3110 Riv on the Record – Michael Di Sciascio

THIS week I had the great pleasure of being joined by local surf industry legend Michael Di Sciascio. Spin it!

Tell us about your history of growing up in Torquay and getting into surfing/kneeboarding.

I was born in Bendigo and my family moved to Geelong when I was 5 or 6 years old. I started surfing from around age 11 initially on a surf mat which was common in the ’70s, and then a surfboard.

 

I was a really small kid and the surfboard hand me down I had was too big to easily carry. My older brother Matt was a keen surfer/kneeboarder and started making backyard surfboards. Matt made me my first kneeboard with the bonus being it was easier to carry.

We did family camping where we camped and surfed and just hung at the beach at Cumberland River and Lorne. I come from a large family , 6 kids, even though we had little money my parents gave us a great upbringing and supported us all individually to be our best, I am super grateful.

I was totally hooked on surfing and skateboarding and hung out with four now lifelong surf and skateboarding mates all from Belmont in Geelong where we lived. We skated all around Geelong and I hitch hiked to Torquay as well as harassing our parents for lifts to the beach, to surf. We surfed Torquay and Posso’s outer reef every chance we could until I graduated to Winkipop in the late ’70s when I was around 14 or 15. All I wanted to do was go surfing!

How did Strapper come along and what inspired you to get into it?

I’d been working a part time job after school in a concrete yard from 12 years old or at my Dad’s metal engineering workshop, so when I was 15 I had enough money to buy my first new board and I put a deposit on a kneeboard at a Geelong surf shop.

When I told my brother he talked me into asking for my deposit back and that I had to get a Torquay /local board not an interstate one. He took me to Strapper surf shop in Bell Street where I met Dennis “Strapper” Day and ordered a custom kneeboard.

Once I got the board it was amazing and I became even more obsessed with surfing. I went in the 1979 Victorian School Surfing Titles, my first comp ever! I made the final even though I had no idea what I was doing, it was at really good Rincon at Bells and I reckon I caught maybe 10 waves in the final. I was totally unknown, but I ended up winning the contest and being Victorian U/18 schoolboy kneeboard champ. I still have the trophy that was made by Ross Slaven, I think.

 

Strapper was way stoked for me and also found out that I knew how surfboards were made and that I had been working with tools since I was 12, so he offered me a casual job to teach me to shape the Strapper kneeboards. I was 15 and worked at Strapper all that summer school holidays and by Easter 1980 I quit school and moved out of home to live in Torquay, go surfing and make surfboards. Credit to Strapper; he tried really hard to get me to go back to school but I had found my passion and that wasn’t school, it was surfing.

You’ve navigated several massive shifts in retail. What was the single toughest period for the business and how did you adapt to survive it?

The Strapper business has had a lot, I mean a lot of times when we were so close to going broke, they are all really tough, we have always just worked harder and stayed true to our surf values and integrity.

One of my strengths has always been being passionate about surfing in every way and being able to see over the horizon a bit and be nimble to adjust to what’s needed especially in the ever-changing retail space. One time around the late 90’s we were renovating the Strapper board store which was a huge financial thing and mid renovation we were robbed around $100,000 worth – way more than our insurance, this was really bad. Then the very next night they came back and robbed me again… they even broke into the surfboard factory and all of the board logos/tissues were taken out and left in the rain and we couldn’t even make surfboards. I was on my knees financially. I always will remember that Rod Adams from Rip Curl rang and said that Brian [Singer], Claw [Doug Warbrick] and he had talked and offered whatever they could do to help me with stock and extended credit, etcetera, so I could keep trading, if I needed it. Some of the key team that I worked with and I just knuckled down and worked our butts off and we survived.

The Surf Coast community is fiercely loyal. How have you fostered that relationship over five decades to keep Strapper central to the local surfing culture?

We have always focused our support and connections into the local surf community along with groups and people that share our passion for surfing. It comes naturally for us when both me and so many of the work team are heavily involved in Torquay Boardriders, Jan Juc Boardriders, Otway Boardriders and 13th Beach Boardriders. Also, so many of our crew are great surfers, skaters, snowboarders and we are living it, so it’s easy for the community who share the passion to support us.

 

We ran the Strapper Junior surf contest for 18 years, helped fund the skate park at Surf City, ran skate events, art exhibitions and more.

We have always supported surfer and skater team riders from grommets showing the first signs of being great surfers to Bob Smith, who is an over 45-year team rider and ambassador for Strapper.

I’d like to think that we are living and breathing the Surf Coast and surfing community.

What does the word “legacy” mean to you in the context of Strapper Surf? What do you hope the brand is remembered for decades from now?

We plan to be making more Strapper legacy decades from now.

The two things that I hope Strapper is always remembered for are the thousands of Strapper surfboards that are giving people that surfing experience. Surfboards are amazing time capsules of that tube, that wave or that surf trip, going to the beach, your surfing life. Next, it’s got to be our people, the grommet we supported who became a great surfer or skater, the thousands that we gave their first job to and entry into the surf industry – many who have gone on to have lifelong careers.

Strapper’s legacy, I hope, is always its people, Strapper surfboards and the shared surfing experience.

What’s good about where we live?

We are all so fortunate to live in the Surf Coast and in a country like Australia.

I have travelled so much and learned that the coast and surf in this area is simply unique and amazing. This has attracted so many likeminded lifestyle driven people, people and place make an amazing community. We are very lucky!