Smorgasboarder_12_July-2012

CLOSEOUT: HISTORY
The infamous and highly sought
after surfboard manufacturer on the
Gold Coast in the late 70’s, Aragorn
Surfboards, was formed by a couple of
surfing louts - Steve ‘Zorro’ Goddard and
his good mate Bruce Greig. The boys
built their first factory on Golden Four
Drive in North Kirra in 1976, just in time
to celebrate Zorro’s 21st birthday.
The Aragorn factory crew made
up of Zorro, Bruce, Wayne Deane,
Michael Peterson and Tommy Peterson
were well-known for their constant
misbehaving and wild times consisting
of surfing, parties, beers, women and
horrible substances.
Steve Goddard was dubbed Zorro
during his time as a barman at the
popular Patch nightclub in Coolangatta
by one of the locals. He had tall,
dark, good looks, a moustache and
wore fitted black pants with a white
stripe down the side. He was also
well known for his radical surfing and
carving big ‘Z’s in the waves, so the
nickname stuck.
Aragorn surfboards were known for
speed and maneuverability and were
some of the wildest shapes on the
Gold Coast – almost as their wild as
their sprays. These were outrageous,
made up of rude, psychedelic, gory or
comical designs. For the local surfing
crew, they couldn’t get enough of
them. People were totally blown away
and the boards were walking out the
door at a rapid pace. The only other
sprays at the time were taped line
fades and basics, whereas Aragorn’s
were the full airbrushed works and the
rudest and crudest of the seventies.
As far as the Aragorn crew were
concerned, the wilder the better.
Visiting American surfer Mike Purpose
and his mates caught wind of these
boards and asked Zorro to make the
Hot Lips Aragorn models, which were
sold through Kirra Surf. Zorro was
later written up in the New York Times
as being the most insane shaper and
surfer on the Australian coast. He
was also asked to do Ben Aipa’s label
in Australia but due to decal royalty
costs, he turned it down.
At this stage Zorro was shaping
Peter Drouyn’s personal boards using
Drouyn’s decals and shaping Aragorn’s
for Raymond Manicaros, Serena
Townend (Peter’s sister), big wave
surfer Tony Rae, Reg Riley and more,
but the most famous was Michael
‘MP’ Peterson.
Aragorn Surfboards paid $500 for
MP to enter the Inaugural Stubbies
competition at Burleigh in 1977, which
was a huge amount at the time, but of
course, MP made history on his selfshaped
Aragorn and brought home the
trophy, so the investment was worth it.
In 1979, Aragorn moved from Golden
Four Drive to MP’s factory in Appel
Street, Kirra where they joined forces
and added kneeboards to the offering.
The Aragorn surf shop also opened
in Kirra, which Bruce ran while Zorro
focused on the manufacturing. At this
point Zorro had taken on other labels
such as Ocean Boulevard, sold through
Peter Drouyn’s Surfline store in Surfers
Paradise, and was making fifteen
boards a week. He’d drop them off on
a Friday afternoon and by lunchtime on
Saturday they were all sold.
Even though they were producing boards
at this high level, the Aragorn crew were
still a wild bunch. One Christmas party
they glassed a radio and a resin penis
onto fin-maker Feather’s brand new
custom board. As the party progressed
and there were no waves to be surfed,
they decided to sacrifice it to Huey, and it
was set alight.
The next day Feather turned up to
pick up his new stick and was not
impressed after hearing the story.
Needless to say, they made him
another one and he left a happy surfer.
In true form, Kirra turned on 6 foot
slabs that day and the Aragorn boys
were out getting barreled all day long.
Zorro’s memory of that time: “Wild
sh*t went on!” Once they carved a
tunnel on the deck of one of Peter
FAR LEFT: The Aragorn
‘Penta Fin’
LEFT: Michael Peterson (RIP) with a
modern Aragorn single fin.
ABOVE: ‘Penta Fin’ details.
Photos supplied, Underground Surf.
THE WILD TIMES OF ARAGORN SURFBOARDS, KIRRA
1976 – 1981 WORDS: ANDRE ‘ONDI’ MARSAUS
Turner’s boards and glassed in some
cockroaches, which they were amused
to tell people stayed alive for 3
months.
In 1980, Zorro caught up with his good
mate Simon Anderson in Narabeen,
who was telling him about the 3-fin
thruster concept. By the next day Zorro
had flown back to Queensland and was
in the factory shaping one up. Graham
Black was watching Zorro create this
weird looking thing and told him he
was tripping, but Zorro was surfing it
that afternoon and look at the world of
thruster’s now!
In 1981, Zorro and Bruce parted ways
and Zorro kept the manufacturing
side while Bruce kept the retail going
and continued shaping the legendary
Aragorn kneeboards.
In 2010, Underground Surf
co-incidentally opened in Kirra in the
same spot as the original Aragorn
Surfboards 30 years beforehand,
with a focus on retro surfboards.
Underground teamed up with Zorro
and re-birthed the label with the
original templates and now produces
Aragorn’s hand-shaped modern
single and twin fin surfboards.
The smorgasboarder history
page is proudly brought to
you by Underground Surf
WWW.UNDERGROUNDSURF.COM.AU
New surf shop, old-school feel
3/77 Noosa Drive, Noosa Heads, QLD
PHONE: 07 5455 4444
RETRO LONGBOARDS & SHORTBOARDS • NEW & CUSTOM BOARDS • BOARD HIRE • REPAIRS• SKATEBOARDS • CLOTHING • AND MUCH MORE...
118 jul/aug 2012