When many of our fellow surfers were getting hooked on skiing over the winter months of the 70s, brother Phil and I stayed true to our passion for surfing and competing. At the time, there were a host of great surfing flicks, but in 1979, Nat Young released The Fall Line, which included footage of himself and fellow world surfing champion Mike Doyle riding monoskis. If there wasn’t already a push towards skiing, then this documentary was all that was needed for thousands of hardcore winter surfers to flock to the Australian ski slopes.

Alan Green (the founder of Quiksilver), Doug Warbrick and Brian Singer from Rip Curl, and their good mate Speaky all ended up on Ski Patrol at Mt. Buller. From our own surf team, Gail Couper not only travelled the world’s finest ski fields but became one of the very first people to bring an original Burton snowboard back to Australia in 1982.

Peter Daniels, Phil Coates, and the Reid brothers also became excellent skiers, and it was Tony Reid who introduced Peter Baker and me to the sport at Falls Creek in the mid-80s. On this first snow experience, we met yet another Australian surfing legend, one Baddy Treloar, who was spending the whole season based at Falls. I was lucky he didn’t mistake me for brother Phil, as there had been some heated battles down at Bells Beach over a number of Easter Carnivals! Even our shaper/polisher, Peter Wilkinson, was heading up the hill in the late 70s. An exciting new chapter was about to unfold for Trigger Bros.

Surfing the mountain on skis was awesome fun, but on a snowboard, it’s way more like surfing or skating. Rod Stock and Gavin Crawford from Sea Level Surfboards of Hampton were regulars at our Chelsea store for surfboard supplies. In 1985, they began making ply snowboards with camber and flip in the nose and tail, most likely inspired by the Snurfer from the United States. The boys were frothing and loved showing off their latest creations. Their motto was: apply anything and see if it works. Gary “Spurter” Wall was their test pilot at Mt. Hotham, and with an amp-man like Gavin behind the project, they experimented constantly—even using sailboard foot straps to secure a foothold! The last few models even featured metal edges stolen from a pair of Gavin’s dad’s old skis. Rod recalls that some 10 to 20 snowboards were created this way, with their fiberglassing surfboard skills coming in very handy.

Spurter on one of these homemade snowboards, along with female snowboarder Billie Kelly from Omeo riding the first-model Switchblade from Sims U.S.A., were the first two riders ever allowed to use the lifts at Mt. Hotham. It was a momentous occasion, and one that is taken completely for granted by today’s mob.

During the winter of 1988, Peter Baker and I had our first attempt at snowboarding on the beginner slope at Dinner Plain. Unfortunately, the Avalanche board we tried to ride was an absolute shocker. It had no sidecut, was as heavy as lead, and was stiff as a board; subsequently, it was a further two years before I finally converted.

Liam in the backcountry with a Look Steve Graham model

The year 1989 saw Trigger Bros take its first small step into snowboarding at the request of our two best skaters in the Frankston area, Enzo Verga and Paul Templer. They approached our man for all seasons, Liam McCafferty—a lifetime friend of the Bros and shop manager of the Chelsea store. Liam ordered two Sims Switchblades from Hardcore Skate Co. and, not long after, talked us into carrying a small range at the Chelsea store. This range quickly widened to include Kemper, Morrow, Lib Tech, and Santa Cruz. Before long, nearly all the Trigger surfers and skaters had taken up snowboarding, and the shop reflected this with continuous new stock arrivals.

Chelsea Store: Paul Trigger surrounded by sailboards, booms and accessories. All to be overtaken eventually by snowboarding.

Danny Williamson setting up a board on the floor at the front of the Chelsea store. Wave Rave and 540s outerwear on the racks.

Though not our best surfer, Liam’s "go for it" attitude saw him become well above average in every sport he took on, and he had a brilliant eye for spotting future talent. One such person was a long-haired ramp skater from Albury who had landed in Chelsea with his family.

Shane Carter has a passion and amp for sport like no one else I have ever met. He has the unique ability to turn a crap day at the snow into one where everyone has fun. At 16 years of age and with shoulder-length hair, he was the last person we would have employed if it wasn’t for Liam pleading with me to give the kid a shot. It took almost a year for me to be convinced, but once on board in 1989, Shane quickly established himself as a great communicator. Along with Liam and Matt Trigger, he became a driving force behind the Trigger Brothers' push into snowboarding.

About this time, a good mate of ours, Phil Grace—who was working for Quiksilver in France—introduced us to a friend of his at Look Snowboards based in Austria. They were looking for a distribution agent in Australia, and we jumped at the opportunity. The company had some nice boards, but better still, Steve Graham—one of the world’s most high-profile riders—was their frontman. Even better, he was a regular visitor to Australia and absolutely loved to surf.

Liam riding his Look snowboard

One offer from Look at a very special low price was a diamond-nose all-mountain board. It was similar in shape to some of current models, but it proved very difficult to sell in the early 90s. With the aid of a jigsaw and a grinder, Liam and I personally reshaped at least 50 of them with a nice, soft rounded nose, and we managed to sell the whole batch by the end of the season! Luckily, the nose and tail weren’t capped with a metal edge, and we only lost 2cm of length in the process (perhaps acting as a spiritual forerunner to the Burton Nug).

We sold and distributed hundreds of Look boards until our supply suddenly dried up when the parent company, Authier in Switzerland, went bankrupt. It was time to take a new direction.

An early advertisement showing the brands we originally stocked. Some still exist, but a few are long gone.

During the summer of '93, Liam and Jake Mannix from Mordy Surf headed off to the slopes of Whistler for the winter season. By January, Shane was also very keen to go, so we offered him some financial assistance if he would check out the Ski and Snowboard Show in Las Vegas after spending a few weeks with Liam at Whistler. Shane travelled with fellow skater Matt Maunder under strict instructions to try and pick up a quality brand with a good history (i.e., Barfoot, Sims, Burton, or Winterstick). He struck gold and managed to secure the Australian distribution rights for Winterstick Snowboards.

Much like surfing in the 60s and 70s, snowboarding was the new buzz sport, with the hardcore crew even sleeping in their panel vans because their passion was so intense. Shane Carter typified this profile, having rented a property with his mate Ralph at the foot of Mt. Buller every year since 1990, and then travelling in the southern summer to Utah without missing a single season.

The quality and performance of Winterstick Snowboards made them an immediate success in Australia. To combine with their distribution, we developed our own outerwear label, T-Bird. It was all pretty exciting for a few years. However, it soon became obvious that if we didn’t secure a major brand like Burton—with its massive range of innovative products—we would be left well behind the retail pack.

Consequently, Winterstick and T-Bird were gradually put into mothballs. At that stage in the early 90s, Burton had a very limited number of retail outlets, so we shifted our entire snowboard focus to the Frankston store to facilitate winning a dealership. We then added the likes of K2, Lib Tech, Capita, Roxy, Salomon, Union, Signal, and DaKine to complement a truly professional snow package.