Dawn Patrol:

In the late 1960s, the Australian shortboard revolution, led by visionaries like Bob McTavish, rocked the surfing world.

Longboards and the handling skills they required began to vanish, but the shorter boards opened up a new world of wave riding possibilities. The wide 7-foot-6 V-bottoms evolved into the mini-gun, Lightning Bolt era of Jerry Lopez, Ian Cairns and Peter Townend, closely followed by Shaun Tomson and Mark Richards. As the 70s waned, boards became shorter, thinner, lighter and more extreme in design.

By the early 80s a group of young Orange County surfers, who for the most part learned on shortboards, was changing the rules — not only in surfboard design, but in the style and color of wetsuits, trunks and after-surf apparel. Their proving grounds in Newport between 52nd and 56th Streets became known to insiders as “Echo Beach.” Out of this crew came names like Quiksilver, Stüssy, Rip Curl and Wave Tools, that in no small way contributed to creating a multibillion dollar global surfing industry.

One of the premier surfboard makers of this period was Peter Schroff. Schroff grew up in Newport Beach and as a teenager began to make surfboards for friends. Inspired by shortboard pioneer Wayne Lynch, Peter made trips to Australia to study board design. He started perfecting the making of “twin fins” under the “Schroff” label. His boards were soon in demand by the high performance surfers like Hugh Johnson and Dan Flecky who were looking for original and cutting-edge designs.

Schroff Surfboards, with its showroom near the Newport Pier, was a success and left its mark on 80s surfing, but Peter left shaping to pursue his first love, art. He started a design company that launched effective brand campaigns for major surf industry companies. Today he calls Venice Beach home and is working on a multi-media project, “Super Expo.”

For 2010, after his considerable hiatus, Peter has relaunched Schroff Surfboards. I spoke with his partner, Michael Choate who is handling business and marketing duties. He emphasized that this is not a “retro” project and that the new Schroff boards will continue to be progressive, leading-edge designs.

“The people who helped create the surfing industry shouldn’t have to settle for whatever they can get,” Choate said. “We’re a little older, but we’re not ready for fun shapes or cruisers. We still want something new and special.”

To that end, Schroff has introduced the “Mini Model” and “Egg” for older yet still performance-conscious surfers, in addition to his high performance twin and quad-fins. The original “Blaster” shape is also available and Choate notes that at 25 years old, “It’s still an aggressive design compared to any of the current boards — that’s how advanced it was.”

The initial response has been very positive and the boards have been well received by younger surfers.

JOHN BURTON’S surf column appears Fridays. He may be reached by e-mail at hot_dogger@mac.com.