As much as we all hate the beasterly easterlies, the desperation they induce can give rise to inspiration. Roll back the clock to the late 70's. Local surfer John MacLeod was sitting in the dunes at Pipe staring at the onshore ocean. Needing a dose of salt-water he decided to take out one of the lifesavers "boats".
Huge 8ft6 ft ski's with a shallow seat and footwells, but no fins, that you sat on and paddled. They were notorious for careering through the line-up at Pipe and wiping out all the surfers - and after John had taken it out for a spin he knew why - they were impossible to control cos they had no fins. Coming from a design and engineering background John just thought there had to be a better way to make them, so that they had more directional control. As a surfer he wasn't at all interested in using them himself, he just saw a problem, and went "Hey, I'm gonna have a bash at fixing it" |