Pittwater Life April 2020 Issue

cludes a fascinating Ugh/Ugg Boot story.
If Shane didn’t invent the Ugg
Boot, then he was at least the first to
commercialise them and he registered the
trademark worldwide.
“We turned them into a product that
would work. We gave them proper soles
and support. Up until then they were
homemade and would have bits of meat
still hanging off them, that the dogs
would eat while you wore them.”
Shane sold the rights for US$10k – a
lot less than the business is worth
these days, partly due to the Americans
renaming Ugh as Ugg. But it still helped
pay for his place at Mona Vale.
“And they still send me Ugg Boots to
this day – for myself and the kids and the
grandkids,” says Shane with a laugh and
not an ounce of bitterness.
Shane arguably was one of Australia’s
first ‘brand’ makers, who knew the
powerful value of a personal association
with a product. Case in point: with his
board manufacturing business in full
swing, Shane embarked on a parallel
career as an AM radio surf reporter – first
with 2UW (1967), then 2SM (’72-’82) and
2WS (from ’82 to ’96).
“I would do live-to-air reports every
half hour between 6am and 9am and
then in the afternoons, every hour from
3pm to 6pm,” Shane said. “I drove up and
down the northern beaches, in those days
from Mona Vale to Manly and Palm Beach
then back to Mona Vale in less than an
hour! There were only four sets of traffic
light back then. And I had stringers
(contributors) on the southern beaches
who I paid.”
He reasoned his reporter role would
benefit his Shane surfboards brand – “If
they saw I was legitimate, they could have
faith in Shane surfboards.”
There were other ventures too – like the
health food restaurant the ‘Carbon Cycle
Café’ he opened at Neutral Bay which ran
for three years from 1972. It attracted
plenty of rock stars and celebrities, both
local and international.
“We had Cat Stevens and his band over
when they toured,” Shane recalls. “Cat
(or Steve as they called him) didn’t say a
thing, just sat in the corner playing his
guitar and mumbling to himself...”
Shane’s place at Mona Vale is a story
in itself. Shane paid only $32k for the
1890s bungalow with 180-degrees views
over Bungan. Since then he’s dug out 180
tonnes underneath the place to create
a unit that he still keeps on, now that
he’s building a house back up at Crescent
Head. He rents out the rest of the
renovated home. When he first bought it
though, his girlfriend was not keen.
Continued on page 34
Life Stories
CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: Shane at Palm
Beach; ‘The Shane Gang’ book cover; his
mum Bette and dad Ron circa 1940; playing
guitar and singing up a storm at a Port
Macquarie talent quest; the ‘Shane’s Surf
Report’ Suzuki was a common sight up and
down the northern beaches in the 1970s
and 1980s; in good ‘shape’ with trusted
employee Bob ‘Kenno’ Kennerson.
The Local Voice Since 1991
APRIL 2020 33