new jet pilot advert

Dru is Featured in a new Jetpilot advert in December Tracks!

Tweed Heads Surfer Dale Richards Honoured at Deadly Awards

At a gala ceremony at the Opera House thursday night, Tweed Heads surfer Dale Richards nabbed the “Most Promising New Talent” at the Deadly Awards. The Deadly Awards honour excellence in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander music, sport, entertainment, the arts and community achievements.

Earlier this year, Dale was selected to compete in the trials for the Quiksilver Pro on the Gold Coast - the opening event on the 2007 ASP Men’s World Tour. He went on to beat 15 more experienced surfers to earn himself a wild card entry into the main event. In doing so, Dale became the first-ever Indigenous surfer to advance to the main round of an elite world tour event.

Joining the world’s top 45 professional surfers in the tournament, Dale drew three time world champions Andy Irons (Haw) in his first heat and then squared off against one of his idols, eight time world champion Kelly Slater (USA) in the next. While he may have not progressed beyond the second round with Slater, the tournament still marked an unbelievable achievement for the 18-year-old who now has the surfing world at his feet.

“It is an honour to be nominated and to win is special – there’s not a lot of Indigenous surfers out there,” said Richards, who received a huge round of applause from the thousands of invited guests as he accepted his award. Growing up ten minutes from the beach at Tweed Heads on the Gold Coast, it wasn’t long before Dale Richards began surfing.

After taking up the sport at age 11, Dale was soon entering and winning a swathe of local junior surfing competitions, squeezing in training and practice in the surf at every opportunity between school. By the age of 13 Dale had been picked up by creative designer and shaper Dave Verrall (feraldave). Working together with Dave and his local boardriders club Kirra, Dale prepared to map his future as a professional surfer.

In 2003, Dale finished fourth at the Brothers Nielsen Grommet Challenge. He also reached the quarter-finals of the under-16 Quiksilver Australian Junior Titles held at North Stradbroke. He grabbed fourth at the NSW state titles at Cronulla Beach, and came in second at the Indigenous surfing championships at Fingal Bay in the under 18 division.

By the age of 16, Dale already boasted a bevy of sponsors, including Australian founded surfwear label Quiksilver. After establishing himself as one of the stars of the pro-juniors and being widely recognised as one of the top young surfing talents in the country, Dale had been building towards a breakthrough performance for some time. And it was his 2007 performance against the world’s surfing elite that saw him honoured at the 12th annual Deadlys.

Boxer Anthony Mundine was named “Male Sportsperson of the Year” and managed to cap the surfing young gun’s night when he whispered words of encouragement in his ear. Attached Photos: Dale Richards from the Quiksilver Pro earlier this year, Richards advanced to round two of the World Championship event where he eventually went down to the world champion, Kelly Slater!

New Quads instore tonight

just fresh from the factory tonight...one 5'11" & one 5'10" dq7 wetrub finish rockets. These are a $100 less expensive than our usual full gloss Quads. they will go quick so see you soon if you want the fastest ride south of the Indy 500!

Daves trip to Japan...

Daves of to a tropical island in japan in 14 days... Typhoon season and Quads!
keep your eyes on the news & weather!

(DK7 Quad) Its not a shortboard or a Fish!!!!!

Well What can I say.. I am tingling all over (stoked) !!!

After riding my new DK7 Quad at south Straddie it was 2-2.5 foot and super clean lefts and rights. The feeling I get riding this board is great, it has the flotation and speed like a fish but... turns tight and vertical like a every day high performance short board!!!

So for all those people in the surfing world who can not ride a short board because they're hard to gain speed in small waves ... and don't have the flotation to get onto the waves with ease ... or even if you just don't like thrusters any more... This is when the DK7 Quad is introduced into your quiver of boards!

I recommend 2-3 inches shorter than your standard size short board . I weigh 85kg and I am riding 6'0 x 19 9/16 x 2 5/8 = 30.5L Litres of flotation and i'm also using our Fluid Dynamics DQ1 Quad fin set that gives you drive but at the same time produces tighter turns like a twinny.

alex swadling photos

some new photos on my 5 10 diverse the water at coffs harbour is getting hotter so i have been wearing bordies later alex swado

surfing for seals...

Heres a little taste of what the seals are surfing today on Kangaroo island in south Oz.

Indo Pumps!

Swell hit Bali last night and Ulu is currently double overhead (plus) on the low tide. Impossibles was around 4-6 foot and super clean yesterday arvo... it looks almost twice the size this morning. The 6'2" diamond tail dru model worked absolutely epically, even if the rider was a bit fat/lazy. Pictures (of surf) to come...

Kelly Boosts his ratings...

The ever amazing Champ Kelly Slater blew up again today , winning the boost WCT event at Trestles in the USA. i felt a little sorry for Pancho as he had surfed amazing too. but when you look at Kellys average wave score for the whole event was a 9.33! he is truly the best surfer ever... if only he rode a Quad out there, now that would have been something to see! Cheers to the asp/tostee for the photo

Another Dru Video

Hey Guys and Girls, heres another Video of Dru busting some Airs earlier this year...

Boost mobile pro = win for PU

We are currently watching the Boost mobile pro in Trestles, USA. great to see the pros go at it in similar conditions to what we have to surf every day. i found it very interesting too, that every guy riding alternative construction boards eg Carbon rails, balsa perimeter stringers or EPS, was knocked out by round 3! Having just that little more weight in your board allows it to carry you thru a couple of turns. even those top 44 guys need that drive... hats off to the guys for trying new things so that you can learn from thier mistakes. Makes you rethink jumping on the bandwagon of new "light tech" doesnt it?

Dont try this at home...

Heres a little Teckie mix to remind you of driving in china...
My Song 2

Alex Swadling new pictures

these Photos were taken at mcaulies beach, coffs harbour on my 5 10 diverse
On the 22 sept i am going to jan jac for the gromsearch . Then on the 30 sept off to bali for two weeks to surf at bingin, kermas and changgu then over to g land for a week to try out my 5 11 and my
6 footer.

Jamie is Quad wise

If you like your small wave quad fish but want it to perform in perfect 3-6 foot waves like a short board well this new model is your best bet!!!!!

Here are some points about this board !!!

1. Super fast

2. awesome response in bottom to top turns

3. Allot of paddling power

4.Control , Stability

5.Bucket maker ( POWERFUL)

Jamie Greenmount Sunday Arvo

This was sunday arvo 9th September at Greenmount beach, 3-4 foot waves peeling through from Snapper Rocks to Greenmount!!! Sick as Sick can be.

Sunday sessions

Nice fun 3-4 foot on the points here this sunday... went to the Alley & took out my new 5'11" dq7, i made last week. its a round tail . i havent had a roundtail for years. it felt really smooth and drivey. however i had no worries turning it tight too! looking forward to a few more fun days on this one...

hi I'm SHEZZA!!!!!

hey I'm Sheridan, Ive been riding daves boards for about 4 years you'll hear more of me soon..

New Dru Footage

this is a test run... 1 2 3...

i went for surf and it was fun...yeehaaa...

am i getting somewhere?

so over the last couple days i have been trying to get my RapidWeaver site up and running with Blogger... trying to sync them and have it helpfull to everyone.

Tech talk with Dave...

keep trying is all i can say. we are working on getting this blog live for all our team to comment and put stuff up on, cheers dave

hey hey its the techno shaper again

well im trying blogger out...

Andy Campbells Day off

NICE... I guess when you live & work in paradise, you have to get a day off the job sometimes! Some great shots of Andy C filtering thru from Bali this week courtesy of www.aquabumps.com.au . Flight GA DQ7 prepare to exit the tube

Jamie wet the bed?

Up the crack of dawn was Jamie... as he opens the shop at 8am. He was keen to try his DQ7 stringerless. he came to work all frothing on the twang and responsiveness of it... so much so he hassled me to let him knock off at 2 pm to go surfing on it again!

Richo's new 6'2"

Richo (Mark Richardson) loving his new 6’2” Sprint at Currumbin alley on the dying swell. pic courtesy of www.coastalwatch.com.au

Wogga"s Wave

Carlo (Wogga) at the Currumbin Alley on saturday, trying one of our Tow boards. Photo courtesy of www.swellnet.com.au

Dru's lates advert

This is Dru's latest advert, its appearing in most Aussie surf mags a couple of American and one Japanese mag!

Peter Neely's new board

Author Peter Neely, of the famous indonesian surf guidebook “INDO SURF & LINGO” shows off his new flat top/step deck custom board. This board has evolved annually with input from both Peter and Dave. As we all get older a little more volume helps us catch waves a little earlier. Peter still travels to Bali regularly and does’nt mind a tube or two. Keeping his board shorter and maintaining floatation helps it fit into the well renown indian ocean tubes! see more at www.indosurf.com.au

Tbd board art prints

Here is an example of the prints we do on boards. They are printed by TBD. the Board is a DQ7 5’11”x20 3/4”x2 3/4” quad fin. This one is a Raffle board as a fundraiser for Currumbin surf life savers club. If you would like to see more examples of Troy Bremners work you can find him here at
http://www.tbdgroup.net/

Jason Gayle joins Diverse

Snapper rocks stalwart Jason Gayle has joined the Diverse Team! Jason brings a wealth of experience both in competition and boards. Jason has won pretty much any contest locally and is a usual choice for any teams event Snapper boardriders enter. Jason has a japanese wetsuit sponsor BE WET who send him to Japan and Bali for photos, contests and promo. We look forward to posting some great pics of Jason surfing his new boards soon....