A Company That Called Itself the Bastard Children of Surf Culture "I positioned Mambo as an alternative to the big guys — I think we described ourselves as the bastard children of surf culture." That's Dare Jennings, years later, describing the company he started in 1984, and the line is a useful way into the whole …

Two Torquay Surfers, One Shaping Bay, and the Start of Rip Curl Gilbert Street in Torquay doesn't look like much today, but in March 1969 it was the site of a chance run-in between two surfing friends that turned into one of Australia's defining surf companies. Doug "Claw" Warbrick had just finished a summer shaping …

Two Surf Companies, Two Different Skate Bets Two Australian surf companies spent the 1980s building global businesses on boardshorts and wetsuits, and when skateboarding's late-80s boom made a skate identity look worth having, only one of them tried to build that identity from scratch. Billabong launched Bad Billy's in …