06/05/2026
R.I.P. SHANE STEDMAN
LOVELY TRIBUTE FROM STEVE CORE
I was terribly saddened to learn of the passing of my old friend, surfboard builder and industry entrepreneur, Shane Stedman this week.
Working in the Sydney surfboard industry, I first met Shane Stedman in, well, next year will be 60-years ago. Way back in 1967 when we had a huge Surf Expo in Sydney’s CBD main Town Hall.
They still have that huge exhibition space to this day that is called the Lower Town Hall. It is located right on George Street in the heart of the city. That was a very big deal back in those 'Beach Boys' surf boom days of the sixties.
At the time, I was working for the Taren Point based, southside board builder, Peter Clarke Surfboards. We had a display booth at the Expo. Where we had our Signature surfer/shaper at the time, Keith Paull taking custom orders for surfboards and doing meet & greets.
Shane Stedman was also there attending the Expo representing Shane Surfboards of course. Shane was set up with a purpose built, indoor 'fish bowl' shaping bay. He was shaping surfboards inside a specially designed clear plexiglass shaping bay.
The entire exhibition hall would strain to have a conversation when Shane was attacking a foam blank with his screaming tar planer. Much to the delight of the thousands of show goers who had never seen a surfboard being shaped ‘live’ previously.
That was a very innovative exhibition for the ‘60s. I soon learned that would became the hallmark of how Shane did things. Shane always had a ton of energy, enthusiasm and a pure entrepreneurial spirit.
Interestingly, also performing live at that same Surf Expo was a surf band called ‘The Sunsets'. They had recently recorded the soundtrack for Paul Witzig's early surfing film ‘A Life in the Sun’. That was around the time they began to morph into the more famous, Taman Shud. They also went on to do soundtracks for later productions ‘Evolution’ and ‘Sea of Joy’.
There’s also a musical tie-in for Shane that I'd like to unveil here. I'm not sure how many may know this but in those early days Shane also dabbled as a lead singer in a rock n roll band too. They were called ‘Shane and the Trojans’. Let it be noted that, without Shane out the front mind you, ‘The Trojans’ supported the Rolling Stones on their tour of Australia in 1965.
Shane wisely moved his surfboard operations from Eastwood to the more high profile Brookvale in 1967. He wasn't part of the original Brookvale six, but he clipped the cusp of it. Some of Australia’s most famous surfers shaped or had signature models with Shane Surfboards.
Names like... Russell Hughes, Ted Spencer, Terry Fitzgerald, John Harris, Simon Anderson, Michael Peterson, Richard Harvey, Frank Latta, Bill Cillia, Jack Knight, Terry Richardson, (to name a few) and additionally, Shane Surfboards were made at Crescent Heads by Bob Kennerson.
Relatively fewer northside board builders had the immense production facilities that Shane Surfboards developed in Mitchell Road. During that ‘transition era’ to shorter boards, further emerging into the ‘stringerless era’, Shane produced a plethora of models and types.
The magnitude of Shane’s achievements can best be sensed by talking to avid surfboard collectors and hearing testament about how many Shane Surfboards they have acquired in their collections. The forms of Shane Surfboards are not only nostalgic leftovers, but testament to the evolving design development of Australian surfboards of that era. They have esthetic unity and clarity of form.
Chosen by Contest Director, Graham Cassidy, Shane became the voice of surfing as the live beach commentator for all of the original 2SM Coca-Cola Surfabouts starting in 1974. Then in the early '80s, Shane had jumped camps and started doing his famous radio surf reports for a new western Sydney based radio station WSFM and there was some kind of conflict of interest.
In 1982 for the 2SM Coca-Cola Surfabout, I replaced Shane Stedman as the live beach commentator. The 1982 2SM Coca-Cola Surfabout final was held at Cronulla Point which was my home turf. Wayne ‘Rabbit’ Bartholomew ended up winning that one. Beating Hawaiian Dane Kealoha in the final, winning $30,000 and a new 4-wheel drive car.
I know Shane worked a lot on the development and marketing of his very successful Ugg Boot business and I seem to remember back in late ‘70s or ‘80s, before the advent of dedicated ‘Jeaneries’ - when Surf Shops moved truck loads of denim jeans, Shane came out with Shane branded denim Jeans as well. He was always thinking and being the active impresario.
The last time I worked with Shane was in November 2019. That’s when I organised the Sun Room in the beach side Cronulla’s RSL for Shane’s book launch, 'The Shane Gang'. Some of my photos from that day are attached for you.
We talked about the original Brookvale six of surfboard makers from the ‘60s. That six being Gordon Woods, Scott Dillion, Barry Bennet, Greg McDonagh, Danny Keogh, Bill Wallace.
Shane was not part of that pioneering six foundation members in Brookvale. But he realised that he needed to be in the heart of things and moved from Eastwood to Brookvale in 1967.
But with Shane’s passing, now Danny Keogh is the last man standing of all those once all-mighty surfboard manufacturers.
Shane leaves us with an abundance of valuable memories, tons of exciting stories and hundreds of imposing examples of his Shane surfboard empire. Stories that will keep us talking about him for years to come.
