He subsequently noted ...
Email #1.
Do you just want info and pix of this Jet Bottom? 
I have a coupla others. 
Erle lives in Qld; 1770? 
There was an article in ASL last year about two unconventional board sculptors up there. 
Erle was one of them. 

Email #2
... more info on Mr Pedersen and his unusual surfboards:
I am suprised you were unaware of Erle and his Jet Bottoms; over the years he has had coverage here and there in the surfing press. 
Generally when they trot out that old page filler on alternative design. 
Usually Bonzers and the phaser bottom get a guernsey in the same article. 

The USO Tracks cover would have had to have been 1975 or earlier. 
It was a joke piece (april issue?) almost certainly written or conceived by Phil Jarrett. 
The cover photo showed an amused looking T Fitzgerald holding a ridiculously bizarre looking surfboard. The implication of course being that this surfboard had come from outer space. 
As far as I can remember it was the "seagull" board: A board shaped - looking nose to tail - like a child's drawing of that bird
- an inverted curved w. 
There is a fair chance Al Hunt can help you with a date on this issue of Tracks. I'm pretty sure he's still working for the ASP.

I would have met Erle later that year (1975) through an expat californian, Jick Mebane.
Jick held the license in Oz for the W.A.V.E hollow boards. (designed by them - made in the States, aluminium honeycomb construction or some wierd thing. I remember they were very strong but never got off the ground here.

Anyway... Jick knew Erle, they both lived at Whale Beach. 
I was working as a cadet photographer at News Ltd in the city and living on the northern beaches.
I'd had the odd photo published in Tracks and was soon to take on  Marty Tullemans  position as staff photographer at their Whale Beach office.
I'm fairly sure Erle was from Cairns or some other swell starved FNQ (Far North Queensland) location. 
He had conceived the Jet Bottom to maximise the power of the minimal swell. If I remember correctly, the theory was that converging/diverging channels would compress and accelerate the water like a JET! from nose to tail of the board.
Those first Jet Bottoms I saw covered the whole bottom from nose to to tail! 
Erle called this "the Eye" and indeed it did look like one - or a spider's web. 
From the nose to the midpoint, ridges with concave edges directing water flow into the centre of  the board. From the midpoint to the tail, ridges with concave edges directing water flow from the centre out of the tail. The boards look amazing. 
I had to try one.

In 1976 I had Erle copy my favourite board of the time, (a 6' 4" egg inspired by Ritchie West's board in Crystal Voyager) with the addition of a jet bottom. 
This board was a Kewarra and I remember asking Erle to draw a logo on the nose with a top hat, cane and gloves and the legend: "The Deluxe" 
What a board! 
I traded it later for some piece a shit, I'm sure.
The little board you bought was custom made for me a few years later - I reckon 78 or 79. 
By this time the bottom had evolved to something less complex, more functional. 
Instead of the front 1/2 of the "Eye" - a deep double concave feeding into the converging/diverging channels behind the widest point. 
This board was shaped from the planshape of a kneeboard I found at the bottom of the cliff at Little Avalon. When repaired, I rode that kneeboard standup and discovered what fun such a short board could be in L.A.'s sucky reef tubes.
The Kewarra is much thinner than that kneeboard and went much better, it's fluted flyer acting like a fin in the wall on late drops.
In 82 I moved to Victoria with my family after the birth of our son Eli.
I never rode the little Jet Bottom again - no L.A. down here. 
However, a kneeboarder mate had a go and loved it too.
He had an unfortunate encounter with the rocks at Cape Pattersons Inside Point, smashing the nose and causing all the dings now present. 
The tip of the nose was once inscribed with the timely reminder; " He who hesitates is lost!" 
Sadly no more, I repaired it badly.
Who knows where the fin is now. 
I probably gave it away, otherwise I would still have it. 
Thrusters came along. 
I didn't ride a single fin again for at least 10 years. 
Luckily I have a photo which I'll send to you.
It's a Greenough style thing, high aspect, well foiled, but as i recall, not especially flexy. 
Erle was and I'm sure still is, the fin master - both at laying up beautiful panels and shaping and foiling. 
He was working for Midget (Farrelly) making fins when we left Sydney.

In the 90's he was making very experimental fins in QLD.

I have 3 other jet bottoms- two of them Kewarras with the full "eye" bottom('76-'77?) one a pintail stinger, the other a "christmas tree" triple flyer pintail. 
And one a Pipedream thruster from the late 80's early 90's. 
I'll send you photos. 
They'll amaze you. 
Both of the Kewarras unfortunately are finless. 
The article i saw was in ASL issue 200. 
It was about an alternative board designer up near Alexandra Headland. 1770 is a town near there. 
The photos accompanying the article showed some amazing and bizarre surfboards and mentioned this guy Glenn? Cat and his mate Erle Pederson! 
This article online at ...
Email #3
...  received email from Glen Ryan at ASL; Erles contact details  ...
1770 Surfboards at http://www.surf1770.com/
There's some trippy stuff on there! 
Also note....
Erle Pederson at http://www.surf1770.com/index13.php
Jet Bottom at http://www.surf1770.com/index13.php
Email #4
Tom Griffin emailed, February 2007
I have been working with Erle Pedersen and the other half of his shaping team, Glenn Collins over the last 6 months to build a new website. I have replaced www.surf1770.com with a new site:  www.surfbored.com.au 
http://www.surfbored.com.au/index1.php
MANUFACTURER HISTORY

 "a bit of early 70's design weirdness"
Photograph : Tracks Archives
Tracks Magazine: 20 Years Edition, October 1990,  Page 94
"Peter Berry, a kneeboarder, also an amazing left-field shaper. his Cave Creature Designs feature flexible tails and rails. Also handles and step decks." - Simon Chipper, March 2006.

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