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arkgee said..
1970 and I was living in Torquay when the world titles came to town...the event ran for around a week at Bells...the finals had to be moved down the coast to Johana beach due to the swell dropping....I thought Midget won that final although Rolf Aurness deserved the win more than anyone, he trained harder and surfed longer in the weeks proceeding the event.....the media were all over Nat and Wayne and everybody else barely got a mention in the lead up... especially Midget...it was Nat and Wayne all the way...but they were both riding tiny boards for the time and both Rolf and Midget were on longer sleeker boards and I watched equipment failure strip both Nat and Wayne of any chance of the title...Midget was a very savvy competitor and matched it with Rolf for the whole final....Wayne didn't make it to the final and Nat came in 6th I think. Midget's boards were beautiful....1972 I moved to Coffs Harbour and shaped for Bob Cooper and through Bob I met Midget...Bob used to sell a few of midget's boards in his shop...I was always heavily influenced by those boards, the shape the glassing the pinlines and the finish...always spectacular...a very enigmatic personality Midget was always way ahead in any field he chose...later when I went out on my own I was always in contact with Midget using his blanks and materials and using his sailboard sails that were quite unique in design...Midget was never easy to do business with but very approachable and always good for a laugh and a joke...he really was a legend in the surf and in the industry and went way too soon....R.I.P Midget
I also lived in Torquay through mid 60's to70,One easter I think 67 maybe 68,i'm claiming old timers here, the swell was just massive .
The word got out that fishos was 4 ft plus, when we got there it was wall to wall surfers,I was walking in when I saw Midget take off out the back,he surfed around guys while on the nose and just swooped through as if there was no one even out making section after section.
It was probably then that I started to recognise flow and speed could and should be the same,and his footwork was just as fast and clean.
RIP, Midget.
Just a great surfer.