Van Straalen, Dick (1944 – )

Understated Australian surfboard shaper from Queensland's Gold Coast; best known for the sleek single-fin boards he made throughout the 1970s, designed mostly for the high-speed pointbreak waves found at nearby Burleigh Heads and Kirra Point. "The most underrated and understated shapers in the world," Deep magazine said of Van Straalen in 1998. "One of Australia's most sought-after boardmakers and way ahead of his time."

Van Straalen was born (1944) and raised in The Hague, Netherlands, the ...