He would have been a sponsor's nightmare in today's sanitised, homogenised, downsized, outsources, globalised, stylised surf industry. He created urban myths and won a heap of surf contests when competitors rode boards they shaped themselves. Without legropes (or what you call "leashes").
He was MP - competitive, talented and tormented.
And now he's gone.
RIP Michael Petersen (1953-2012)
No doubt the tales will flow over the coming days as we are all reminded of our mortality. I particularly like this one from Michael Holmes, co-owner of Noosa Longboards."An elderly lady coming up to the counter when we had the Brisbane Noosa longboards store. She said would you like to have all your Morning Of The Earth posters etc signed? We said, sure, by who? She said Michael Petersen. We said, what you know him? She said , yes , he is my son. We said great, when could he come in and she said no problem, he is here now. Over in the corner there he was and his mum asked him to come over and sign away, he signed everything.
Apparently Dick was furious as Michael still had a commercial arrangement and he just did it all for nothing, great memory.. All that's stuff has gone now, I have no idea where ..but on his way out he stopped and looked at a MOTE tee shirt and he just stopped grabbed the pen and signed it perfectly thru the MOTE logo on the front, put the pen down and just walked out.... Somehow I hung on to the tee, signed and framed and hanging somewhere safe. ... as MP would say, his favourite saying... " I could say..but I won't" Rest in Peace MP.
Michael"
