Mark Richards (surfer)
Encyclopedia
Mark Richards known as MR, is an Australian surfer
, five time world champion (1975, 1979–1982), and highly respected by his peers.
In 2000 Mark was awarded the Australian Sports Medal
for his service to Surf Riding.
, son of Ray and Val Richards, both keen beachgoers. They worked at the Wire Rope Works, Ray Richards as an accountant, but he wanted more than that career could offer and started a business selling second-hand cars, at a time when new cars were too expensive for most people. Together they setup a showroom at the end of Hunter St and lived in an apartment above it.
In the late 1950s Ray saw the new balsa
and fibreglass mailbu surfboards, which Greg Noll
and other visiting Californians had brought with them in 1956. The new boards were shorter and more manoeuvrable than the solid timber boards used until then. He bought himself one, and when he saw how much it impressed people he made a decision to branch into selling them too, buying from early manufacturers in Sydney
. So the business came a combination car yard and surf shop, and in time the cars gave way to the surfboards and it became a dedicated surf shop, one of the first in Australia.
So when Mark was born in 1957 he was always around surfboards, growing up with surf-o-planes and pint-sized longboards. He learnt to surf in gentle waves at Blacksmiths Beach
, about 15 minutes south of Newcastle, a beach partly sheltered by the breakwater on the northern side of the entrance to Lake Macquarie
. The family also went to Rainbow Bay on Queensland
's Gold Coast
for holidays, where he surfed Snapper Rocks
. He was also very keen on cricket
when young.
Richards surfed many junior competitions around Australia, taking time off school to go in some cases. He also made trips to Hawaii
for winter on the North Shore as a teenager. The highlight of his junior career was a win at Margaret River
in 1973.
In mid 1973 Richards father allowed him to leave school mid-way through fifth form, to pursue surfing. Anyone could leave after fourth form, but that was usually to take up an apprenticeship
. To leave for surfing was radical at a time when surfers were regarded as long-haired layabouts. The deal with his father was that if it didn't work out in a year then he had to get a trade.
for the North Shore winter. This was his fourth trip, and his first taste of really big waves. He got a late entry into a contest at Waimea Bay, and did well enough on the first day of competition to make the semi-finals the next day. That day the surf had jumped and 30 foot cleanup sets were closing out the Bay. Even local big wave riders were saying it was too big to compete. Organiser and 1968 world title holder Fred Hemmings
had other ideas; with sunshine, offshore winds and television coverage he threatened to go out himself if nobody else wanted to.
Richards made a decision to go. At 17 years old and without Waimea experience nobody would have thought less of him if he didn't, but he felt to walk away would end his hopes of surfing professionally, and put him back in Newcastle at some unappealling apprenticeship. He went with survival uppermost in his mind, and reckoned his first wave twice as big as anything he'd surfed before. By the end of the heat he was game enough on the monsters to actually bottom turn, yet was glad not to reach the final and have to go back out. In time he came to enjoy big waves, without being regarded as a big-wave specialist.
Image was important for Richards, and in 1975 he had Hawaiian artist Albert Dove design a superman-style badge with "MR" inscribed in it. He used that logo on all his boards and wetsuits for most of his career.
Richards was interested in twin-fin surfboards and in shaping. At the Surfabout
in 1976 he saw Reno Abellira on a highly manoeuvrable twin-fin fish and thought something like that would be better than a single-fin for small waves. Back in Hawaii
again for the 1976/77 winter, aged 19, he took his father's suggestion to pay for shaping lessons from noted pioneer Dick Brewer. It meant Richards was able to put his thoughts about design into actual foam. He credits Brewer for the style of shaping he came to use.
Brewer made Richards a twin-fin, and Richards took aspects of that and Abellira's fish for his own designs. The result was boards faster and more manoeuvrable than the single-fins of the day.
In Australia that year he had a strong win at the Stubbies
, and another strong win in small waves at Bells Beach, but couldn't make a clean sweep at the Surfabout
(relocated to Bells that year). The tour went to Niijima in Japan
, the first time tour events had been held in Japan. Richards was not focused on title ratings points and might not have gone except he had a Japanese sponsor. In four events there in small waves Richards got a 1st, a 2nd and two 5ths, which put him well in the ratings lead.
Richards didn't go to the two-event South Africa
n leg, instead returning to Australia to make boards. Past world title winners hadn't reaped any great financial reward, so he reckoned he was better off putting his shaping first. So going into the last two events in Hawaii his lead had evaporated.
Richards came 4th in the Pipe Masters at Banzai Pipeline
, which advanced him against Wayne Bartholomew
and Cheyne Horan when they made early exits. Then at the World Cup at Haleiwa fortune smiled on him in good 6–8 foot swell. Bartholomew went out early, and another contender Dane Keoloha made a tactical error of waiting for big sets which didn't come and was out. It came down to the final, which was Peter Townend
against Richards. If Townend won then Horan got the world title, and if Richards won then he got it.
In that final the two jostled for the inside position, both stubborn and wasting time out well past the break. His girlfriend (later wife) Jenny Jobson had arrived in Hawaii just in time for the final and thought he was going to be so stubborn that he'd give up the title rather than give up the inside. Finally Richards reckoned he was not in the lead and had to get some waves. He was so nervous he fell on a couple, but in the end did enough to take the win and take the title he hadn't even intended competing for.
The title presentation was in Haleiwa, and consisted only of a Rolex
watch and a plaque with a Pan Am logo. But Surfing magazine gave him the honour of a head-shot on the cover instead of their normal action shot, commissioned from rock photographer Norman Seef in Los Angeles
.
For 1980 Richards changed his strategy, and set out deliberately to get a second world title, doing the full tour. Although he'd won the ratings in 1979 he wasn't universally thought the best surfer, with Dane Kealoha reckoned the best by many. Richards was also competing against Wayne Bartholomew
, Cheyne Horan and Peter Townend
. In the end his results were very strong and took the 1980 title by a record number of points, and ended the season as the surfer against whom others were judged.
Richards won in 1981 and 1982 too, with his chief rival being Cheyne Horan.
In 1982 Richards' main sponsor, Lightning Bolt, suddenly dropped him. The reason was a mystery, he'd just won his fourth world title and was at the peak of his popularity, but they declined to renew for another year. The Lightning Bolt Australia division reckoned that treatment shabby and signed him up for several years. It turned out the parent company was in severe financial trouble, and it in fact folded, putting most of its Hawaiian staff out of work.
Right through Richards' career his parents went with him to see him compete, within Australia at least. They preferred sitting in among the crowd, no doubt a little out of place among the teenagers and surfie types, even though they would have been welcome in the VIP areas. Richards and his parents were close and he would celebrate a win by having a meal with them, a marked contrast to surf and party animals of the time.
Richards had suffered back problems throughout his career. His legs were a little shorter and trunk a little longer than usual which meant that he tended to pivot not at the hips but a couple of vertebrae up, straining the ligaments surrounding them. He reckoned a poor diet and lack of stretching or exercise (apart from surfing) hadn't helped either.
His back had developed a reverse curvature, with the lower vertebrae sticking out noticeably. He required regular physiotherapy to keep it mobile, and in later years it worsened to the point of making him something of a weekend surfer, since too much would aggravate it, obviously a very frustrating situation for a surfer.
Today Richards still lives in Newcastle with his wife, Jenny, and three children, Kyle, Nathan and Grace. He runs the Mark Richards Surf Shop in Hunter St, the same shop started by his parents.
Surfing
Surfing' is a surface water sport in which the surfer rides a surfboard on the crest and face of a wave which is carrying the surfer towards the shore...
, five time world champion (1975, 1979–1982), and highly respected by his peers.
In 2000 Mark was awarded the Australian Sports Medal
Australian Sports Medal
The Australian Sports Medal was an award given during 2000 to recognise achievements in Australian sport.Recipients of the award included competitors, coaches, sports scientists, office holders, and people who maintained sporting facilities and services. Over 18,000 Medals were...
for his service to Surf Riding.
Youth
Richards was born and grew up in NewcastleNewcastle, New South Wales
The Newcastle metropolitan area is the second most populated area in the Australian state of New South Wales and includes most of the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie Local Government Areas...
, son of Ray and Val Richards, both keen beachgoers. They worked at the Wire Rope Works, Ray Richards as an accountant, but he wanted more than that career could offer and started a business selling second-hand cars, at a time when new cars were too expensive for most people. Together they setup a showroom at the end of Hunter St and lived in an apartment above it.
In the late 1950s Ray saw the new balsa
Balsa
Ochroma pyramidale, commonly known as the balsa tree , is a species of flowering plant in the mallow family, Malvaceae. It is a large, fast-growing tree that can grow up to tall. It is the source of balsa wood, a very lightweight material with many uses...
and fibreglass mailbu surfboards, which Greg Noll
Greg Noll
Greg Noll , nicknamed "Da Bull" by Phil Edwards in reference to his physique and way of "charging" down the face of a wave, is an American pioneer of big wave surfing and is also acknowledged as a prominent longboard shaper. Noll was a member of a US lifeguard team that introduced malibu boards to...
and other visiting Californians had brought with them in 1956. The new boards were shorter and more manoeuvrable than the solid timber boards used until then. He bought himself one, and when he saw how much it impressed people he made a decision to branch into selling them too, buying from early manufacturers in Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
. So the business came a combination car yard and surf shop, and in time the cars gave way to the surfboards and it became a dedicated surf shop, one of the first in Australia.
So when Mark was born in 1957 he was always around surfboards, growing up with surf-o-planes and pint-sized longboards. He learnt to surf in gentle waves at Blacksmiths Beach
Blacksmiths, New South Wales
Blacksmiths is a coastal suburb of the City of Lake Macquarie in New South Wales, Australia, located on the Pacific Ocean south of Newcastle's central business district, between the suburbs of Belmont and Swansea-Facilities:...
, about 15 minutes south of Newcastle, a beach partly sheltered by the breakwater on the northern side of the entrance to Lake Macquarie
Lake Macquarie (New South Wales)
Lake Macquarie is Australia's largest coastal salt water lake, covering an area of in the Hunter Region of New South Wales with most of the City of Lake Macquarie's residents living near its shores. It is connected to the Tasman Sea by a short channel. Lake Macquarie is twice as large as Sydney...
. The family also went to Rainbow Bay on Queensland
Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
's Gold Coast
Gold Coast, Queensland
Gold Coast is a coastal city of Australia located in South East Queensland, 94km south of the state capital Brisbane. With a population approximately 540,000 in 2010, it is the second most populous city in the state, the sixth most populous city in the country, and also the most populous...
for holidays, where he surfed Snapper Rocks
Snapper Rocks
Snapper Rocks is a small rocky outcrop on the northern side of Point Danger at the southern end of Queensland's Gold Coast. It is a famous surf break and today the start of the large sand bank known to surfers as the Superbank.- Surfing :...
. He was also very keen on cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
when young.
Richards surfed many junior competitions around Australia, taking time off school to go in some cases. He also made trips to Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
for winter on the North Shore as a teenager. The highlight of his junior career was a win at Margaret River
Margaret River, Western Australia
Margaret River is a town in the South West of Western Australia, located in the valley of the eponymous Margaret River, south of Perth, the state capital. Its Local Government Area is the Shire of Augusta-Margaret River....
in 1973.
In mid 1973 Richards father allowed him to leave school mid-way through fifth form, to pursue surfing. Anyone could leave after fourth form, but that was usually to take up an apprenticeship
Apprenticeship
Apprenticeship is a system of training a new generation of practitioners of a skill. Apprentices or protégés build their careers from apprenticeships...
. To leave for surfing was radical at a time when surfers were regarded as long-haired layabouts. The deal with his father was that if it didn't work out in a year then he had to get a trade.
Early career
At the end of 1974 Richards returned to HawaiiHawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
for the North Shore winter. This was his fourth trip, and his first taste of really big waves. He got a late entry into a contest at Waimea Bay, and did well enough on the first day of competition to make the semi-finals the next day. That day the surf had jumped and 30 foot cleanup sets were closing out the Bay. Even local big wave riders were saying it was too big to compete. Organiser and 1968 world title holder Fred Hemmings
Fred Hemmings
Fred Hemmings is a world-known surfer who served as a Republican member of the Hawaii Senate from the 25th District. Elected in 2000, he served as Senate Minority Leader from 2002 to 2010. Previously he was a member of the Hawaii House of Representatives from 1984 through 1990...
had other ideas; with sunshine, offshore winds and television coverage he threatened to go out himself if nobody else wanted to.
Richards made a decision to go. At 17 years old and without Waimea experience nobody would have thought less of him if he didn't, but he felt to walk away would end his hopes of surfing professionally, and put him back in Newcastle at some unappealling apprenticeship. He went with survival uppermost in his mind, and reckoned his first wave twice as big as anything he'd surfed before. By the end of the heat he was game enough on the monsters to actually bottom turn, yet was glad not to reach the final and have to go back out. In time he came to enjoy big waves, without being regarded as a big-wave specialist.
Image was important for Richards, and in 1975 he had Hawaiian artist Albert Dove design a superman-style badge with "MR" inscribed in it. He used that logo on all his boards and wetsuits for most of his career.
Richards was interested in twin-fin surfboards and in shaping. At the Surfabout
Surfabout
Surfabout was a surfing competition held annually in Sydney, Australia between 1974 and 1991. It was sponsored by Coca Cola and radio station 2SM and hence called the Coke Surfabout or the Coke/2SM Surfabout...
in 1976 he saw Reno Abellira on a highly manoeuvrable twin-fin fish and thought something like that would be better than a single-fin for small waves. Back in Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
again for the 1976/77 winter, aged 19, he took his father's suggestion to pay for shaping lessons from noted pioneer Dick Brewer. It meant Richards was able to put his thoughts about design into actual foam. He credits Brewer for the style of shaping he came to use.
Brewer made Richards a twin-fin, and Richards took aspects of that and Abellira's fish for his own designs. The result was boards faster and more manoeuvrable than the single-fins of the day.
World Championships
- 1975 Smirnoff World Pro-Am Surfing ChampionshipsSmirnoff World Pro-Am Surfing ChampionshipsFred Hemmings, retired from competition began his career as an event promoter and ran the Smirnoff World Pro-Am Surfing Championships between 1969 until 1977....
; - 1979 International Professional SurfersInternational Professional SurfersThe International Professional Surfers organization was the original world governing body of professional surfing that existed between 1976 and 1982. The IPS brought together a loose affiliation of surf contests around the world by forming one world circuit.The IPS was formed by Fred Hemmings and...
(IPS) World Champion; - 1980 International Professional Surfers (IPS) World Champion;
- 1981 International Professional Surfers (IPS) World Champion;
- 1982 International Professional Surfers (IPS) World Champion and
- 2001 Association of Surfing ProfessionalsAssociation of Surfing ProfessionalsThe Association of Surfing Professionals is the governing body for professional surfers and is dedicated to showcasing the world’s best talent in a variety of progressive formats.- Predecessors to the ASP :...
(ASP) Grandmasters World Champion
Professional Career
By 1979 Richards reckoned his career as shaping primarily, and just competing at home in Australia and in Hawaii where he would go for the northern winter anyway.In Australia that year he had a strong win at the Stubbies
Stubbies (surfing)
The Stubbies was a surf competition held annually, in about March, at Burleigh Heads, Queensland from 1977 to 1988. The event was named after its sponsor the Stubbies clothing brand and was one of the three major Australian surfing competitions of its day .- History :The contest was established in...
, and another strong win in small waves at Bells Beach, but couldn't make a clean sweep at the Surfabout
Surfabout
Surfabout was a surfing competition held annually in Sydney, Australia between 1974 and 1991. It was sponsored by Coca Cola and radio station 2SM and hence called the Coke Surfabout or the Coke/2SM Surfabout...
(relocated to Bells that year). The tour went to Niijima in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, the first time tour events had been held in Japan. Richards was not focused on title ratings points and might not have gone except he had a Japanese sponsor. In four events there in small waves Richards got a 1st, a 2nd and two 5ths, which put him well in the ratings lead.
Richards didn't go to the two-event South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
n leg, instead returning to Australia to make boards. Past world title winners hadn't reaped any great financial reward, so he reckoned he was better off putting his shaping first. So going into the last two events in Hawaii his lead had evaporated.
Richards came 4th in the Pipe Masters at Banzai Pipeline
Banzai Pipeline
The Banzai Pipeline, or simply "Pipeline" or "Pipe," is a surf reef break located in Hawaii, off Ehukai Beach Park in Pupukea on O'ahu's North Shore. A reef break is an area in the ocean where waves start to break once they reach the shallows of a reef...
, which advanced him against Wayne Bartholomew
Wayne Bartholomew
Wayne 'Rabbit' Bartholomew AM is an Australian surfer and order of Australia recipient who won the World Surfing Championship in 1978, 1999 and 2003...
and Cheyne Horan when they made early exits. Then at the World Cup at Haleiwa fortune smiled on him in good 6–8 foot swell. Bartholomew went out early, and another contender Dane Keoloha made a tactical error of waiting for big sets which didn't come and was out. It came down to the final, which was Peter Townend
Peter Townend (surfer)
- Early Surfing Years :Townend was born in Coolangatta, Queensland , was considered to be one of the best surfers in the world throughout the 70's and 80's. Some however might argue that the competition was a lot less competitive and the surf tours were loosely planned, none-the-less his title...
against Richards. If Townend won then Horan got the world title, and if Richards won then he got it.
In that final the two jostled for the inside position, both stubborn and wasting time out well past the break. His girlfriend (later wife) Jenny Jobson had arrived in Hawaii just in time for the final and thought he was going to be so stubborn that he'd give up the title rather than give up the inside. Finally Richards reckoned he was not in the lead and had to get some waves. He was so nervous he fell on a couple, but in the end did enough to take the win and take the title he hadn't even intended competing for.
The title presentation was in Haleiwa, and consisted only of a Rolex
Rolex
Rolex SA is a Swiss watchmaking manufacturer of high-quality, luxury wristwatches. Rolex watches are popularly regarded as status symbols and BusinessWeek magazine ranks Rolex No.71 on its 2007 annual list of the 100 most valuable global brands...
watch and a plaque with a Pan Am logo. But Surfing magazine gave him the honour of a head-shot on the cover instead of their normal action shot, commissioned from rock photographer Norman Seef in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
.
For 1980 Richards changed his strategy, and set out deliberately to get a second world title, doing the full tour. Although he'd won the ratings in 1979 he wasn't universally thought the best surfer, with Dane Kealoha reckoned the best by many. Richards was also competing against Wayne Bartholomew
Wayne Bartholomew
Wayne 'Rabbit' Bartholomew AM is an Australian surfer and order of Australia recipient who won the World Surfing Championship in 1978, 1999 and 2003...
, Cheyne Horan and Peter Townend
Peter Townend (surfer)
- Early Surfing Years :Townend was born in Coolangatta, Queensland , was considered to be one of the best surfers in the world throughout the 70's and 80's. Some however might argue that the competition was a lot less competitive and the surf tours were loosely planned, none-the-less his title...
. In the end his results were very strong and took the 1980 title by a record number of points, and ended the season as the surfer against whom others were judged.
Richards won in 1981 and 1982 too, with his chief rival being Cheyne Horan.
In 1982 Richards' main sponsor, Lightning Bolt, suddenly dropped him. The reason was a mystery, he'd just won his fourth world title and was at the peak of his popularity, but they declined to renew for another year. The Lightning Bolt Australia division reckoned that treatment shabby and signed him up for several years. It turned out the parent company was in severe financial trouble, and it in fact folded, putting most of its Hawaiian staff out of work.
Right through Richards' career his parents went with him to see him compete, within Australia at least. They preferred sitting in among the crowd, no doubt a little out of place among the teenagers and surfie types, even though they would have been welcome in the VIP areas. Richards and his parents were close and he would celebrate a win by having a meal with them, a marked contrast to surf and party animals of the time.
Semi-retirement
For 1983 and following years Richards chose not to defend his title, and to travel and compete less, due to back troubles and the pressure of being on top. It turned out he was unable to compete for 1982 anyway, an ankle injury on a big day at home at Dixon Park kept him on dry land for five months.Richards had suffered back problems throughout his career. His legs were a little shorter and trunk a little longer than usual which meant that he tended to pivot not at the hips but a couple of vertebrae up, straining the ligaments surrounding them. He reckoned a poor diet and lack of stretching or exercise (apart from surfing) hadn't helped either.
His back had developed a reverse curvature, with the lower vertebrae sticking out noticeably. He required regular physiotherapy to keep it mobile, and in later years it worsened to the point of making him something of a weekend surfer, since too much would aggravate it, obviously a very frustrating situation for a surfer.
Today Richards still lives in Newcastle with his wife, Jenny, and three children, Kyle, Nathan and Grace. He runs the Mark Richards Surf Shop in Hunter St, the same shop started by his parents.
Trivia
- Richards' nickname was "the wounded seagull," due to his tall frame, and unusual style of making bottom turns and cutbacks with his arms splayed out awkwardly behind his back.
- Richards made a guest appearance in the ABC TVAustralian Broadcasting CorporationThe Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
drama series SeaChangeSeaChangeSeaChange was a popular Australian television show that ran for 39 episodes from 1998 to 2001 on the ABC. It was created by Andrew Knight and Deborah Cox and starred Sigrid Thornton, David Wenham, William McInnes, John Howard, Tom Long and Kerry Armstrong...
as himself as a surfboard manufacturer. - Very good friends with Eddie VedderEddie VedderEddie Vedder is an American musician and singer-songwriter who is best known for being the lead singer and one of three guitarists of the alternative rock band Pearl Jam. He is widely considered a cultural icon of alternative rock.He is also involved in soundtrack work and contributes to albums...
(lead singer of Pearl JamPearl JamPearl Jam is an American rock band that formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1990. Since its inception, the band's line-up has included Eddie Vedder , Jeff Ament , Stone Gossard , and Mike McCready...
), and was asked by Vedder to create the setlist for Pearl Jam's concert in Richards' hometown of Newcastle on November 19, 2006. This show was voted by a large proportion of Pearl Jam fans all around the world as the highlight show of Pearl Jam's 2006 World Tour, thanks largely to Richards' sublime choices of songs. - Richards is the Godfather to Nicky Wood who is the youngest to ever win an ASP professional surfing competition at 16 years of age. The Bells Beach Surf Classic.
- MR was also a big Bruce SpringsteenBruce SpringsteenBruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen , nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band...
fan. - MR owned a PorschePorschePorsche Automobil Holding SE, usually shortened to Porsche SE a Societas Europaea or European Public Company, is a German based holding company with investments in the automotive industry....
911/935 style vehicle. - MR is Dr http://www.surfersvillage.com/surfing/14527/news.htm of letters
- Mark and his wife Jenny lost their infant son to SIDSSudden infant death syndromeSudden infant death syndrome is marked by the sudden death of an infant that is unexpected by medical history, and remains unexplained after a thorough forensic autopsy and a detailed death scene investigation. An infant is at the highest risk for SIDS during sleep, which is why it is sometimes...
in 1989. They have raised over $500000 to help find the cause of this disease. http://www.sidsandkids.org/hunter/surfphoto1.html
External links
- Mark Richards Surf Shop
- SeaChange episode 31, at the ABCAustralian Broadcasting CorporationThe Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
web site - Video of Mark Richards surfing at MySpaceMySpaceMyspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....
- Mark Richard boards in Surfer Magazine's Surfboard Guide 2009