Michael Peterson

Peterson commenced surfing on "surf-o-planes" (an inflated rubber mat device invented in 1932) and then graduated to a board called a "Coolite" (constructed from a form of polystyrene beaded foam and first introduced at the beginning of the 1970s).

During Peterson's upbringing, his family experienced difficulty with income security and his mother worked extremely long hours in a variety of jobs (such as peeling prawns) to support the children.

The Peterson boys couldn't afford to own boards of any kind, and were only able to hire or borrow them; either from Billy Rak at Greenmount or Johnny Charlton at Kirra, both of whom ran tourist hire businesses.

The two boys were eventually employed by Rak for two summers, setting up and transporting surfboards for tourists.

Michael "MP" Peterson (24 September 1952 – 29 March 2012) was a professional Australian surfer.

Peterson attained ownership of his first surfboard in 1966, when he retrieved broken and abandoned boards that had been washed up on the rocks at Greenmount Beach.

As leg ropes had not yet been introduced, surfers would lose their boards relatively easily and frequently, leaving people like Peterson to collect what remained.

The brothers would take the remnants home, make rough repairs and then return to the water to try out their rejuvenated boards.

It was during this time that the Peterson boys discovered another advantage of surf club membership; weekend surfers from Brisbane would leave their boards at the club during the week, enabling the brothers to choose from a wide selection of items for their own unpermitted use.

In September 1967, around the time of Peterson's 15th birthday, the family moved to units in Tweed St, Coolangatta, and the boys set up a board shaping bay underneath.

On the premise that surfboards would be less expensive to make than buy, the brothers sought out resin and fibreglass offcuts from local factories.

For the creation of a "blank" (a foam core component that is re-modelled into a specific surfboard shape), Peterson would extract them from old longboards.

Like the Petersons, many of the local kids could not afford to purchase new surfboards either and the home-based business consequently flourished through meeting this demand, eventually expanding to the garage of Peterson's friend, Peter Townend

Unknowingly, the cut-downs that the Peterson's were making placed them at the centre of the shortboard revolution.

8-foot boards would be cut down to 6 feet, 8 inches, or to 6-foot, or right down to 5 feet, 1 inch (although, they soon realised that they had gone too far with the smallest measurement when they were overwhelmed by the big waves at Kirra. The shortest length that they ever constructed was 4 feet, 3 inches, for their friend, Kerry Gill, who actually found that the model suited him.

Peterson's first new board, a board that he perceived as "proper", was attained in 1968.

His mother offered to buy him a new surfboard if Peterson won the Greenmount Surf Lifesaving Club championship.

With Peterson's consistent competitive drive spurred on by such an offer, he was a convincing winner; two weeks later, Peterson received a 7 feet, 11 inches board from local shaper, Ken Gudenswager.

He was considered one of the best surfers in Australia during the early to mid-1970s and was recognised for his deep tube riding skill, especially at Kirra on the Gold Coast, Australia.

In February 1971, Australian surf filmmaker, Alby Falzon, was filming for Morning of the Earth on the Gold Coast; the time period is known for some of the most significant swell ever seen at the history of the location (12 continuous weeks in which the waves rarely measured below "head height").

Previously, Falzon had published a picture of Peterson in the magazine, Tracks (co-founded and published by Falzon), accompanied by an article about the "underground" Gold Coast scene; on the day of the Tracks photograph, Falzon happened to be filming at Kirra, Queensland, while Peterson was exposing his talent on a surfboard.

The result of the February 1971 filming session was a three-minute sequence that was included in Morning of the Earth, while numerous were printed in Tracks.

The photograph of Peterson that gained the most attention became known as "the cutback"—it featured Peterson, tall and muscular, with his long hair flying, executing a "cutback" manoeuvre at Kirra.

Peterson was the Australian champion in the years 1972 and 1974, and won many other major surfing competitions.

Peterson was eventually diagnosed with schizophrenia and became publicly known for using illicit drugs.

Peterson was born in a working-class family and lived in several places; the family eventually settled in Coolangatta, when Peterson was 15 years of age, on Queensland, Australia's Gold Coast.

Peterson lived in Coolangatta with his mother, Joan, younger brother, Tommy, and younger sisters, Dorothy (Dot) and Denice.

As a young boy, Peterson was involved in surf lifesaving and became a member of the Tweed Heads and Coolangatta Surf Life Saving Club; he won many junior titles for swimming.

Being a surf lifesaver, also known as a "clubbie", was unpopular during Peterson's youth; but he received access to a locker and warm shower at the beach and therefore maintained his involvement over subsequent years.

The price for Peterson's lifesaving perks was a half-day commitment on surf patrol every month, with a requirement that he wear "sluggos" and monitor the safety of swimmers.

However, Peterson became impatient with the conditions of the role and would arrange for his brother to join him on patrol for company.

The "cutback" picture became the cover for the July 1972 issue of Tracks, following the release of the film.

Peterson did not attend the local premiere of Morning of the Earth on 10 January 1972.

Peterson's mother, Joan, transported him to the hall at Miami High (his old school) where the premier was occurring, but Peterson balked at being the "centre of attention" and both returned home.

Peterson's nervousness at presentations and gatherings would be a repeat occurrence on numerous occasions in the future.

One of Peterson's secrets for surfing barrels at Kirra was the "rocker" (underside curvature) design used in his boards.

Rather than lifting the nose near the end of the board, Peterson transferred the apex closer to the middle of the board and would ride with one foot either side of the apex.

By shifting his weight onto the back foot, the rear of the board would be receive the primary emphasis and the board would stall as a result; this would allow Peterson to slow down to re-enter deeper into the tube.

Then, shifting weight forward onto the nose of the surfboard would lead to the board shooting forward.

Peterson revealed to Mike Perry, who shaped surfboards alongside him for a period of time, that "It's just like cheating, man."