Here’s an idea we can all get behind: Ross Rutherford, owner of the Soul Boardstore in Scarborough, WA, has started a Facebook campaign to get Michael Peterson’s iconic cutback on an Australian note. And while the movement is yet to attract the attention of whoever it is who decides such things, we here at Tracks reckon it deserves a shot. Who knows, if by some miracle we succeed in getting the Queen’s tired mug hauled down and MP’s classic carve put up in its place, it might lead to a complete overhaul of our currency, with Dame Nellie Melba and Edith Cowan suddenly replaced by TC’s snap at Pipe and Fanning flying down the line at J-Bay.
‘The idea came to a head whilst two things were swirling in my mind,’ begins Ross, when asked what led him to call for such a bold and sweeping change. ‘One was the graphic abomination that is the latest $5 note. What's happening with that fucking thing? It looks like some kids have laminated a puke. The second was I was looking back through Peterson boards, both Tom and Michael, as an inspiration for a modern performance twin I had to shape, and of course the usual peril of internet searches led me to trawling associated images. The Peterson cutty stuck in my mind—the iconic image, the legend of the man, the world’s best who left surfing in his prime, the mental battles, the substance battles, the mother, the overweight shadowy figure re-embraced slowly by the new surfing community. It's a big story, a big Australian story, capturing the change of the 70s. And all this can be distilled down to that one image: the MP cutty.’
While the idea might seem a little ambitious and far-fetched when you first consider it, it’s hard to argue with Ross’s reasoning here. The MP story is a big Aussie story, and it’s a beauty too, as anyone who’s read Sean Doherty’s biography of the legendary figure can attest to. Surely it should be honoured by having the man’s most iconic moment proudly displayed on the same stuff we buy our beer and wax and Weet-bix with, or at the very least on a postage stamp.
Join the movement here