The Shark Island Tapes - video
In the mid-to late-90s Craig Stroh released a bunch of movies shot around the Cronulla reefs. Addiction, Square, and 2230 all featured the local crew surfing a number of waves, however the highlight was always Shark Island. Stroh, who now runs Southwave, has compiled some of the better waves from those films into one package. The Shark Island Tapes has VHS grit, not to mention Olympic pool waves breaking in shower deep water, all shot long before the word 'slab' entered the vernacular.
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From the water, Shark Island would have to be one of the most photogenic waves out there.
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love it!
Still to this day one of the heaviest backhand barrels I've ever seen was Jeremy Hrbac out there...solid 8ft warped triple sucking mutant...the whole thing slabbed on him and the whole channel groaned in pain...then roared when he emerged out of the spit...pure surfing theatre.
Now do a Solander clip with only bodyboarders.
And how good is it that one of the most fickle and iconic waves on the east coast and famous all around the world that there is a surf cam directly on it to bring the world to the island.
But we must not have one on Lennox Head. JOKE
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Negitive. But dont tell anyone
You sure its me?
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Good video.
And there's a wave in the above video that he also doesn't make.
You're not having a good run Evo...
Stu, with Evo's permission, could you please delete.
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Just did some google snooping. Fark evo thats a bomb
Gary has heard the island is best when it's East, but it's even better when it's Nor East
Funny how Koby Abberton and his thug mates that live 40 minutes away say Cape Solander is "Ours" coz bodyboarders have Shark Island. Is he butt hurt about Solander being a far inferior wave?
Insane pit from Chalky there though.
You know what they say stu if you dont go you will never really know and
I pretty much dont really care these days.
Old thread revival but what happened to Southwave and Chris Stroh? i heard he was ill.
Hope he is alright but id love to see this footage again.
He's been busy ..ripper pics
https://www.instagram.com/chrisstrohphotos/
Chris Stroh what a guru. Cronulla shone with his help as did many careers. Original film pirate, seen some times.
https://www.chrisstroh.com.au/
https://cronullasurfmuseum.com.au/
dedicated to the cause
(boils and barnacles extra)
Well bred..
Im a little bit dissapointed Chris Stroh never took any photos of my brother or myself in our island days..maybe its due to me getting into eccies or something i dont know..i also never had a sponsor besides getting second boards from one agent..seemed a bit corrupt to me...all the new "skid kids" after wingy and perce gave up the lid and nugget went to the mines and sw WA, the new guys all pretended they always surfed it as they had heavy sponsors and dropped in often on the old true regulars as long as they were better fighters than the old true regulars who some surfed it at night/lowtide or wrong swell directions whatever...What a stupid world where posers get the rewards cause they can fight.
That only sounds bitter now, my friend Gleeso used to film my friends and myself and he became a world class photographer..i showed him a lot of secrets and he filmed me surfing them but we never released the footage or sold it off as they were sensitive breaks that took effort to find and suss out.
I didnt care about getting in mags back then as i was an electrical apprentice but now i care, its missing out on opportunity free travel with sponsorship etc.
Also one of my pro mates once told me " a photo is a excellent moment trapped in time" and now photos mean more to me so i wish i had of got more photos in my prime. and also of my friends prime.
By the way those bully blowins who took over as they had "Sponsorships" to make them famous couldn't get as deep as me and pitted from start to finish or any other true regular or local. All the shortboarders like Speg, Ox, Terapai, grub, rusty moran, boogs and especially Steve Fienbier knew i had what it takes. i was just a shit fighter. they all saw me go through foamballs and make it out, barrelled from start to finish and pushing through foamballs the whole way on ese swells or se swells, also sometimes on the end on big NE swells.
I even surfed with Mark Matthews once and he was letting me get the good slabby ones. he is one of the only surfers ive seen take off on surge on a six to eight foot NE swell. thats booger conditions. anyway he let me take the pick of the bunch as he was just working it all out. he had a huge aura of charisma that shouted "CHARGER". Most of the new bodybaord bully crew didnt have that they didnt have all the surfers watching them surf since they were eleven or twelve at decent shark island and third reef cronulla point barrels. the bully crew blew in when they were in their twenties and did well in comps so got sponsors and then thought they ruled shark island as they could fight.
After about ten or more epic pits at shark island i called it quits and decided to just surf the south coast and ride a fish or lid on lid waves.
Worked out well, found many spots between maroubra and mornington peninsula and about six indo trips after i paid off my car.
Life on a fish was simple, say gnarly man a lot grow my hair long and curly, do a few highline drives down into bowls around closeout sections and back onto the wave..it felt just as good as getting a five second tube.
Relaxing times riding a fish so rarely looked back in regret of leaving shark island.