Before Melbourne Surfboard Shop was Melbourne Surfboard Shop, it was a corner store on Victoria Rd and a shaper named Zak who'd rather be surfing Torquay or skating a bowl than doing much else. This is a bit of that history — old Melbourne surfing and skateboarding footage from the late 90s and early 00s, most of it never seen outside a mate's lounge room until now.
The Mitsubishi L300 (with a lift kit)
Long before anyone was talking about "surf missions" as a marketing term, there was the L300. Lifted, loaded with boards, and pointed at the coast on anything resembling a swell. If you surfed around Torquay and the Surf Coast in this era, a van like this one was doing the same drive most weekends — Melbourne to the coast and back, board racks rattling the whole way.
The L300, lift kit and all, somewhere on a Surf Coast mission.
Skating with Bunyip, and the legendary Bulleen bowl
When the swell was flat, it was skating — and a lot of it happened with Bunyip, including plenty of sessions at the Bulleen bowl back when it was one of the go-to spots for Melbourne skateboarding. If you were around the local skate scene in this era, Bulleen needs no introduction.
Zak and Bunyip skating the Bulleen bowl.
The Kernow sessions
There's a full skate video floating around from sessions with Zak and Kernow — enough footage that it might get its own upload down the track. For now, here's a taste of it.
Zak skating with the Kernow crew somewhere near Torquay, late 90s.
312 Victoria Rd: before it was a surf shop
The first shop wasn't much more than a corner store on Victoria Rd before it turned into a proper suburban surf shop. No big fit-out, no branding exercise — just boards, a shaping bay out back, and a door open to whoever wandered in off the street. Everything that's grown out of Melbourne Surfboard Shop and The Surfboard Studio since started here.
312 Victoria Rd, before it was a suburban surf shop.
The bottle shopo before it was Zak Surfboards then Melbourne Surfboad Shop.
Twenty-odd years on, the boards have changed shape a few times over, but the reasons for doing it haven't: surf when there's swell, skate when there isn't, and keep the doors open for whoever wanders in. If any of this footage rings a bell — or if you were around Bulleen, Torquay or Victoria Rd back then — we'd love to hear about it.