Not too much fun when glassing this object…
Hey Ben. Where did you find that photo? I think I might know who he is. In the 70’s one of the local crew at the Wedge (Whale Beach) was an American guy named Jick Mebane. He had a mate by the name of Earl Patterson. He was from sunny QLD and a bit out there. He shaped these boards that resembled birds and other animals. There was one hanging in Kirra Surf last time I was on the Gold Coast. We got stoned one day (as you did in the 70"s ) and tryed to surf this thing that looked like a bird in flight. Earl also shaped these boards with a ripple bottom. There was a post a while back about boards called The Jick bottom. Earl showed Jick how to shape these bottoms. I think Earl may be the person in the photo.platty.
And I thought the fat penguin was crazy…
regards,
Håvard
Ohhhhh Noooo, that’s not a version of the board named after a small, flightless, underwater-swimming bird from the polar regions??? Aaaaaaahhhh…
Hey Platty you wrote you tried those boards, please let us know how they feel.
Good waves!
Coque. I didn’t ride the board in the photo. The board I rode looked like a bird. Needless to say it didn’t preform as a surfboard should.platty.
Thanks, just corious.
… Platty, it’s from ‘surfing world’ c1975, from memory?
…it was at a kneeboard contest which ,as usual , Peter Crawford won ! No surprises there.
I thought this was John Ware, actually…I may be wrong. Erle Pedersen, the designer of the ‘JET BOTTOM’ [see 'ripping down walls video, and my thread…photos of my brother’s jet bottoms there!] to my knowledge never kneeboarded.
This was the contest Michael Peterson kneeboarded in, and got thrashed by Peter Crawford…
Needless to say roy’s australian surfing career was short lived
didnt donovan frankenriter ride an up dated version of that shape by doc lausch.
Actually, Doc’s “U.S.O.” looks much more like a thinner, more modernised version of the (inbuilt foam centre keel) foamies [‘coolite’ boards] many of us in Australia learnt to surf on from the late 1960s / early 1970s, onward. This was before they figured to put on a more ‘normal’ kind of fin…once George Greenough had shown us what that looked like!
The ‘U.S.O.’ was the ''unidentified surfing object "
…this was the name of an article ‘Tracks’ newspaper [in those days] did on Erle Pedersen and Michael Peterson, back in the early 1970s. [both were heroin users…don’t know if that accounted for their …er…different designs]. Erle still struggles , apparently…my brother went looking for him on his last trip to the Gold Coast, after seeing the ‘Ripping Down Walls’ video again, and wanting to meet the creator of HIS four ‘Jet Bottoms’ !
But, drugs aside… in that period , there WAS a LOT of experimenting with radical boards going on anyway, starting around 1968/9 onwards…
So, here’s Doc Lausch’s recent take on the early 1970s foamies here… I want to get the D.V.D. of ‘Framelines’, definately…I like Donovan’s surfing! (I enjoyed his single fin surfing in ‘Riding Waves’. )
ben
2OO2’s " U.S.O. " …
Wasn’t Jick Mebane a nom de plume for one of the Track’s staffers?
hahahahahahahaHaha!!!
I’ve seen that one many times before! Funny, tracks has that pic in the 10 worst surfers of all time! (issueMarch 2004)
They rote,
Ian Analberg
Destructo man…
It is a fact- no other surfer ever caused more pain, injury and insult than Ian Analberg. in a recent study it was found that Analberg had been the direct cause of 3000 hospital admittions… in 2003 alone. be it through his inoproruite bail outs, drop ins, violent carpark shower spins, board between the legs duck dives or just good 'ol fashion straighten out run-overs, he has caused more injuries than Ghanges Khan. when tracks fronted him the only reply was 'Im gonna kill your dog, Mondy…then eat it…raw!
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Josh.
Wasn’t Jick Mebane a nom de plume for one of the Track’s staffers?
Dunno mate, but 'Captain Goodvibes ’ SURE was !
When I finally met Tony Edwards, it was obvious to me that ‘Captain Goodvibes’ was autobiographical…the resemblance and lifestyle similarities was scary…
Yeh Goodvibes is about the only thing worth looking at in those old Tracks mags unless you’re some sort of nostalgia freak
‘BLINDboy’ ? LOOKING at ‘Tracks’ ? !
…oh the irony of it all… [GOOD one, mate !! … keep up the humour !]
hahahahehehehe
blindboy sees all!
Needless to say roy’s australian surfing career was short lived
two extremes…from this to 17 ’ wood boards !!! …
hahaha
Wasn’t Jick Mebane a nom de plume for one of the Track’s staffers?
There was a good chance Jick did write the odd article in Tracks. The Witzings were living two doors up from Jicks place. The little green house in the corner above the Wedge. Jick also had something to do with the W.A.V.E. hollow boards. A importer or rep or something. He was pretty tight with that group of people. There was allways something happening at his place. It was a pretty exciting time for a teenager.platty.