mr.MICHAEL PETERSON ( surfing revolution )

Michael Peterson (born 24 September 1952), known as MP, is an Australian surfer. He was among the best Australian surfers in the early to mid 1970s, noted for his deep tube riding skill, especially at Kirra on the Gold Coast. He was Australian champion in 1972 and 1974 and won many other major surfing competitions. Schizophrenia (only eventually diagnosed) and drugs cut short his career and his surfing became the stuff of legend.White lady
Peterson first tried heroin some time in 1974, and later in 1975 got into it in a big way. The Queensland Police had done such a good job cleaning up the pot on the Gold Coast that they'd created a vacuum, which was filled by a far worse drug, heroin, cheap and very pure. Many local surfers got into it, and, with everyone naive, many died from overdoses. Rabbit Bartholomew has written about that time too, he lost twelve friends to overdoses.
Peterson had a phobia about needles, so he didn't inject, instead he'd chop the heroin up and snort lines. His brother Tommy (who himself wrestled with heroin addiction over the years) thought that was the only thing that saved Michael from an overdose, the fact he couldn't get enough up his nose at one time to be fatal.
All this time Peterson's schizophrenia was gradually getting worse too, he became ever more erratic, hostile to friends, and imagined plots against him. These were classic symptoms in retrospect, but at the time those who knew him just thought it was the drugs, certainly he'd done enough to make anyone act weird. His friends later wished they'd done much more for him at the time.  Today
Through 2002 and 2003 Peterson cooperated with surf writer and Tracks editor Sean Doherty on a biography of his life, bringing light to many aspects life that had only been the stuff of surfing legend.
Peterson had been well enough in recent years to attend a few surf functions, including a contest organised by his old Kirra Surfriders club in 2002 called the MP Classic in his honour. It raised about $10,000 to support various local mental health services like those who looked after him over the years.

He hasn't surfed since some time in the mid 1980s, but told Doherty "I haven't given it away! Who told you that? Is that what's getting around?". His friends have hopes that maybe on a mini-mal somewhere away from prying eyes his spark might be rekindled; many of his peers ("Rabbit" Bartholomew say) still surf.