Last weekend I went on a surf media binge: old movies, articles, books, I gorged myself silly. Loved it too. In the midst of my gluttony a name kept popping up among the words and images - Peter McCabe.

McCabe is the Newy boy who turned Indonesian frontiersman, a running mate with Lopez and Boyum, a tube hound and keen-eyed craftsman.

There are many aspects to Peter McCabe, he's lived a remarkable life, and yet considering his accomplishments the public know very little about him. McCabe always plays it cool, he's very much a product of his hometown environment.

Regardless, such coincidences must be pursued so I rang McCabe at his Newcastle home.

Swellnet: G'Day Pete.
Peter McCabe: Stu.

I recently watched Tubular Swells. Coincidentally the day I watched it a bloke I know, Gavin Scott, contacted me and said he has the board you rode in the opening sequence of that film [see below left]. It's going to be displayed at an exhibition this Sunday at Bondi...
Peter McCabe: I'm actually coming down for that too.

Unreal. Jack McCoy is also going to be there, Dick Hoole too, with you there the circle is complete.
Ha, should be a good day.

Do you collect many older boards?
Nah. I don't really collect old boards, but I tell you, in the last couple of years I've just been getting so many people ringing me up chasing down the old boards, the Tradewinds boards from the 70s. Also chasing down Gerry's boards. They're right into it.

I've never been a collector as such but in saying that over the last six months a friend and I have been restoring a few back to original condition. They're 70s boards from back when I was with Sam Egan, when I first started. Plus a few others, I'm looking at one now up on the roof from the early days of Tradewinds. There's been a real resurgence in old boards, real interest, but I'm not a collector myself.

How many boards a year are you shaping?
I only do custom stuff. I'm working with Sanbah right now, the surfshop in town, they're friends of mine. I've got quite a bit on at the moment.

Mainly shortboards or Indo guns?
You know what, they're customs and they're from all over the world. I'm doing a couple here now for Gerry's brother, Victor. I've been doing a lot of big boards for  down in Victoria, I've got some going to WA, then I've got Newcastle guys. There're no two boards the same.

And what are you riding these days?
I've got a few, a couple of 5'11”s and a 6'6”.

You're still sticking with the performance end of things?
Yeah, you know, I try to keep up with the guys. I'm riding normal shape boards but maybe a bit wider and thicker, that's all.

You mentioned Lopez before, are you guys still in much contact?
Yeah all the time, we were just over in G'Land for a month in June. Coincided with my 60th and the Tubular Swells 40 year reunion. It's also 40 years since I first surfed Padang.

Were you guys in G'Land for the big swell?
I was there but it was too big and I then had to go and get my passport. But yeah, I did the whole month there and the swell came on the last few days.

Too big for Speedies?
The tide was wrong for Speedies. But I heard it was good a few days later, after I'd left. They've had some good surf up there.

Back to Lopez. His boards often feature camouflage spray jobs, it's almost his trademark, yet I've been told you were the first to use camo.
Yeah, I did the first camo boards, made them for Gerry. I've got a photo of them somewhere [see image at right]....and speaking of old boards, Gerry still has those two boards. He's held onto them.

Be worth a bit now.
For sure. But yeah, Gerry commissioned me to do them first. I even shaped the boards for him. I think they were a 6'2” and 6'4” that I made him and I put the original camos on. Looking back they were pretty rough, though they actually got rougher after that.

The reason he got me on to doing that was because he was filming Conan The Barbarian in Spain and he wrote me a letter, 'cos there was no internet back then, saying can you make me these two boards and can you do them camo. He'd been building model aeroplanes and painting them camo. So he said let's do this, and when we did it we realised it stopped our eyes from getting so burnt, you know from glare off the clear boards when you surf all day. So we just kept on doing them.

He did heaps. I did heaps, and I still do a fair few.

Lopez is the quintessential soul surfer, but I want to talk about another surfer, a comp surfer from your hometown, MR
Yeah MR is a really good friend of mine. Has been for...jeez, it's probably close to 50 years.

I find it fascinating when people mention MR they say he's a typical Newy boy, but then they also say the same about yourself and yet you two lived very different surfing lives.
Well we are both from Newy, we went to the same school, and when we started surfing there wasn't a whole lot of people surfing. I did the contests for a while but I just didn't have it in me like MR did, and then another really good friend of ours from back then was Col Smith from Redhead. We were all good buddies, and all good Newy boys I suppose.

Unlike MR and Col you really forged your reputation in Indonesia, testament to that is the orders you're getting from around the world.
Absolutely. Yeah, back in the early days we were just going there non-stop. From '75 onwards through all the changes and up until now. Did lots and lots of surfing, made lots and lots of boards, got up to....all sorts of stuff.

I recently saw Sea Of Darkness...
That's a long time ago now. That was thirty years ago this year, and Surfing World put out something recently that was just wrong. Just totally wrong.

Are you happy that you appeared in Sea Of Darkness?
Well, I went on there to say what it was. Just to tell them what happened, but obviously the editing is all up to them. You know they put what they want in. I've watched it, I never said I didn't do what I did.

You seemed to show contrition. You did the time, and it was a very long time ago.
Yeah, I turned it around. I haven't done anything much...ha, I haven't done anything since. All my buddies from then stood by me, every one of them. I wasn't written off at the time. They said I was stupid, an idiot...I knew I was. But I turned it around a long time ago.

I tell you what I thought was one of the best parts of the movie: your first wave back at G'Land, when you said it was like going back home. That was something special.
It was. That was in '88 when I went back in. I was only away a couple of years, but going back....my whole time [in prison] was only 16 or 17 months, and then I was out of there. Going back to G'Land was special.

You mention you went to G'Land this year, does it still feel like you're going home?
Oh yeah, it's awesome. I went over with a whole bunch of Newy boys for my 60th. It was awesome, they were all ripping and then Gerry's come in to join us for a few days. Good times. It was Bobby's 30th year of having the camp too, he's been instrumental in keeping all of us guys guying over there. Staying connected to the place.

Peter McCabe Surfboards on the 'net
Deus and Boardcollector Surf Swap at Bondi