Richard Cram was born in 1961 grew up in Bondi Beach, and was best known for his powerful cutback. He was the tenth-ranked surfer in the world in 1984, but quite full-time competition the following season, at age 24, to focus on his free-surfing and to work in the surf industry. The quotes below were taken from various surf magazine articles published between 1986 and 1999.


It's a funny place to live. You'll see a yuppie couple pulling up to the beach in the latest BMW, and right next to them is a '60s acid casualty. Bondi is full of people from every nationality, every socio-economic background, and every cult or weirdo following. That's what makes it so interesting. The urban-ness of Bondi made it chronically uncool ten or 15 years ago, when all the locals were bailing for more organic pastures on the South Coast and elsewhere. But being so close to the city is actually is a big part of what is drawing people back to the place now. 

FROM APPRENTICE ELECTRITION TO PRO SURFER


Even at age 20, I was saying 'No way, no way, no way' [to a surfing career]. It was just such an incredible alternative to being an electrician, it didn't seem possible. Pro surfing was like this beaming shaft of white light. 


After all these years of traveling and surfing the best waves in the world, I'll still say this. If I could make just one trip a year, without a doubt, that trip would be to the North Shore. The warm water, the incredible takeoffs, the longer boards, the overall speed and the long, clean barrels—for me, it all adds up to the ultimate surfing experience. 


Instead of wandering all around the planet looking for them, you get the best waves in the world along that coast. I'm thinking about having a special bank account, a cyclone account. Put two grand in there, and that's my surf-trip money for the year. When I got Kirra [a few weeks earlier]—I've just never surfed waves that perfect. It was a fairyland. 


It's a fact that all the photographers [on the beach] create an extra-aggressive vibe level in the water. But how can I call bullshit on something I've involved in? It's business. Sometimes I go along with it, sometimes I don't. 


People who win contests, sometimes I look at 'em and think, 'Gee, they've got some qualities which I'd really appreciate in myself.' Then at other times, most of the time, in fact, I think they've got absolutely nothing at all which I'd really aspire to. Like I check some of the top pros and realize that the substance of what they're doing just would never be appealing to me. Winning contests could never be my only goal—and that's what it's gotta be for those guys, the only goal. I mean, the surfers who are way up there in the ratings get really weird sometimes.


I wouldn't say I was a great competitor. It was more an emotional or maybe personal issue with me. For instance, I had a great record against Shaun Tomson, who was a far better competitive surfer than myself. Same with Cheyne Horan. I always did better against the guys I considered the best. Of course, the next heat would be against somebody I didn't care about, and I'd lose. 


That's what I was recognized for, I suppose. It came from being part of the first generation of thruster surfers. We were connecting turns with acceleration. You couldn't do that with a single-fin or a twin-fin. 


I don't surf anywhere near as fast or sharp as I did 10 years ago, and sometimes I surf outright bad. Just shithouse. Digging rails, bogging, the whole way to the beach, wave after wave. But when the surf is three-foot or bigger and to my taste, although I won't rip every wave apart, during the course of a surf I'll have done a half-dozen maneuvers that the kids in the water wouldn't have seen anybody else do. Just from riding the way I do, and having that extra back-foot power. 


I was viewed as a surfers' surfer. Someone who drew proper lines and didn't waste waves and wasn't up on this week's move. I just did my moves. 

[Photos: Brian Bielmann, Bruce Channon, Don King]

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