International surfing, through the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP), arrived in WA with the staging of the Emu Bitter Margaret River Thriller in November of 1985. The WCT-B level event was organised by Tim Duff and Jock Campbell and sponsored by the Swan Brewery. There was an original field of 31 surfers chasing a piece of the $15,000 prize money being offered. Cronulla’s raw young tear away, Mark Occhilupo defeated four-time world champion Mark Richards in one of his three wins on the tour for the year. Newcastle’s Simon Law and American Mike Parsons were third and 4th respectively. Despite Richards going down, the year wasn’t too bad for Newcastle surfers at Margaret River with another goofy- footer, Luke Egan, winning the National under 17 division. Source Brad Cecins WA Surfers of the Year Awards 2006
Busselton surfer and keen amateur photographer Steve Bachelor provided these action pics of the 1985 Marg River Thriller.
Steve. “Don’t have much of story behind them other than me and a few mates went down and watched a bit of the event and I shot a couple of rolls of film mainly of semis & finals as MR was my surf hero then. Not sure of all the surfers in the pics, did a bit of internet searching trying to match faces, but didn’t seem to be much around from that year.”
Photo Gallery
Mark Richards Aus 1Mark Richards 2Mark Richards 3Mark Richards 4Mark Richards leaving the arenaMark Richards Finals 1Mark Richards Finals 2Mark Richards Finals 3Mark Richards Finals 4Mark Richards Semi 1Mark Richards Semi 2Mark Richards Semi 3Mark Richards in keyhole Semi 4Greg Day Aus 1Greg Day Aus 2Greg Day 3Mike Parsons USAOccy and MR in keyholeSimon Law AusOccy Final 1Occy Final 2Occy Final 3Thriller crowdUnidentifiedUnidentified with broken boardWindsurfing 1Windsurfing 2Windsurfing 3
International surfing, through the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP), arrived in WA with the staging of the Emu Bitter Margaret River Thriller in November of 1985. The WCT-B level event was organised by Tim Duff and Jock Campbell and sponsored by the Swan Brewery. There was an original field of 31 surfers chasing a piece of the $15,000 prize money being offered. Cronulla’s raw young tear away, Mark Occhilupo defeated four-time world champion Mark Richards in one of his three wins on the tour for the year. Newcastle’s Simon Law and American Mike Parsons were third and 4th respectively. Despite Richards going down, the year wasn’t too bad for Newcastle surfers at Margaret River with another goofy- footer, Luke Egan, winning the National under 17 division. Source Brad Cecins WA Surfers of the Year Awards 2006
Busselton surfer and keen amateur photographer Steve Bachelor provided these action pics of the 1985 Marg River Thriller.
Steve. “Don’t have much of story behind them other than me and a few mates went down and watched a bit of the event and I shot a couple of rolls of film mainly of semis & finals as MR was my surf hero then. Not sure of all the surfers in the pics, did a bit of internet searching trying to match faces, but didn’t seem to be much around from that year.”
Photo Gallery
The MR Pro Surfing event is now run by World Surf League (WSL).
Thanks for sharing your vintage pics Steve.
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