NEWS DESK
Triggers’ escape an Eighth
Battle of the Sounds hits the stage FUSE Productions and Kingston Youth Services are calling on unsigned young musicians to perform at the annual Battle of the Sounds heat in Mordialloc this month. Talented Kingston youth will battle it out in front of a live audience – alongside headline act Reuben Stone and 2016 Battle of the Sounds winner Alyssa (Alzzy) Allet – on Friday 18 August at Allan Mclean Hall in Mordialloc. Solo artists, duos, bands, and performers of all genres and styles are encouraged to apply and promote their music to the Kingston community and beyond. Winning performers will take home and industry prize pack, which includes recording time at the Alamo Studio, a photography shoot, and an online distribution pack, courtesy of World of Music, Frank Amato, and Ditto. Competition runners up will also receive recording time at Deluxe SRS rehearsal studios thanks to Deluxe Audio. The winning act will also get the chance to progress to the regional heats, and the grand final which
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will be held at next year’s Moomba Festival. To enter the Kingston heats, contestants must be under the age of 21, unsigned, and have a connection to Kingston. The event is fully supervised event is presented by Kingston’s youth-led Fuse Productions crew, with Victorian Government’s FReeZA Program, and The Push Inc. Fuse Production Crew is made up of young people aged 14-25, and Kingston Youth Services is recruiting crew members with an interest in events, marketing, music, and audio engineering to join. To secure a spot as a spectator at the fully supervised, all ages, drug and alcohol-free event – grab a ticket for $10 at the door (cash only), or for $8 at kingstonarts.com.au online. Battle of the Sounds is on 6pm-9pm on Friday 18 August at Allan McLean Hall, corner Lewis and Albert streets, Mordialloc. For performer applications or more information phone Kingston Youth Services on 1300 369 436 or see kingstonyouth.org.au online.
Chelsea Mordialloc Mentone News
16 August 2017
FLEDGLING surfboard makers Paul and Phil Trigger thought they had a great idea when it came to naming and identifying their surfboards: “Let’s start with the First Dimension”. This was in the late 1960s when they were shaping boards in a lane at the back of their parents’ house in Bonbeach. By the time they were getting close to the Eighth Dimension they realised there was a need for a simpler numbering system. “What’s going to happen when we got to the 125th or 150th?” Paul Trigger remembers asking his brother. Instead of deciding to start with the number one, they decided against numbering their boards altogether, and that’s the way it’s been ever since. A couple of weeks ago the Triggers – who have shops at Point Leo and Frankston - received a call from Western Australia by someone offering one of the early “Dimension” boards. Paul trigger remembers taking it on a weekend's surf at Wilsons Promontory and quickly deciding “I didn’t like it”. He’s not sure if it’s the Third or Fifth Dimension, but it was built about the same time the American pop group The Fifth Dimension changed its name from The Versatiles. The group’s most memorable hit was “Up, up and away”, theme song for a nowdefunct Australian airline. You’ve got to wonder, and marvel, at how those US musicians heard about (and were inspired by) the Triggers’ Dimension numbering system. And while the musicians kept the name, the Triggers went back to just
building boards. Something they’ve been doing for the past half a century, with no end in sight. Paul Trigger says their older boards keep popping up. In the 1960s the surf industry was in its infancy and getting raw materials was not always easy. The fibreglass cloth with resin to coat a shaped foam blank was heavy and coarse. Putting their Trigger Bros brand on the board required using Letraset, a plastic lettering system that involved rubbing the paper-backed letters straight onto the surfboard blank. The Triggers chose and old English font which had previously been used by their father and an uncle on their “Trigger Brothers” grocery shop in Hesse St, Queenscliff. While the branding changed over the years, the brothers have now reverted to that old typography. And the boards? Well they have progressed from those early Dimensions, keeping pace with the trends to multi-fins and lighter materials. But the enthusiasm for coming up with the right shape and finish has not waned, as is shown whenever a new board is placed in the racks at their shops or, if custom built, handed over to its new owner. There’s anticipation and an appreciation by looking at its lines of how the board will perform in the surf. Keith Platt Board talk: Paul Trigger with one of the first boards he made with his brother Phil in the late 1960s - a board that helped take them out of their Dimension era.