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Here is a post about Strapper Sailboards. Photos follow from magazines including Sailboard Extra 1986. Also an extract from what I think is around a 1991-92 German magazine which is the "Jason Polakow Strapper" era. Then some shots of my collection which includes circa 1989 Strapper World Cup Slalom 9'4" (est.110 litres) ,1989 Strapper World Cup Slalom 8'11" Mini "X-It" ( est.100 litres) and also 1986 Tom Luedecke Tiga Proline High Wind Slalom 9 foot long ( magazine says 95 litres) by Strapper. All of my collection are "Luedecke designs" shaped by Mike Di Sciascio in the "pre-JP era". You can see, post Mark Paul and the Astro Toy where the Bombora X-it and the Zot designs came from and others for AHD.
This poster and magazine cover for publicity for the 1986 Gorge Pro slalom event shows Tom Luedecke (KA-1) in front in a heat followed by Mike Waltze, Bjorn Schrader, Alex Aguera and in fifth Robby Naish. Tom Luedecke finished third sailing for Tiga and Pryde in the 1986 event behind Nevin Sayre (1st) and Alan Cadiz (2nd) with Stephan Van Den Berg in 4th. I think he might have won previous year in 1985 but not sure, certainly the promotion in 1986 in the posters and pre-event publicity suggests he finished highly... in 1985. Neil Pryde organised and was a co-sponsor of the event in 1986 so they clearly wanted to promote their team riders, shown 1,2,3 and 4 here in pre-event posters.
www.facebook.com/watch/?v=141628933274
My mate Danny still sails his Strapper World Cup slaloms here at LG. Know off a few of them in sheds around here they where very popular in the 90's
I even managed to get a strapper living in the UK. I thought It looked pretty decent.
From the website: strapper.com.au/history/?v=6cc98ba2045f
"Strapper officially commenced business in 1976 but its roots are in the fledgling Torquay surf industry in the late 1960's. Dennis "Strapper" Day first started shaping with Fred Pyke in his Boston Road Pyke surfboard factory that later became Piping Hot. In the early 70's Strapper moved to the "Klemm Bell" factory on the main road in Torquay and managed the surfboard production. "Klemm Bell" at this time was the premiere surfboard factory in Victoria with a long list of in house shapers and visiting interstate and international shapers. Strapper soon had a strong following of his surfboards and in 1976 opened his own surf shop and shared a factory with legendary shaper Pat Morgan.
Strapper soon set up his own factory on Speaky's farm in a sheep shearing shed at the back of Bells Beach overlooking the surf at Jan Juc. Michael "D'Sas" Di Sciascio started shaping with Strapper as a 15 year old in 1979. In the 80's a new surf shop and surfboard factory was built on the main road in Torquay next to what was Rip Curl then Quiksilver's boardshort factory. In 1989 Michael after being a junior partner bought Dennis out to own Strapper.
In the early 90's and on the back of Torquay's great surf and wind conditions Strapper made and distributed wave sailboards to 23 countries around the world and helped launch the career of Jason Polakow, one of the world's best ever wave sailors/waterman. Jason/Strapper with unique talent and marketing, strong logos and graphics had a major impact globally with the legacy still in the sport today.
Michael [cleverly it would appear] sold the sailboard side of the business in the mid 90's [Neil Pryde and JP Australia ? The latter name a registered trademark owned by Jason was apparently sold by Jason Polakow shortly after to create his "captive" and longtime board sponsor, assuming he has a royalty forward] and he chose to focus on his passion for his Strapper Surf store in Torquay, shaping surfboards and going surfing. In Torquay Strapper now has two Strapper Surf shops with the surfboard factory out the back of the board store, The Bells Beach surf outlet and Blunt Skating and snow shop.
Michael and Robbo still shape boards out the back of the shop in Torquay. Many of the Strapper crew are top competitive surfers with a strong passion for surfing just like Michael who has won 12 or more State Kneeboard surfing titles. This really sums up the true grass roots of the Strapper Surf shops and surfers can trust Strapper as the place to get great advice on surf hardware, accessories and the very best selection of surf wear."
I was told recenty that Tom Luedecke has started windsurfing again. occasionally can be seen WindFoiling on the gold coast.
