MR and Bugs

Rip Curl Pro, Bells

Easter 1980

Mark Richards and Wayne Bartholomew, dusk, post-event 1980. No disrespect to Cheyne Horan or Shaun Tomson, but for a traditional Victorian crowd at Easter, it was all about flannelettes and piss, M.R. and Bugs. Here, M.R. assumes the apologetic politeness of a Clark Kent in victory, while Bugs assumes Churchillian staunchness in defeat.

Derek Hynd 2026

Aussie pipe a.k.a. Black rock 1981
South Coast New South Wales
Australia

Aussie pipe was the perfect location for Crew looking for a fun slabbing left hander hugging Into The Huskisson Bay for Sydney crew a 2 1/2 three hour drive in a short walk Into it perfect set up

Picking up all is well from the south and being sheltered from the north-easters. It was a perfect getaway for the manic wave hungry surfers.

Printed on aluminium composite panel and finished with a hand-applied resin coating that enhances colour, depth and detail.

Produced in a limited edition and supplied with a certificate of authenticity.

Nat Young

Dee Why point, NSW
Australia

Nat Young is an was a prominent figure in Australian Surfing history more known for winning world titles on a longer board that went on to become a shaper and got sucked into the world of the futuristic generation of shortboard riding here he is honing his skills at Dee Why point Love the hand on the outside rail just pure style

Printed on aluminium composite panel and finished with a hand-applied resin coating that enhances colour, depth and detail.

Produced in a limited edition and supplied with a certificate of authenticity.

On the face of it, just the big kid in Kong holding court on the main drag. This Easter in Torquay, however, all the attention is running his way. He's the future of Australian surfing. In the looming generation beyond Horan and Carroll, Quiksilver, Rip Curl, and the entire Tracks and Surfing World readership know it.

At this point, notably being 18 months off Occhilupo's transition to Rusty boards,all that needs to unfold at Bells Bowl in the surf. In flash red and yellow neoprene 'leathers’, Kong proceeds to decimate solid Bowl in the greatest debut Australian surfing has thus far seen. Kong's method: low-line-to-high-line power.

Seen here; Kong, obviously; Hans Hedemann to his left; probably Clarke Jones on the roof; possibly Rory Russell driving; maybe Derham Tutton back to camera; chance it's Thornton Fallander through the window, sitting in a cafe, smiling.

Another example of PC's lens setting the stage for a fresh dimension. If Dane at Johanna was all about harmony, this one captures the stage setting for raucous behaviour. The Tour back then wasn't about ratings as much as it was about finding your own level on land.

Derek Hynd 2026

Derek Hynd, sans contest vest, blown off him during a first wave wipeout, becomes the only surfer in pro contest history to successfully come through a pro heat minus requisite garb, if not in any heat at all - and in soul-black wetsuit at that. Also, the only time this day that a competitor has gone the Hail Mary deep Rincon gamble, about to pay off against the unsighted Dane Kealoha. It is also the only heat featuring both riders on guns. The wind has earlier swung from stormy Sou West to abating West to perfect due North in sculpting best ever conditions. Far off Point Addis has registered every wrapping set over eight hours. All day at this signal, surfers have stroked head down for the horizon. This particular afternoon has literally been the greatest show on Earth.

Out of shot, 1000 plus people stand behind the spectator in a superb act of photographic deception. The sun and the howling offshores have already combined for Simon Anderson's historic centre stage with light beginning to fade. Photog Crawford has already risked life in having been dropped into the lineup by helicopter, survived the experience, and is back on the clifftop for this last main event heat, yet the surfing isn't done. Not by a long shot. The cap comes from two complete surfers - Wayne Lynch via stunning hook under the lip and above the head of rookie Barton Lynch, and Terry Fitzgerald on an island gun with undoubtedly the greatest handful of soul arches ever likely to be seen. By way of grand climactic prelude the prior day, orchestrator Doug Warbrick had privately called this mega swell to just a handful of people at the bottom of an emptying Bells carpark. Most winning pros had left for the day in the assumption that a playful day of diminishing swell was all but gone.

NOT - QUITE. Doug's old secret contact, in the days of finger to the wind and chart at the ready, was 50 miles to the west as the crow flies - and at a lighthouse. He'd just spoken to Doug by phone, "The biggest lift in a sea that I've seen in all my days is bloody well in front of me". Every pro was about to be clobbered without a big wave gun in the arsenal - save Terry Fitzgerald's mob - literally blindsided in dark horror from midnight until incredulous 7 a.m. first light. Few slept right through - from the foundations of Torquay houses shaking.

Derek Hynd 2026

Wheeler pde (home) 1981
DeeWhy NSW
Australia

PC with array of his slab kneeboards Peter was fanatical about Fin placement and design Peter Patent the long Fin box and had the tri set up before anyone hence why Simon tested his first 3 fin thruster surfboard out Dee Why point. Dee Why point and Peter Crawford went hand-in-hand his technique his style and his approach to The Wave was phenomenal

Printed on aluminium composite panel and finished with a hand-applied resin coating that enhances colour, depth and detail.

Produced in a limited edition and supplied with a certificate of authenticity.

Peter Crawford getting slabbed 

Dee Why New South Wales
Australia

Photo by Art Brewer.

Printed on aluminium composite panel and finished with a hand-applied resin coating that enhances colour, depth and detail.

Produced in a limited edition and supplied with a certificate of authenticity.

Michael Novakov

North Narrabeen, New South Wales
Australia

This photo is just unbelievable depicted is a knee border doing a super technical hard manoeuvre upside down in the lip hence the name the barrel roll

Printed on aluminium composite panel and finished with a hand-applied resin coating that enhances colour, depth and detail.

Produced in a limited edition and supplied with a certificate of authenticity.

Burleigh Heads, QLD

Australia - 1982

Action moment, Rabbit Bartholomew. 

Printed on aluminium composite panel and finished with a hand-applied resin coating that enhances colour, depth and detail.

Produced in a limited edition and supplied with a certificate of authenticity.

Maurice Cole and luminaries & Messrs Green McKnight, Lynch, Byrne, Tomson, Pawson Law, McCoy, Llamas, Collier.

Rip Curl Pro Final, Rincon rocks

Easter 1981

The quintessentially most illuminating, if not gregarious, surfer of all, Maurice Cole, points due south at yet another Simon Anderson ride against Cheyne Horan in the 1981 Rip Curl Pro final at Rincon. Just about as much an institution as the event itself, no event seemed complete without an intimate pack of locals, owners, pros and friends compressed against the Rincon rocks on an incoming king tide during an Easter full moon(included amongst others are Alan Green, Bob McKnight (filming), Shaun Tomson, Critta Byrne, Bud Llamas, Vince Collier, Wayne Lynch, John Law, Jack McCoy and the greatly missed John Pawson.

Derek Hynd 2026

Huntington Beach, California, 1984

Tom Carroll, Mike Newling and Simon Anderson photographed by Peter Crawford at Huntington in 1984.

The image gathers three figures inside the international surf scene of the eighties, a moment of people, place and professional surfing on the Californian coast.

1985

A composed people image from Peter Crawford’s 1985 archive.

Known in the file as “Beware Girls”, the photograph has a graphic quality, capturing attitude, scene and period detail in one sharp frame.

Bells Beach, Victoria, 1983

An overview of Bells Beach photographed by Peter Crawford in 1983.

The image steps back from the action to show the shape of the place itself — cliffs, bowl and ocean — one of Australian surfing’s defining locations.

Waimea Bay, North Shore, Hawaii, 1985

Tom Carroll and Aaron Chang photographed by Peter Crawford at Waimea in 1985.

The fisheye feel brings the viewer close to the scene, placing people, place and Hawaiian water inside one charged North Shore frame.

Pipeline, North Shore, Hawaii, 1982

Shirley Jones photographed by Peter Crawford at Pipeline in 1982.

The image brings together person and place, holding the raw North Shore setting and the human presence around one of surfing’s most recognisable waves.

1985

A beach pageant scene from the 1985 OP Pro, photographed by Peter Crawford.

Part contest culture, part coastal theatre, the image records the broader world that surrounded professional surfing in the eighties.

1984

Mark “Occy” Occhilupo in a double exposure from Peter Crawford’s archive.

The layered frame gives the image its energy, turning a surf photograph into something more graphic, restless and alive — a study of movement, repetition and eighties performance surfing.

Pipeline, Hawaii, 1987

Marvin Foster photographed by Peter Crawford at Pipeline in 1987.

A North Shore image full of speed, edge and Hawaiian water, capturing one of the era’s powerful surfers in a defining place.

Backdoor, Hawaii, 1988

Derek Ho at Backdoor in 1988, photographed by Peter Crawford during a charged North Shore contest period.

The image captures the size and pressure of a heavy Hawaiian set, with Backdoor’s speed and angle giving the frame its force.

Pipeline, Hawaii, 1988

A Pipe Masters composition from Peter Crawford’s 1988 North Shore archive.

With the surfer still to be confirmed, the photograph holds the scale and theatre of Pipeline under contest pressure.

1984

Occy photographed by Peter Crawford in 1984, driving through a powerful top turn.

The image holds the raw force and instinctive timing that made his surfing feel so explosive through the eighties.

Pipeline, Hawaii, 1984

Joey Buran photographed by Peter Crawford at Pipeline during the 1984 Pipe Masters.

The image places Buran inside the intensity of the North Shore contest arena, where timing and nerve were everything.

Pipeline, Hawaii, 1981

Simon Anderson bottom turning at Pipeline in 1981, photographed by Peter Crawford during a pivotal period in performance surfing.

The image holds the compression and drive of a surfer setting his line beneath one of the North Shore’s most powerful waves.