Simon Anderson

Simon Anderson, born 7 July 1954, is an Australian competitive surfer, surfboard shaper and writer, credited with inventing in 1980 the three-fin surfboard design called the thruster. He grew up in the Northern Beaches area of Sydney in a house overlooking Collaroy Beach, won the junior division of the Bells Beach Classic Easter competition in 1977 and began shaping boards in Brookvale. In 1981 he used a thruster to win the Bells Beach Classic and the Offshore Pipeline Masters. He retired from professional surfing in the mid-1980s without patenting the design, received the Australian Sports Medal in 2000 for services to surfboard design, and in 2011 published his autobiography and was inducted into the Surfer's Hall of Fame.