to see what would happen. I think the flex tail still gave it manoeuvrability, in the turns. But takeoffs were a problem, had to be a quick top turn or you'd pearl.
After wiping out it was wise to stay well under water until you heard the splash. No rocker meant the board would nose dive, bury it self deep, then emerge from the back of the wave at neck hight with a lot of speed.
I named it suicide because of that.
You may even notice the Midget influence, it has no stringer. And despite what a lot of people predicted, it didn't suffer from it
Great post, Decrepit.
The spirit of longboarding, right there.
Love the pics and the yarn. 
Select to expand quoteGreeney said..
Very fond memories of that break,first surfed it in 1969,a fun wave that really came into its own,with the rebirth of cool,mid to high tide,logging ,some would say one of the best logging breaks in Victoria.That surfer we watched grow from talented grom to very talented adult,good surfing genes,his dad is very good as well,lots of long faces when they turned up ,not many waves left over for the rest of us .
hope they are both doing well.
Geez Decrepit I was there in the board bumps era and they were a sign of a surfer back then, I can remember one guy who couldn't get shoes on due to the size of his.
That flex tail was ahead of it's time..Mitchell Rae up here on the north coast and in Sydney in the 70's, has pursued the flex side of boards and still makes them today.
Herbie Fletcher. Off the Wall. 2005
