[quote="$1"] Sometimes guys take it too far and try to be too far out or different (that is why Cheyne Horan never won a world title, as he stubbornly stuck with his desire to ride equipment different from the mainstream) and in the end, some sense of moderation always wins out.
Aloha,
Randy Rarick
[/quote]
Hello
I came across this discussion. The discussion is obviously quite old. However, Randy's opinion raises some questions & speculation.
In 1979, Cheyne Horan was riding relatively conventional equipment, as shown in the photographs below. At the time, as an ordinary surfer, I was riding similar boards by McCoy.
According to Cheyne and according to Rabbit Bartholomew in his autobiography, which may possibly be regarded as an objective account, as Cheyne was paddling into the world championship winning wave at Haleiwa, the time keeper, namely Mark Richard's Lightning Blot sponsor Jack Shipley, called time 1:30 minutes early, making a public declaration the winning wave did not count.
Rabbit's general view in is autobiography about that Hawaiian season was the industry was engineering a Mark Richards world championship, with both Rabbit and Cheyne believing they were unfairly judged at the Pipeline competition.
Cheyne's account is as follows:
[quote="$1"]
It was 1979. Haliewa. This is how I feel about that...I love all these guys I'm about to talk about, but you have to remember I was a kid when I went through all of this. PT was hassling real badly and took off on three little waves. I got two big ones. But that's not what got me. The clocks reading 18.36 so there's a minute and a half left and I've got a world title riding on this. I was right on the peak and this set's coming. As the set came, the announcer says, 'ten seconds to go...three, two, one..' And the hooter goes, 'nnnnnyyytttt!'
I rode the wave all the way to the beach, and I march up and there's still like 40seconds to go. If there was video at the time, there would have been proof of the action.
People are at fault here and they need to be questioned on this. The only guy who knows besides me is Jack Shipley. MR's sponsor. He called the time. You may as well ask him. We're all going to die one day, so we may as well have the true history. I love Jack Shipley, he's taught me a lot, he's a brother, but at that point in time it came down to a business decision. I honestly think that's what happened.
I was never bitter, I was upset, Fuck, I was upset! I was still a kid and so much work went into it, and it came down to this? All the work the McCoy tema put into it. I had a whole pit crew behind me, we'd gone through history to see what had worked before, good points, bad points, and how I could incorporate everything. It was the most calculating bid for a world title ever. We had everything covered.
http://www.cheynehoran.com.au/surfersjournalinterview.html
[/quote]
So the speculation is: "If Cheyne, whose style at the time was very unique, with its heavy jams and stalls, won the 1979 World Championshp, would he have pursued so intently the design extremes that commenced in 1980, with wider boards that the industry and other surfers both did not like and could not ride?"
Randy asserts: "Cheyne had a desire to ride equipment different from the mainstream".
Who or what influenced this? Cheyne? Or the mainstream, who, according to accounts, shutdown Cheyne's 1979 Word Championship?
Kind regards
V (ordinary unknown surfer)
[IMG]http://i54.tinypic.com/2s9q45k.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i54.tinypic.com/11j63w5.jpg[/IMG]
