HISTORY

Youngy was one of the early Cronulla crew whose charging at Shark Island  in the late 80′s  gave Bodyboarding  some well needed exposure for heavy wave surfing. At the time the sport in Aus. was based mostly on small wave competitions but thanks to Youngy , Dougy, Wazza and the rest of the Island boys the balance of focus would soon change. Photo Chris Stroh Circa early 90′s. 

The first installment of The Underground Tapes video series by Chris Stroh came out in Nov ’91 and in total produced 10 titles under the UT name.This November the iconic video series turns twenty. At the time in Aus the sport only had overseas videos so when the UTs came out featuring Ozzie riders showing they had the skills to match the Hawaiians the local kids were amped. Here’s the first adv. that appeared in Riptide. Stay tuned for some clips featuring unseen footage from back in the day.

 

Bal was one of my favourite subjects to shoot. He  had power to burn and was bodyboardings version of Occy. He made my job as a photograoher easy. When you talk of DK greats Bal is right up there with Roach , Aka, Jack and Kyle. Photo from Riptide early 90′s by Stroh at Garie.

One of Hawaiia’s early standouts at both prone and dropknee Marzol was a regular finalist throughout the Hawaiian comps in the 80′s. This floater pic by Brian Bielmann  Winter 89/90.

Salt Creek regular Kevin Baker scored the cover of Bodyboarding Mag Feb/March 1990 pic by Hank.

Adam Smith alias Wingnut busted onto the bodyboard scene as a 10 yearold  hell grommet and quickly made a name for himself with his charging and full on ripping approach. This Manta adv from the early 90′s shot at Mystics by Stroh.

 

Bodyboarding pioneer and inventor of the el rollo Pat Caldwell  puts his signature move to good use in this classic Aleeda adv photo taken by Aaron Lloyd Circa late 80′s.

Hauoli and Mike Stewart came to Oz around 1990 and while doing promotions for their sponsors they managed to slip in a few sessions like this day at Blackrock better known as Aussie Pipe. The Hawaiian pair lucked into a memorable session of hollow tubes and the photo below captured Mr Reeves heading home after a hard day at the office photo Stroh

Avoca’s Tim Jones was the best known Central Coast bodyboarder in the late 80′s and early 90′s long  before he became infamous for his Waimea charging. Jonesy was competing on the amateur and pro comps including Pipe  and doing okay until an incident one day at Manly when he was banned from competing  for causing a bit of party mayhem the night before his heat.. TJ had more sponsors and stickers than any other Aussie at the time, carve shot by Stroh

This day was classic, Eppo , Bullet and myself were cruising the mid north coast on a photo/video mission when a cyclone swell hit in the early 90′s. Forster area is not renown for big waves and was closing out except for this one reef that was pretty much all time. Eppo  and Bullet charged it and the  word got out at the local school and before we knew it the headland was full of kids, the teachers let classes out so the pupils could watch 2 of Aus greats tear up their local spot..photo and words Stroh.