Was only thinking about this movie a couple of days ago . One of my all time favourites. I’m actually a little bit excited knowing that I’ll park up this arvo and watch it for the first time in over 25 years.

“ I told you to take the knob off it ! “

Thanks Tim Bonython. I never realised you’d done Surf into Summer too.

Great contributions to my surfing life. Loved them all ....Strike force etc

You introduced me to so much great music.

Holy shit.....I’ve only been a positive person for just over 4 hours and it’s paying off already. Who knows what good things will come when I try being positive whilst I’m awake .

PS....What about Water Slaughter....was that TB ? John Shortis ripped the bag.

Great era in surfing. Everyone ripped

What's the go with the weird bits on the sides? It's annoying.

Oh yeah, I'll just watch this for a few minutes and then get on with my day... (40 minutes later, still glued to screen, completely taken back)... how good's the editing and how good's the music and how good's Poto. (Even spotted myself paddling furiously to get out of the way in the South Straddie segment)

Ripper flick. Still got my original VHS tape in the cabinet under the TV. Just about wore it out way back then.

Gorilla Grip has a reputation for producing quality durable products - that's how you get rich!
Loving the longer full thickness boards, I've been thinking about how to have lighter boards (less-dense blanks) and not get the crazy deck compressions and cracks, a full length grip would do the trick! Anyone know where to get?

So much Joe Satriani and paddling gloves..... webs??

That Kirra section filled my dreams for many years

Ah well...........

so much for being productive 'from home' for the next hour or so....thenks Stu.

Geeez......old Poto didn't mind a claim back then.

SMH 26 Oct 1989: Gripping Stuff videos for sale for $45.95!
​​​​​​​

On another note, here's the weather chart from the same paper. Anyone keen to have a punt on what the surf might have been like?

Epic late 80,s surf flick! Great sound track also. Back to high school days ,billies and surf vids on repeat. What a great world title showdown too, we were all stoked Dooma didnt win for some reason and every time he got knocked off his board mid claim the roar went up. Branno (before being stabbed and coming out of the closet) doesnt appear to have GG on his board but got a fair bit of screen time?Also how empty was Kirra??? Of note 16 million people mentioned as population of AUS too, a sustainable population size IMO , I guess thats why it feels so crowded now. I still have a pretty good nick copy on vcr that gets a run once a year or so (when the wife goes away and I can drag out the video player and run the favorites)but the clarity suffers watching vcr on a digital tv so this is great. Why does it have the double screen effect on the side? I dont remember that from vcr? Bit hard on the eyes. Is it something to do with the transfer to digital? Gripping Stuff 1 was the pick of all the Gripping Stuff series but will wait in hope for Deep Throat if the library is coming out. Thanks Swellnet and Tim for putting it up.

That drop in at the start of the movie is next level!

The Branno section with Screaming Tribesman is epic.

Footnote: The sugar daddy sale caused a split between the partners ultimately leading to a legal case against Mac Bank resulting in a large payout to Bill McCausland who (footnote to footnote) was also the first (only?) surf photographer to make National Geographic.

Never really though much of this one, and flicking through still looks average (but cleaned up pretty good for a VHS), just nothing real epic and sound track a bit more mainstream kinda sounding even if some of the bands are okay.

The second one from memory was better looking forward to that one.

IMHO Billabong and Rip curl did better videos around that period like Savage Cuts 2, Rubber Soul and Filthy habits, Surf into summer etc better surfing, locations and a much more gritty soundtracks both USA and Aussie bands.

I'm VOLATILE

Fuggen CLASSIC!!!

If you didn't wanna go surfing after listening/watching that at the end of the vid there'd be something wrong with ya!

Jeez I haven't seen that for years. I remembered everything up to the Waimea segment. I guess I never actually got to the end of the video

Thank you Tim

Loved the vid and all the front pads! FYI Ape, I had an ongoing problem with a leak from a crack in my epoxy board under my front foot . Tried everything to seal it with no success, so thought a front traction pad might work. Happy to report after 4 months so far so good!
PS I had the Barton GG combo back in the day but found it slippery as buggery, especially with booties. Had to wax both grips to stay upright!

45:49 brings tears to my eyes. He was/is so good.

Just watched the vid and it was as good as I remember.

Just a little heads up , I couldn’t find the vid searching Youtube.

Searched : Gripping Stuff . Tim Bonython . Classic surf videos and Surfing visions....nothing.

I ended up casting to TV from the link provided in Swellnet.

What’s going on there ?

Man that was awesome. All the names you forgot. Wish I still had my old vids. Think I still have a few somewhere but not that old. Did own it once upon a time. I remember Tubular swells and...fuck! Forgot. Too many bongs.

That was fun, great tunes, good waves as well as bloody awful hair cuts and fluro wetsuits. A lot of the surfing holds up too. Was around the time I stopped reading surf mags so the names are like a roll call from grommethood. Thanks for sharing Tim. Btw, 16mm or video?

Synoptic Seabreeze swell for Tazzy Ben?

I really want to see Gland 1997 that Egan wins. One of my favourite ever movies - had it in VHS and have tried to find it since and can’t find it anywhere online.

Tom or Nick - any chance of getting a digital copy of this? Happy to pay.

I have a box of videos still (another full of cassette tapes too) got tubular swells, surf into summer, filthy habits, most of the billabong ones after that (maybe not pump though) , Kongs Island /Performers 1, A day in the life Wayne Lynch (in the start of another movie) him and Nat ripping in vicco), couple of the quicksilver Gland comps, Gripping stuff 1 and couple of other ones, couple of sarges surfing scrapbooks (before he sucked off Occy and got ostracized from the surfing community) including the one with giant margs comp and Curren riding down to the rivermouth, mad wax,asian paradise, couple of the Hawaii90,s, a gret Wide World of Sports special on the Eddie Aikau contest that Keone Downing won, Rodger Erickson was the man in that one!, couple of good rusty ones- under the same sun, liquid lust, showing my age I guess but as Ben mentioned they were expensive at the time so well watched but looked after. More too but would have to dig them out and (maybe one or 2 of the one halfcousehalf was referring too also ha ha Debbie does Dallas perhaps...

Mike, you forgot to mention your VHS stash including Goodwill Humping, Inspecther Gadget and Shaving Ryans Privates.

and don't forget Shindlers Fist!

Or Edward Penishands.

omg, how could i forget.

and of course Missionary Impossible and Pulp Friction.

Anyone willing to give the name of that long lefthander in south oz they are camping near? pretty sure it was gripping stuff 2

I think original company was called Sun Bum products, very early days.

I reckon I’ve got you beat there , Stu. Still a very nice collection.

Up until a couple of years ago I was still harvesting gold in the small town Op shops of Australia.

Like any collection, the search was half the fun. The niche flicks were a buzz to come across.

Derek Hynd’s “Pro Land” at the Denmark Oppy for 50 cents.....fuck yeah.

I’ve got the VHS set up under the TV in case I feel the need to plow those productive fields again. Fucker needs the heads cleaned very time though.

Clean the heads?

Hi Guys thanks for posting, I loved this flick as a kid. Two surf movies I am desperate to see that I had on VHS that I can't find online are Sarge's Surfing Scrapbook 4 and the Quiksilver gland pro 1997. If anyone has links or can upload on the net I would be so stoked

I had a Rocket Block, it had a Velcro pad that you could move up or down the surfboard. I was so sad when they stopped making it. This video brought back so many memories.

No Indo section. Or did I miss it? Wouldn’t see a vid without it these days. I went to Bali in ‘80 I think. I was 13 or so. With the Family of course. Took my big red 6’4” single fin that I was learning on. Only one major hotel at Kuta. Dirt roads, cheap cassettes and of course T-shirts. Chickens, pigs. I surfed the beaches and could see Kuta reef. 6 guys and all gone by low tide cause it was too shallow! Dad comes down the beach. Already been surfing for 3 hours. Sun eating my face off! Cmon I’ll take ya out to the reef. Ummm...ok. Jump in the canoe, give the guy some rupe. Fucken shat myself. Didn’t catch a wave. Too scared. Everyone had already gone in. All 6 of em. Tail between the legs. Damn. Been hating myself ever since. Anyway...great to watch. So good

Probably the only thing I ever won was a rocket block in a Manly Daily contest. Came time to pick it up and the columnist (an infamous local high school teacher, no doubt known to a few here) tried to get me to pick it up from his home. Knowing his rep I strongly insisted on picking it up from the Daily offices, & let him know I had no interest in doing it any other way. It took a bit of convincing for him to do the right thing. Anyway, it was a foam block attached to a strip of velcro and I’m not surprised it didn’t take off. It was shithouse. They got it right with the Gorilla Grip though.

It's amazing how this vid (and others) affected my life in other ways, not necessarily surf-related.

In 1989 I was in Year 10, and had been jamming with my best mate Nat for a year or two - me on drums, him on guitar (we were both doing music at Brighton High). We were still a while away from writing our own songs, and in looking for covers to play, surfing sound tracks offered an insight into fresh music that wasn't on Video Hits every Saturday morning.

So, thanks to Gripping Stuff we were exposed to Kings Of The Sun, and over the coming months we learnt Serpentine, which we ended up playing at the BHS Battle of the Bands a little while later. It ended up being a staple in our set for quite a few years even once we had our own tunes to play.

Anyway, I reckon there are a lot of people who owe their musical taste - for better or worse! - to a whole swag of surfing flicks.

Oh, and for the record, I'd love to preserve whatever small level of music credibility I might have by guffawing at the inclusion of Joe Satriani - as has been perfectly acceptable for the last twenty years - but fuck it! As a fifteen year old I loved those bitchin', endless guitar solos.

There’s a lot of slo-mo in this film. Gets a bit irritating after a while. Apart from that I’ll give it 7/10 on the Spuddups scale.

The 'Girls Go Maniac' section was awesome!

......said no one ever

I have fond memories of lobbing up under-age to the Jewells Tavern south of Newy back around 84-85 (I think). Timmy B would set-up his projector and screen with a pumping stereo system with the best tunes, and the latest raw surfing footage blowin' our minds at a time when we most needed it. Love ya work TB.

Nice shots of secret spots north of Sydney! fond memories. Also ...nice to watch surfing with no airs (sorry showing my age)

I can only watch 10 minutes at a time.

Living away from the coast sucks balls!!!