Thumbing back through the pages of Cronulla's surfboard history, we can't ever forget Peter 'Glasso' Glasson's classic 'Colour of Thought' Surfboard brand from the 1970s.
Peter was up there in the ranks of the better surfers to come out of Cronulla and was a bold & skilled big wave charger. Additionally, he was one of our best surfboard shapers and had a legion of loyal followers. He had immersed himself in his explicit taste for bigger wave performance mini-guns.
As a mature shaper, his precision shapes by hand were his real trademark. His influence was clearly bigger wave performance.
These great images of a lovingly restored Peter Glasson 'Colour of Thought' surfboard popped up on a Western Australia-based Facebook page today. It's a perfect example of '70s realism in surfboard design, structure and strong tonal contrast in its presentation. A working class surfboard to say the least.
Shire surfboard collector Larry Cohen, describes it as "a semi-gun round tail. A real down the line speed machine with a lean and hungry nose, but it’s got decent area through the rear of the board for power surfing in big OZ swells. Thickness under the nose and high volume. Flat bottom, hard down rails, this board was shaped for an experienced surfer. Glasso should add his technical details".
'Glasso' like me, was a Kogarah boy and not only did we live a few streets apart we were born only two days apart in the same year.
Choosing not to set up in the standard industrial enclaves of nearby Taren Point, Glasso started his 'Color of Thought' Surfboard label in an ex-Ferry Keeper's cottage on the verge of the super busy Princes Highway, tucked in against the banks of the Georges River, right at the entrance to the Tom Uglys bridge.
The ferry (or punt) used to ply across the Georges River before the steel truss bridge was completed in 1929. A hand-operated punt service from Tom Ugly's Point to Horse Rock Point connected the St George area to the Sutherland Shire at Sylvania.
The funky surf-related location diffused its unusual and remote position. That area is technically in the suburb of Sylvania, which is in the Sutherland Shire.
That original building is now long gone but it was the exact same spot where the current Pronto Restaurant now stands. Given the high volume of traffic on the Princes Highway these days it would be a difficult retail location to get pain-free customer access to in daylight hours.
That original building is now long gone but it was the exact same spot where the current Pronto Restaurant now stands. Given the high volume of traffic on the Princes Highway these days it would be a difficult retail location to get pain-free customer access to in daylight hours.
These days Peter has long retired the very top end of the NSW coast, just below the Queensland border and he is a master fly fisherman often chasing the feisty 'Saratoga', a fresh water fish known for their fighting ability. Saratoga are not considered a good eating fish because of their fine bones, so it's mostly catch and release.
This red bad boy will be nicely persevered for a few more decades and generations of surfers to come, thanks to Wayne Winchester at the Surf Gallery in southern WA for the photos and the magnificent restoration work.
Or you can call in to check out the Surf Gallery at 50750 South Coast Hwy, Youngs Siding, WA. (located between Albany and Denmark) on the Great Australian Bight.
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