HISTORY

John Gibson from the Gold Coast was a talented goofyfoot whose style was reminiscent to Paul Roach. Gibbo was a bit of an underground player and kept a low profile preferring to travel to Indo and other less travelled locations. This pic by Peto late 90′s at D Bah.

Advertisement for Hawaiian brand Fumanchu in 2000. The brainchild of photographer Joe Libby who mixed Hip Hop with Dropknee to create an unique street clothing style.

Off The Wall in Hawaii once known as Kodak Reef has been a high performance  move orientated wave. On a sunny day the beach is lined with cameras capturing every slice of action. Its been the home of plenty of exceptional dropknee performances. This shot by Joe Libby of Hawaiian underground ripper Keone Gunderson is typical of the types of moves seen almost every winter in the late 90′s.

When No Friends went global in the late 90s it had no bigger impact than Australia. The local clothing brand pulled together the hottest young Aussie kids to wave the NF flag like Nelson Ross below. Nelson was from the Sunny Coast. Along with, Sean Virtue, Jono Bruce, Michael Crawley, Dave Winchester and Joel Taylor team NF Oz was a youth force like no other before or later. Pic MC.

 

When Tom Morey invented the bodyboard in 1971 Mitch Rawlins wasn’t even born. When this shot was taken in the late 90′s Rawlins was a third generation bodyboarder who adopted all the good points of his heroes from the past mixed with his own brand of  fire power. Off The Wall Hawaii pic Stroh.

 

This snap of Ryan “Hardballs” Hardy was taken in ’98 at a then secret spot on the Central  Coast. To keep it low key Tim Jones the photographer ran the shot in reverse in this Billabong adv.

 

Dave Ballard’s dropknee attack was powerful and uncompromising. The stocky framed Bal was a wrecking ball front-side or backside as this shot proves. This gouge photo was taken at Garie beach early 90′s by Stroh and used in a Billabong adv.

Rush Mag Issue 2 had Mason Rose on the cover. Although best known for his Dropknee , Mason was equally skilled at prone. This photo taken at Lighthouse Beach around 98 by Stroh.

From Coffs Harbour WarrickAppleton was a strong competitor in Australia’s early contest scene throughout the 80′s winning an Open Aussie title using unpopular skegs on his board. Article and pic by Evan Penglis.

Taken from Surfing Mags Contest page this was the final results for the 3rd Pipeline World Title Contest won my Mike Stewart, his second of many.