In sad news, Shane Herring has passed away at his home. Herring had a late-night fall down a set of stairs and was attended to, yet he didn't wake up the next morning. He was pronounced dead shortly afterwards.

In the early-90s, Herring, who's originally from Dee Why, Sydney, was Australia's answer to Kelly Slater. Both surfers rode wildly thin boards - Herring's made by Greg Webber, Slater's by Al Merrick - which also included deep concaves and exagerrated rocker. The combination of curves turbo-charged their surfing and together they created generational change; moving surfing away from a 'pure power' approach towards faster and tighter surfing that also went above the lip.

"The first strike of a new age," Derek Hynd said of Slater and Herring after their famous 1992 Coke Classic duel, which left Herring on top of the ratings. "These two will battle for future championships," Hynd promised.

If they were united in equipment they differed in lifestyles - Slater was a teetotaller while Herring was happy, perhaps too happy, to breast the bar. It was the seed of his downfall.

In 1992, Slater won his first world title, with Herring finishing the year in fourth. The 'future battles' didn't eventuate with Herring's behaviour and his surfing performances becoming erratic. By late-1993, Slater had toned down the extremes of his boards, yet Herring went entirely the other way riding snub-nosed vee bottoms. 

His rankings slid: in 1993 he finished 22nd, and in 1994, when Kelly collected his second world title, Herring finished 44th and lost his seedings. The next year he was unrated and barely surfing; the flame that burned so bright almost extinguished.

Shane in his happy place: First Rock, Dee Why Point (Peter Crawford)

Herring's sessions throughout the latter part of 1992, particularly those at Avalon and Dee Why, some of which were shot by Monty Webber and Peter Atchison, remain a high point in surfing. Herring could turn as powerfully as Richard Cram or Occy, burying his board to the stringer, yet he did it in a shorter arc, at higher speed, and with no loss of flow.

Though he turned his back on the design and would ultimately disown it, Herring's role in the development of concaves remains. Thirty years later, concaves remain the bottom contour of choice on all performance shortboards.

Recently, Herring had been working on a new line of boards with shaper Jimmy Young-Whitforde, with input from Greg Webber.