Watch: Gripping Stuff
In 1984, three surfers from Dee Why, Bill McCausland, Graeme Bennett, and Gary Mountford, started a company to make surf hardware. Their first product was the Rocket Block, basically a block of plastic you stuck to the tail of your board to secure your back foot. Sales were modest, the trio kept their day jobs.
In 1985, however, they struck gold with Gorilla Grip.
Traction pads already existed, however, what was on the market were simply colourful versions of skateboard grip tape - brutal on exposed skin. Yet the Dee Why trio stumbled onto foamed plastic and customised it for surfboard traction pads.
Gorilla Grip is an almost perfect product: It's self-explanatory, effective, cheap, long-lasting, and the colour schemes matched the era. Coupled with aggresive marketing, it set McCausland, Bennett, and Mountford - by then trading as Surf Hardware International - on an upwards trajectory that would ultimately lead to Fin Control Systems and a sugar daddy sale to Macquarie Bank.
But I'm getting ahead of the story...
In the 80s, surf companies began rolling out content marketing long before the term had been coined. Surf movies bankrolled by the companies, featuring their sponsored riders. In '87, Tim Bonython made 'Surf Into Summer' for Billabong, then 'Strike Force' for Piping Hot, and in '89 Surf Hardware roped him in to make 'Gripping Stuff'.
In total, Tim made three Gripping Stuff films before striking out on his own.
Tim is now digitising some of those films for free viewing. Make sure to subscribe to his YouTube channel to stay up to date.
Comments
Was only thinking about this movie a couple of days ago . One of my all time favourites. I’m actually a little bit excited knowing that I’ll park up this arvo and watch it for the first time in over 25 years.
“ I told you to take the knob off it ! “
Thanks Tim Bonython. I never realised you’d done Surf into Summer too.
Great contributions to my surfing life. Loved them all ....Strike force etc
You introduced me to so much great music.
Holy shit.....I’ve only been a positive person for just over 4 hours and it’s paying off already. Who knows what good things will come when I try being positive whilst I’m awake .
PS....What about Water Slaughter....was that TB ? John Shortis ripped the bag.
It’s all good, Blowin, just think about leash-less longboarding hipsters at Byron, Balding overweight SUP riders with board shorts on the outside of their wetsuits and jet skiing fools doing step-offs amongst paddle surfers at Kirra. I guarantee you’ll be feeling the hate again in no time.
Don't wind him, he is nice a calm at the moment.
Ha ha! That angered me too.
You can add flappy, open buttoned shirts in place of a rashie as well.
Watashi wa metabo oyagi desu.
Great era in surfing. Everyone ripped
What's the go with the weird bits on the sides? It's annoying.
VCR footage is shot in 4:3 ratio that doesn't fit the modern 16:9 ratio screen. It basically is a squarish box in the middle of a rectangle, so I guess Tim decided to fill the side blanks with extended frame instead of the usual black borders you see on other 4:3 footage on YouTube.
Black frames would have been infinitely better.
Those side panels are distracting at best.
Oh yeah, I'll just watch this for a few minutes and then get on with my day... (40 minutes later, still glued to screen, completely taken back)... how good's the editing and how good's the music and how good's Poto. (Even spotted myself paddling furiously to get out of the way in the South Straddie segment)
Ripper flick. Still got my original VHS tape in the cabinet under the TV. Just about wore it out way back then.
Quick story:
Part of the "aggressive marketing campaign" mentioned in the text, included putting some surfers on contract - Poto, Winton, Hardman, Barton Lynch, all the surfers in the above vid - but mailing out deck grips to a long list of surfers every six months. Twice a calendar year packages would go out to hundreds of surfers, and this remained protocol for years and years afterwards.
A fella that I know got his start at Surf Hardware, and one of his early jobs was to pack and send the grips. However, instead of blindly following orders he questioned the system, found out that it had been in place for a long time without being updated or changed. So he began ringing the intended recipients.
Some had moved multiple times since they first got a grip, some had stopped surfing altogether, and one call was answered by the mother of an ex-pro who explained her son was now in prison and that, yes, there were lots of Gorilla Grips at her house. A whole pile of them of them stacked up in the corner.
The cost cutting began with that list and he was lauded as a business genius.
Lot of people watching the film this morning.
You might even say Gripping Stuff is getting traction.
It could have been edited tighter – they tended to pad out a few sections
Speak for yourself, I'm glued to the screen.
Really got themselves into a couple of sticky situations on the North Shore, eh?
Gorilla Grip has a reputation for producing quality durable products - that's how you get rich!
Loving the longer full thickness boards, I've been thinking about how to have lighter boards (less-dense blanks) and not get the crazy deck compressions and cracks, a full length grip would do the trick! Anyone know where to get?
So much Joe Satriani and paddling gloves..... webs??
That Kirra section filled my dreams for many years
Ah well...........
so much for being productive 'from home' for the next hour or so....thenks Stu.
Geeez......old Poto didn't mind a claim back then.
SMH 26 Oct 1989: Gripping Stuff videos for sale for $45.95!
Just for reference - $44.95 in 1989 is the equivalent of $95.00 in 2020.
Amazing that back them we'd all happily buy almost anything surf related that hit the stands - often without blinking at the price.
On another note, here's the weather chart from the same paper. Anyone keen to have a punt on what the surf might have been like?
Good sized swell and light s/sw winds in the south west Looks like offshore the next day or two.
Woulda been flat as a witches tit on the Surfcoast that day.
Yep, I'm going moderate to large sized NE windswell across southern NSW with a NW change - pumping.
Small to tiny but offshore across Vicco, stormy waves building on the SA Mid Coast and a new swell with improving conditions across Margs with S/SE winds to SW winds with the next approaching front and swell for the coming days.
Epic late 80,s surf flick! Great sound track also. Back to high school days ,billies and surf vids on repeat. What a great world title showdown too, we were all stoked Dooma didnt win for some reason and every time he got knocked off his board mid claim the roar went up. Branno (before being stabbed and coming out of the closet) doesnt appear to have GG on his board but got a fair bit of screen time?Also how empty was Kirra??? Of note 16 million people mentioned as population of AUS too, a sustainable population size IMO , I guess thats why it feels so crowded now. I still have a pretty good nick copy on vcr that gets a run once a year or so (when the wife goes away and I can drag out the video player and run the favorites)but the clarity suffers watching vcr on a digital tv so this is great. Why does it have the double screen effect on the side? I dont remember that from vcr? Bit hard on the eyes. Is it something to do with the transfer to digital? Gripping Stuff 1 was the pick of all the Gripping Stuff series but will wait in hope for Deep Throat if the library is coming out. Thanks Swellnet and Tim for putting it up.
Bet it’s not the only video you drag out when the wife’s away....ha
Yep, Green Iguana, Rubber Soul, The Performers, Mad Wax. The whole shebang!
Yeah.....those ones. Ha
That drop in at the start of the movie is next level!
The Branno section with Screaming Tribesman is epic.
Hey all,
If we wanna get more vids like this from Tim, make sure you hit 'subscribe' in his YouTube account. You wont get spammed or anything of the sort.
Sweeet...will do. Would be stoked to see Gripping Stuff 3 put up. That was a sick one.
Footnote: The sugar daddy sale caused a split between the partners ultimately leading to a legal case against Mac Bank resulting in a large payout to Bill McCausland who (footnote to footnote) was also the first (only?) surf photographer to make National Geographic.
According to Justice Slattery, "a degree of cultural conflict between the polished Harvard Business School graduates from Macquarie and a creative self-made man who had built and managed a surfing hardware business on Sydney's Northern Beaches could probably have been predicted even before these parties met in 2002".
What photo did Bill take? Not the one of Laird was it..?
I think it was a shot of Little Avalon, late 70s is my best guess. He has donated all his photos to EOS so you could track it down that way.
Never really though much of this one, and flicking through still looks average (but cleaned up pretty good for a VHS), just nothing real epic and sound track a bit more mainstream kinda sounding even if some of the bands are okay.
The second one from memory was better looking forward to that one.
IMHO Billabong and Rip curl did better videos around that period like Savage Cuts 2, Rubber Soul and Filthy habits, Surf into summer etc better surfing, locations and a much more gritty soundtracks both USA and Aussie bands.
Please Stunet give me an ignore button for Talking Turkey, Shatners Basoon, Dale Cooper, Factotum, Pupkin, and any new fake profile he decides to create.
I'm VOLATILE
Fuggen CLASSIC!!!
If you didn't wanna go surfing after listening/watching that at the end of the vid there'd be something wrong with ya!
Jeez I haven't seen that for years. I remembered everything up to the Waimea segment. I guess I never actually got to the end of the video
Thank you Tim
Loved the vid and all the front pads! FYI Ape, I had an ongoing problem with a leak from a crack in my epoxy board under my front foot . Tried everything to seal it with no success, so thought a front traction pad might work. Happy to report after 4 months so far so good!
PS I had the Barton GG combo back in the day but found it slippery as buggery, especially with booties. Had to wax both grips to stay upright!
45:49 brings tears to my eyes. He was/is so good.
Yea, I get barrel
Just watched the vid and it was as good as I remember.
Just a little heads up , I couldn’t find the vid searching Youtube.
Searched : Gripping Stuff . Tim Bonython . Classic surf videos and Surfing visions....nothing.
I ended up casting to TV from the link provided in Swellnet.
What’s going on there ?
Domain restricted.
What’s that mean ?
click on youtube on right of vid ..takes you to Timmys channel
I couldn’t find a Gripping Stuff on Tim’s channel
Me too- i wanted to watch it on my tv.
Watashi wa metabo oyagi desu.
Man that was awesome. All the names you forgot. Wish I still had my old vids. Think I still have a few somewhere but not that old. Did own it once upon a time. I remember Tubular swells and...fuck! Forgot. Too many bongs.
That was fun, great tunes, good waves as well as bloody awful hair cuts and fluro wetsuits. A lot of the surfing holds up too. Was around the time I stopped reading surf mags so the names are like a roll call from grommethood. Thanks for sharing Tim. Btw, 16mm or video?
Synoptic Seabreeze swell for Tazzy Ben?
I really want to see Gland 1997 that Egan wins. One of my favourite ever movies - had it in VHS and have tried to find it since and can’t find it anywhere online.
Tom or Nick - any chance of getting a digital copy of this? Happy to pay.
I have a box of videos still (another full of cassette tapes too) got tubular swells, surf into summer, filthy habits, most of the billabong ones after that (maybe not pump though) , Kongs Island /Performers 1, A day in the life Wayne Lynch (in the start of another movie) him and Nat ripping in vicco), couple of the quicksilver Gland comps, Gripping stuff 1 and couple of other ones, couple of sarges surfing scrapbooks (before he sucked off Occy and got ostracized from the surfing community) including the one with giant margs comp and Curren riding down to the rivermouth, mad wax,asian paradise, couple of the Hawaii90,s, a gret Wide World of Sports special on the Eddie Aikau contest that Keone Downing won, Rodger Erickson was the man in that one!, couple of good rusty ones- under the same sun, liquid lust, showing my age I guess but as Ben mentioned they were expensive at the time so well watched but looked after. More too but would have to dig them out and (maybe one or 2 of the one halfcousehalf was referring too also ha ha Debbie does Dallas perhaps...
Mike, you forgot to mention your VHS stash including Goodwill Humping, Inspecther Gadget and Shaving Ryans Privates.
Watashi wa metabo oyagi desu.
and don't forget Shindlers Fist!
Or Edward Penishands.
omg, how could i forget.
and of course Missionary Impossible and Pulp Friction.
Watashi wa metabo oyagi desu.
Please Sir, dont forget the classic 90s cockclimbing video 'Clitthanger' or the original "Flesh Gordon"
Sounds like your "collection" is larger than mine Zen ha ha
Way larger Mike.
Way way way larger...
Watashi wa metabo oyagi desu.
Anyone willing to give the name of that long lefthander in south oz they are camping near? pretty sure it was gripping stuff 2
“Don’t name spots . Don’t go giving maps on how to get there”
Chris Homer . SA . Gripping Stuff 2.
“ Rocking is my business.....and business is good “
Lyrics from Gripping Stuff 2 soundtrack.
I think original company was called Sun Bum products, very early days.
And I don't even own a video of DVD player anymore...
VHS:
DVD:
Cover mounts:
I reckon I’ve got you beat there , Stu. Still a very nice collection.
Up until a couple of years ago I was still harvesting gold in the small town Op shops of Australia.
Like any collection, the search was half the fun. The niche flicks were a buzz to come across.
Derek Hynd’s “Pro Land” at the Denmark Oppy for 50 cents.....fuck yeah.
I’ve got the VHS set up under the TV in case I feel the need to plow those productive fields again. Fucker needs the heads cleaned very time though.
"I reckon I’ve got you beat there , Stu"
I say put 'em up or I win.
What else are you gonna do today?
Funny you should ask....
Ive been rearranging a spare room and mouthing off way too many promises of future alterations to my missus as I did so. Just happened to find another box full of VHS tapes. Pretty crappy assortment though.
Ive got another few boxes of VHS stashed up the road....I can post them another time. Till then , Stu.....I’ll have to ask you to go out on a limb and take my word for it.
Most of my DVD’s are in folders now. The cases took up too much room and it was easier to travel before hard drives.
Well I'm impressed.
Clean the heads?
Watashi wa metabo oyagi desu.
The VHS tape attracts dust and the VHS player specialises in clogging the fuck up on the bit which reads the tape.
Prick of an idea.
But some of those movies have literally been through cyclones , floods , fire ....they’re still kicking.
Hi Guys thanks for posting, I loved this flick as a kid. Two surf movies I am desperate to see that I had on VHS that I can't find online are Sarge's Surfing Scrapbook 4 and the Quiksilver gland pro 1997. If anyone has links or can upload on the net I would be so stoked
I’ve got the G Land one but have got as much chance of being able to put it on the internet as I have of designing a lunar lander.
Zero chance of me sending it out either. Sorry ,mate . You maybe the nicest fella to have ever walked the Earth. You could be a better friend than Jesus , but to misquote Squidlips.....I cant lend my precious G Land pro to some hodad, man.
That’s how I lost my copy of Sarge’s 4 !
https://youtu.be/9xgBnGQhAUI
Blowin - you’ll be able to pay someone to do it - it wouldn’t be piracy - it would be preservation of historical artifacts:
https://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/beaconsfield/other-electronics-computers...
https://www.google.com/amp/s/tapestodigital.com/
Thanks blowin for the reply. Agree with yogii is archiving classics. I contacted quiksilver and sarge on his YouTube channel but no luck. If you work out how to upload them let me know.
I had a Rocket Block, it had a Velcro pad that you could move up or down the surfboard. I was so sad when they stopped making it. This video brought back so many memories.
My first board was a 2nd hand Phil Usher shape that had the velcro on the tail from where a rocket block used to be, schralped the skin on my knees!
Beautiful board though.
Ride on
No Indo section. Or did I miss it? Wouldn’t see a vid without it these days. I went to Bali in ‘80 I think. I was 13 or so. With the Family of course. Took my big red 6’4” single fin that I was learning on. Only one major hotel at Kuta. Dirt roads, cheap cassettes and of course T-shirts. Chickens, pigs. I surfed the beaches and could see Kuta reef. 6 guys and all gone by low tide cause it was too shallow! Dad comes down the beach. Already been surfing for 3 hours. Sun eating my face off! Cmon I’ll take ya out to the reef. Ummm...ok. Jump in the canoe, give the guy some rupe. Fucken shat myself. Didn’t catch a wave. Too scared. Everyone had already gone in. All 6 of em. Tail between the legs. Damn. Been hating myself ever since. Anyway...great to watch. So good
Probably the only thing I ever won was a rocket block in a Manly Daily contest. Came time to pick it up and the columnist (an infamous local high school teacher, no doubt known to a few here) tried to get me to pick it up from his home. Knowing his rep I strongly insisted on picking it up from the Daily offices, & let him know I had no interest in doing it any other way. It took a bit of convincing for him to do the right thing. Anyway, it was a foam block attached to a strip of velcro and I’m not surprised it didn’t take off. It was shithouse. They got it right with the Gorilla Grip though.
It's amazing how this vid (and others) affected my life in other ways, not necessarily surf-related.
In 1989 I was in Year 10, and had been jamming with my best mate Nat for a year or two - me on drums, him on guitar (we were both doing music at Brighton High). We were still a while away from writing our own songs, and in looking for covers to play, surfing sound tracks offered an insight into fresh music that wasn't on Video Hits every Saturday morning.
So, thanks to Gripping Stuff we were exposed to Kings Of The Sun, and over the coming months we learnt Serpentine, which we ended up playing at the BHS Battle of the Bands a little while later. It ended up being a staple in our set for quite a few years even once we had our own tunes to play.
Anyway, I reckon there are a lot of people who owe their musical taste - for better or worse! - to a whole swag of surfing flicks.
Oh, and for the record, I'd love to preserve whatever small level of music credibility I might have by guffawing at the inclusion of Joe Satriani - as has been perfectly acceptable for the last twenty years - but fuck it! As a fifteen year old I loved those bitchin', endless guitar solos.
Conservative estimate puts my musical repitwa at 90 percent derived from surf movie soundtracks .
Loving the Battle of the bands story , Ben.
I picture you at the time as a cross between Groovy Avalon and Animal from the muppets.
I'll take that as a compliment (though I've got no idea what Groovy Avalon is).
I'm pretty sure Nat's Dad still has a Betamax of the gig, and I've been waiting for him to upload it to the web for years now. My performance is pretty subdued but Nat - wearing shorts and sandals with socks, if I remember correctly - threw his BC Rich into the air and played the guitar solo behind his head.
For a bunch of music nerds, it was a turning point, I tells ya. The footy players didn't know what to think.
That’s some Hendrix level shit.
I’d watch that if it was on YouTube.
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/doped_youth
Fuck , Ben.....you’ve got to watch Doped Youth. It’s a classic.
https://youtu.be/cjfKGwfxPBE
Some classic acting ....Dingo Morrison more wooden than a teak door jamb and Chris Davidson virtually unrecognisable in his role as temperamentally unstable ripper.
"Anyway, I reckon there are a lot of people who owe their musical taste - for better or worse! - to a whole swag of surfing flicks."
100% The early Rip Curl vids were the biggest influence on me, celibate rifles, exploding white mice, Ed Keueper, The Scientist (Swamp land) etc
And then those videos by that other Chris guy (blazing boards, freeze frame etc) had other stuff like Painters and dockers, H & C, Hoodoo Gurrus etc
Then the USA videos with T.S.O.L, Agent Orange, Social distortion etc
You would order in a CD and often wait weeks on the back of one song from a surf video
Please Stunet give me an ignore button for Talking Turkey, Shatners Basoon, Dale Cooper, Factotum, Pupkin, and any new fake profile he decides to create.
PK's 'Curl vids for the soundtrack win.
The other Chris was Chris Bystrom, also made Cyclone Fever. Passed away in a car crash but his son Josh has had a few WOTDs on Swellnet. Last bunch was from swimming Kirra during Gretel.
There’s a lot of slo-mo in this film. Gets a bit irritating after a while. Apart from that I’ll give it 7/10 on the Spuddups scale.
The 'Girls Go Maniac' section was awesome!
......said no one ever
I have fond memories of lobbing up under-age to the Jewells Tavern south of Newy back around 84-85 (I think). Timmy B would set-up his projector and screen with a pumping stereo system with the best tunes, and the latest raw surfing footage blowin' our minds at a time when we most needed it. Love ya work TB.
Nice shots of secret spots north of Sydney! fond memories. Also ...nice to watch surfing with no airs (sorry showing my age)
WinterSwells
I can only watch 10 minutes at a time.
Living away from the coast sucks balls!!!