Aussies surf into history books

MORE than 40 surfers cruised into the record books by riding a single giant surfboard off an Australian beach over the weekend.

A crowd of more than 5,000 gathered to watch the riders crowd onto the 40ft-long board at the Queensland state tourist city Gold Coast, where the Quiksilver and Roxy Pro surf competitions were held.

The 10ft-wide board, nicknamed Nev after its creator, Gold Coast board shaper Nev Hyman, arrived on a trailer truck and needed more than 20 people to carry it to the surf.

Another 100 people, each armed with a bucket of wax, then spent the morning preparing the foam and fibreglass super board.

The riders included pro surfers Chris Ward of California and Australian champion Danny Wills, whose own board was the model for the oversized replica.

Newspaper reports of how many riders took part varied between 44 and 47. The final number involved will be officially confirmed later in the week. But the ride clearly smashed the world record of 14 achieved by an English team in Cornwall on a 36-ft Malibu in 2003.

Mr Hyman said the four-minute ride to shore was worth the month-long effort to build the board.

“It was the best four minutes of my surfing life. It went in strong and straight,” Hyman told Queensland’s The Sunday Mail newspaper.

The surfboard, which lost two of its 3ft-long fins in shallow water on the way to the beach, will next be taken to the United States as part of a global fundraising tour to raise money for the victims of the Asian tsunami.