Our Pt. Leo manufacturing team with the Michael Marchant Crunchy Pt. mural on display, 2005. From left to right: Al Francis, Michael Marchant, John Jolly, Adam Butler, Phil Trigger. Al Francis has been with us part-time since ’73 and full-time since ’85. During this time, Al has been responsible for most of the repair work, but he has also shaped and glassed a few boards along the jou

Muttonbird recently emailed this great image of the late Bill Weir in his 80s, returning from a paddle out at Parkdale Beach. With over 40 years of surfing on the Peninsula, Phil and I rate Bill as one of the most endearing characters we’ve ever had the pleasure to share a wave with. Take a magnifying glass to the image below and check out some of Bill’s great use of imagination and in

Fordy has always been a very gifted sportsman. When he joined the Trigger Bros surf team at about 10 years old, I recall he already had the reputation of being well above average on the tennis court. His no-fear attitude in the water saw rapid improvement and culminated in a number of sponsored trips to Hawaii with the Billabong Junior Team. Back on his home turf, he won the Victorian Junior Surfi

The below shot was taken in our backyard at Bonbeach, where we made our first 50 boards before moving to our original Chelsea store on the Nepean Hwy. The big, solid, handsome bloke was our footy mate Greg. He won a Best and Fairest in the M.P.F.L. before heading up to the Melbourne Footy Club to play for their U19s and reserves. The following year, another little mate of ours, Leigh Matthews, who

This week’s photo was taken for a story in the Frankston newspaper back in ’82. Peter Wilkinson and Garry Taylor are celebrating Garry’s upset win at the 1982 Australian Cadet Titles, along with his subsequent naming in the Aussie team to compete at the Friendship Games in Huntington Beach, California. Peter not only travelled as Garry’s coach and chaperone but also as an A

In February 1978, Phil, Peter Wilkinson, and I set off together to the Island for a State round scheduled at Woolamai. It looked certain that the comp would be postponed, so Pete suggested quietly sneaking off to Express Point. Upon arrival, we spotted some high-quality 6-to-7-foot hollow waves wrapping into the black reef with only three guys out. We were waxed up and in the lineup within 10 minu

We had just returned from Queensland with Phil’s 9’0” Merrin and Peter’s 9’3”, while I still had my 9’6” Pyke “Razor” board. During our stay in Coolangatta, Graeme Merrin had loaned us his latest model: a 7’10” V-bottom with a full half-moon tail highlighted with colored resin tips. This could possibly have been the first swal

In the early to mid-seventies, there were three competition surfers who rode with speed to burn, namely Jim Pollock, Alan “Wally” Tibbals, and Phil Trigger. The rest of us were looking for big bottom turns and barrels that generally ended up as cover-ups on the shoulder—or, more often when performed at Bells, being stuck behind the whitewater. Phil’s unique stance of havin

This episode's photo is a picture of Kenny Reimers from the early 1980s. This is definitely one of our favourite photos of a Trigger Brothers team rider. When he was around 13 or 14 years old, we spotted his potential while sharing a few waves at his home break of Flinders. One of the first things we noticed was that he had heaps of flare and a pizzazz factor. By the time he was 18, Phil and I bot