Shark Island Design

Surfboard logo for Shark Island Designs shaped by Geoff Solness Circa 80’s

Speg

Dave “Speg” Mckinley recently was spotted out The Island in June 2012 scoring one of the best days in recent years. In the 90’s Speg and his brother Ox along with Jezza, Sparky, Harey, Grub,Terapai, Boogs and Rusty where the  Island standouts. Speg returned to the Island after several years in hibernation this swell and proved he still has what it takes to pull in and make it at Cronulla’s infamous reef. This shot of Speg Circa 90’s by Chris Stroh

G&S ’69

Gordon and Smith adv. from Surfing World 1969.

Occy and Peak Wetsuits

Occy’s rise to power in the early years of his career was helped along considerably by his sponsor Peak Wetsuits. Peak snavelled up Mark  as a grom and it was only when the Raging Bull signed 100% with Billabong that the two parted company. This shot taken by Peter Simons was snapped at Wanda Beach around the mid 80’s.

Greeny

Gary Green  has the prestige of having  his name in print along with the elite of surfing’s hierarchy in Matt Warshaws Encyclopedia of Surfing. It states Greeny was born in 1963 and raised in a $30.00 a week flat in western Sydney before moving to Newport at age 14.Three years later he moved to Cronulla.  He joined the Pro Tour in ’84. Midway through the 1987 tour year when he was ranked in 6th position he bailed on contest surfing and became one of the first non competitive pros who was paid to travel instead. This shot Greeny was taken on the South Coast mid 80’s photo Stroh

 

Southside Open 1980

Original spray painted artwork for the inaugral Southside Open Comp by Jim Davidson. Jim a former Cronulla boy is now reproducing  many of his original artworks  onto canvas for sale.

G&S Spoon

When George Greenough released his revolutionary movie “The Innermost Limits of Pure Fun” he inspired a lot of surfers to take up spoon riding. The Point was a haven for the Kneelo crew due to its hollowness and the Spoon boys were a common sight. Here’s a Circa 70’s Gordon and Smith Spoon  board with the unique  fiberglass bottom for extra flex.

Richard Herbert

This watershot of Herbie taken by Peter Simons featured in a Cronulla Point story called The Power and The Glory in which Simo and Peter Glasson discuss an epic swell in ’74. Glasso recalled this day was some of the biggest and best waves he had ever seen.  From SW Vol 19 No.3.

Frank Latta ’69.

This advertisement appeared in Surfing World in  ’69 featuring Frank Latta who was head shaper and sponsored surfer for the fresh new brand called Steve Core Surfboards. Both Steve and Frank had worked together at other local Board manufactures when they branched out on their own in a factory at Taren Point. The venture  lasted about 1 year.

Jim Davidson/ Spray Artist

Jim Davidson  grew up with a spray can in his hand. At the age of 12 years he found surfing … just starting high school and meeting a new group of mates was the key , they were all psyched on catching the next wave !!! The “mang gang” was formed in 1966 , a bunch of guys getting up at 4.00 am and riding pushbikes or hitch hiking to Cronulla beach , “the alley” was the spot , at that time uncrowded and no hassles from clubbies. They learned to surf , Jim had conned his father into buying a 9’6″ “Bonka” as they called it , coated in orange pigment and weighing about 20 kilos, and it cost the grand sum of $11.00 , it was a monster , jim was about to start “working” on surfboards . With his mate “scaba” (Peter Haling) they stripped the bonka and re-shaped it … ending up with a 4’6″ shorebreak special , then painted it with a red background and a spider over the whole of the deck , the very first paint job on a surfboard .

     From then on it all began , all Jim wanted to do , besides surf , was paint surfboards , pretty soon he coined the phrase ” if it stands still long enough I’ll paint it !!” He was still at high school when he started spraying boards at “JACKSON SURFBOARDS ” all these years later he still thanks “Jacko” for giving him a chance to mess a couple of boards up and as Jacko said “use all the bloody masking tape!!”

     In the 60’s surfers weren’t considered to be very acceptable , they were an wild mob who hung around the beach and had too much fun !!! long haired and flanno shirts , Jim’s dad called them “a bunch of long haired pansies” he fell short of bludgers , but he was thinking it !! Jim’s parents felt he could do better by going to university and getting a respectable career … that didn’t work . After dropping out and working a lot of dead end jobs … Jim deceided it was better to go back to the surfboard factories to self train and hone all his skills to become one of , only a couple of , surfboard spray artists in Sydney. And so it began , his illustrious career .

    In 1974 , he became GORDON & SMITH SURFBOARDS’ full time sprayman-artist , producing up to 100 surfboards a week , this gave him a lot of time to experiment and refine skills at the same time gathering as many skills and methods to produce so many designs , there was no training course and you can’t make mistakes on surfboard foam  you can’t rub out or paint over a mistake , it was a challenge to make every board a bit different to the rest and be stylish and saleable !!! Once he had the skills , people began recommending him to other manufacturers … how could he refuse , it was a passion to paint boards . There was JACKSON , EMERALD , SOUTHERN COMFORT , FORCE 9  in the Cronulla area , from south CARABINE , BYRNE BROTHERS , SKIPP , CHRISTIE soon word got to the northern beaches , BENNETT , ALOHA , CHANNEL ISLANDS , FRIAR TUCK , ISLAND-A-CLASSIC , NATURAL FLIGHT , MIDGET FARRELY and there were more boards generated by the pro-surfers , the board shapers and surfing identities TERRY RICHARDSON , THE BRONZED AUSSIES , PETER TOWNEND , CHEYNE HORAN , MARK OCCHILUPO , JIM BANKS , CRITTER BYRNE , MARK RICHARDS , BRAD MAYES , GRAHAM CASSIDY , ROSS AND DYLAN LONGBOTTOM , GARY HUGHES , ROSS MARSHALL and even MICHAEL PETERSON shaped a number of boards at GORDON &SMITH . It had always been a dream to move to the north coast , so in 1981 Jim and his wife moved to the North Coast. Jims work has appeared everywhere in the surf industry he has dedicated himself to the betterment of the art of surfing and beyond for the best part of his life. Below is one of his most best known artworks the The Storm Riders Movie  Poster.