Rip Curl's late-80s team, on film
Australian filmmaker Peter “PK” Kirkhouse made three surf films for Rip Curl at the end of the 1980s, with the brand's team of the day.
Savage Cuts (1987) came out of a series of super sessions Rip Curl set up for its top pros before and during the Easter contest at Bells Beach, with Tom Curren, Damien Hardman, Nicky Wood, Pam Burridge, Cheyne Horan and Rabbit Bartholomew. Peter produced it with Norval Watson and Neill Campbell.
Savage Cuts 2 (1988) followed “The Rubbermen” to Western Australia and through the Margaret River contest, the BHP Steel International and the 1988 Rip Curl Bells Pro, won by Damien Hardman over Tom Carroll.
Rubber Soul (1989), his third film, brought in Mike McAuliffe, Martin Potter, Ross Clarke-Jones and Wales' Carwyn Williams alongside Curren and Hardman, with Hawaii footage by Tim Bonython and John Ogden.
The only surviving masters of all three films were in Sonny Miller's archive, and they were restored from those tapes.
