Diamond Head
One of the best general interest articles on surfing you will ever read!
Great read. As much about being on the doorstep of life as it is about surfing. I miss feeling ways about stuff.
Some more of similar quality
https://longform.org/posts/the-longform-guide-to-surfing--2
I haven't read them all but what I have read has been good. Have you been getting in the water?
It has been pretty good here (understatement!). It has been light offshore with good clean swell more often than not over recent weeks and the water has been unnaturally warm. You have to be lucky sometimes.
Here's one for you blinder. Its the press, so don't know how accurate. Some argue Arnold was first. Doesn't really matter in the context.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1356679/The-Ugg-inventor-gave…
Yeh Shane has always had a good local reputation for being a good bloke and an honourable businessman. More power to him.
They are the names I was told [speed] by Kym Thompson many moons ago in Vicco...good stuff Uplift.
Arnold probably got the idea for the soles from here. Huaraches were as popular as Golden Breed, and the car tyre soles were the best thing for our coast, with the sharp limestone.
https://www.huaraches.com/information/a-brief-history-and-guide-about-hu…
https://www.huaraches.com/information/the-beach-boys-huaraches-and-surf-…
Wayne lynch once said that Arnold with his Oneil/Golden Breed licences turned over 20 mil in 1968 ..Phew ?
Yeh, I only met him when I was a kid. I didn't work for him, so have no idea about that side, business etc. From my contact and experience, he was really forward thinking, would try anything. A Branson type. He was really helpful, good to the kids, and because he made wetsuits, he talked about them enthusiastically, and in my case made me, and let me try different zip set ups, cuts etc, some of which are now common. Wayne Dale too had a massive influence, especially when you take into account all the guys he helped, Bucky, etc. Lots of SA guys did. Obviously Burford. Noddy. Habib. Kym Thompson had a huge influence in Vic. Punk was the agent for McCoy, back in the BK, Reno, Hackman, Warren etc models. Weasel and his Sunrise helped heaps of guys. Moir's Challengers was a classic too. I remember when Hugh, still get to stir him about it sometimes, and Ajax, the blond superstars were in there. Before Arnold, with the classic long john vest combo, it was funny. White Stag days.
udo wrote:
Was the ugg boot Shanes invention or a S.A surfers mums ?
I recollect Shane copied what he had seen from a trip to South Africa.
Shit uppy my first wet suit was a White Stag tube suit.....no arms, short legs. When one of my mates got a long john, long legs, still no arms, we were amazed. How could you get cold in one of them! Before that it was footy jumpers and a fire on the beach.
Ha, thats classic. I had the zip up no sleeves vest, no legs. I got it from Doug Sunstroms water ski/car radio shop in Adelaide, where I got work after school. It was my first pay, and I wore it over a jumper. I must have been freezing. But I saw it in Surfer, so, at that age, and one of the few of us to have any wetty, that alone was enough to keep me warm. Likewise, a mate took over later, when he got an Oneill long john, then vest. That combo actually is still valid, zipperless, warm, flexible, with contemporary rubber. Arnold put me onto US Rubatex, and they made some pretty good rubber, easily the best then, considering the era and what else was available. Wax was pretty entertaining back then too.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/06/01/off-diamond-head-finnegan