This is the second part of an ongoing series which will largely showcase boards held at the Australian National Surfing Museum in Torquay.

In 1995 Quiksilver ran the inaugural Quiksilver Pro Grajagan. That contest was the first step in making the much vaunted Dream Tour a reality, and fittingly it was won by then world champion and Quiksilver figurehead, Kelly Slater.

Quiksilver returned to the Javanese jungle in June 1996, just over twenty years ago, and this is the board Slater rode to defend his title. The basic dimensions are 6'6" x 18 ¼" x 2 ⅜", a standard mini-gun, yet the most distinguishing feature is its spear-like nose.

"On the surface it is quite an understated board," says Craig Baird, the curator of the Australian National Surfing Museum, "but if you look beyond the pale yellow tinted glass this board has some pretty distinct and interesting features. At just under 11 inches, the nose is quite narrow and it is also very thin. There is hardly any foam in the front 6 inches which has a pronounced kick [7 inch nose lift]. That nose pushes the volume and balance point of the board toward the rear and creates an interesting outline."

"The bottom is flat on entry feeding into a long concave that transitions into vee from the fins back. The fins provide a counterpoint to the thinned out, knife-like board. With 5 inch bases and 4 ½ inch depth the fins are set up to drive!"

As a comparison, the nose width is approximately an inch narrower than a standard shortboard and an incredible two inches narrower than Slater's Deep Six design of 2008. This board and the Deep Six were designed to ride a similar type of wave, yet they represent opposite sides of the design pendulum.

The Deep Six was short, thick, and straight - a crude rendition of function over form. It was a design whose turning capacity was derived primarily from outline curve. In contrast this board is traditionally sleek; a graceful amalgam of elongated curves that reflect the early 90s 'rocker ships' yet scaled up for size.

Despite those merits, Slater told Surfing magazine he "wasn't confident in his boards" when asked about his Grajagan quiver. He still scored three magazine covers (see below) and made the semi-finals of the Quiksilver Pro Grajagan.

Slater was knocked out by Gary 'Kong' Elkerton who gives an entertaining account of the heat in his 2012 book 'Kong':

It was '96 in Grajagan before we were matched up in decent surf again, this time in the semi-finals. The waves were out of this world. Kelly was frothing like a man possessed as we sat out the back waiting for the starting siren. He was looking straight at me, punching himself hard in the face. Whether he was trying to psyche himself up or trying to psyche me out, I'll never know. I only recently found out that Kelly's daughter was born that very morning, all the way back in the US. Maybe that's what accounted for the unsettling spectacle. Whatever the reasons, it was bloody radical.

“Keep it up, cunt, you're saving me the job,” I offered helpfully.

“Bring it the fuck on, man!” he said between masochistic uppercuts.

It was a great battle, waged on Grajagan's perfect battlefield. With ninety seconds to go, Kelly needed a nine to take the lead. Ever the consummate professional, he used priority expertly to take the last wave of the set. He ripped the absolute shit out of it and I could hear the response on the beach, even from hundreds of metres away. Slater pulls nine-pointers out of his supernatural butthole at will, so I accepted that my goose was probably cooked.

I then experienced a couple of 'firsts' in my career. With seconds to go, a G-Land special gifted itself to me out of the blue, totally out of sync with how the sets had been working in the heat to date. That was 'first' number one. I'd never enjoyed Curren or Slater's psychic abilities to command waves to me in the past.

I bottom turned very late and pulled into a stand up backside tube that overtook me immediately. I stood there weaving big turns in the barrel. There was enough time to anticipate the fantastic feeling of being spat out of the tube mouth, which had bent away out of sight, despite my speed.

Sure enough, I was catapulted from the cavern with centimetres to spare before the wave closed out violently. Incredible that scarcely a drop of water had touched me on my journey across the entire reef. I hooted like a maniac. One of the best tube rides I'd enjoyed had occurred in a major contest during my last year on your.

Kelly got his nine-pointer. 'First' number two for me transpired when I scored perfect tens. In all my years on tour, even during my most dominant periods, I'd never been rewarded with a perfect score. It was nice to give the judges no room to move on style or on any subjective measurement. If you ride a tube at heaving Grajagan from take-off to end of the wave, it's a ten. I lost the final to Shane Beschen's terrific repertoire, but I was touched by how stoked everyone was for me. Almost everyone that is.

Kelly was nowhere to be seen after the semi.

I shared a bottle of red with Al Green at the conclusion of Quiksilver's marquee contest. I was telling Al how disappointed I was in Kelly for not approaching me to acknowledge our epic semi. I didn't expect him to fawn all over me, but thought that he might at least have offered some kind of personal indication that he respected a memorable heat, professional to professional. Actually, I might have been drunk enough to suggest half-jokingly that the grommet was due a good clip around his revered earhole. Al and I had no sooner stopped chuckling about the headlines that would generate when Kelly appeared at the door of the cabin.

“Hey...sit down, mate, we were just talking about you,” we said together, or words to that effect.

“No thanks, man,” responded the champ self-consciously. “I just wanted to say, you know, congratulations and stuff. I really enjoyed today. Awesome heat, man.”

We shook on it and shared a brief uncomfortable hug. Then we stood back and looked dumbly at each other for a few seconds before laughing together at an unspoken joke that neither of us could define. I hoped he might stay for a drink or two, but he left just as quickly as he arrived.

After Kelly walked back into the night, I reflected on how hard it must be for a 24-year-old guy to carry this crazy, chaotic sport on his back. When I was his age I struggled under the weight of half the expectation, half the talent, and a fraction of his mainstream global celebrity. He was handling himself beautifully, all things considered. Maybe a prickly bastard like me rattled his unflappable demeanour occasionally, but he generally carried himself flawlessly.

Al and I toasted the fact that Kelly showed his class after that final day of the '96 Grajagan Quiksilver Pro. We also agreed that he could bloody well keep winning for as long as he was motivated to do so.

Kelly riding the 6'6" Channel Islands on the cover of Surfer, Tracks, and Surfing

And winning was just what Slater continued to do.

Shane Beschen beat Kong in the final at Grajagan which gave him the lead in the rankings. When asked by Surfing magazine who the title favourites are, Slater made it sound a fait accompli, "Well it's pretty obvious. Sunny [Garcia] and Beschen are pretty much the frontrunners."

Yet after Grajagan, Slater went on one of the best rolls of his career. If not the best roll of his career. The next contest of the 1996 tour was Reunion Island which he won while riding some heats at sizable St Leu on this board. He then won Jeffreys Bay and followed it up with a triumph at the US Open for a mid-season hat-trick. The latter win was marred by controversy; a dubious use of priority against Shane Beschen in the final became one of the rare black marks against Slater's name.

Between Grajagan and the Pipe Masters, the last contest of the year, there were nine contests and Slater won six of them. The total count was seven wins from a fourteen contest season, making Slater's 1996 season the most dominant in the sport's history. That year he also equalled Mark Richards record of four world titles though it'd be another year till he equalled MR's four consecutive titles.

This board and many others just like it are exhibited at the Australian National Surf Museum

Other boards in this series:
Mark Richards 1980 twin fin