In fact, he would get so far back inside Burleigh’s famed barrels that sometimes you couldn’t see him. You would swear there was no chance of him ever coming out of the funnelling tube and you would be tempted to paddle into his wave.
Then you’d hear the “whistle”.
It meant Peterson could see you and whistled so you didn’t commit surfing’s cardinal sin of “dropping in”.
I would paddle out at Burleigh just to watch Peterson surf. And if you got a whistle, that was almost a badge of honour.
Imagine peering into a wave and seeing somebody half the length of a rugby field back inside it – and he would always come flying out.
MP won the Stubbies handsomely that year in an event where the surf pumped all week and an exciting new man-on-man format of two competitors per heat was introduced.
Gabriel Medina launches into an aerial move ahead of the Corona Cero New Zealand Pro press conference at Manu Bay, Raglan. Photo / Photosport
Few sports allow the common man or woman intimate proximity to the best athletes on the planet in the way surfing does.
Imagine rolling on to a Formula One track in your trusty old Honda Civic and banging wheels with Lewis and Liam.
Hack golfers might be able to occasionally get on the world’s best golf courses but they don’t get to play a round with the pros – not even a practice round. And professional tennis players would take a dim view of you jumping on their court during a game, no matter how good your backhand is.
For the past week, the local Raglan surf community and other Kiwi surfers have had the joy of my Michael Peterson experience, ahead of the World Surf League Corona Cero New Zealand Pro.
Concerns about future overcrowding exist, but the event is largely celebrated by the Kiwi surfing community. Photo / World Surf League
Raglan has delivered exceptional waves this past week and locals have sat slack-jawed in the line-up as the world’s best surfers have unleashed their mind-blowing repertoires smack in front of them.
Some lucky ones have snagged a rare empty wave amid the display – and maybe even got a compliment, nodding wink or smile off a friendly pro.
They’ve been having an inspiring “MP moment” every wave.
This is the uniqueness of surfing within professional sport and why the World Surf League (WSL) coming to New Zealand is such a big deal.
Raglan is on the bucket list on any self-respecting international surfer. But few of the stops on the world tour match it for scenic beauty and a welcoming country feeling. The pro surfing troupe has been genuinely overwhelmed by what they are encountering.
There are quibbles, of course. Some hardcore locals were against the event for fear the WSL’s international webcast will result in Raglan being flooded with foreign surfers in future years.
But they are a minority. The Kiwi surfing community has wanted a major tour event for decades and finally we have it.
It could be a one-off if the WSL can’t coax ongoing dollars out of the Government’s Major Events fund, but perhaps the Government will see continuing value in supporting it.
Alani Morse of New Zealand in action duringthe Rising Tides activation. Photo / World Surf League
To use a long-time surfing expression, Raglan is “going off”. And where else can you sit for free in a beautiful natural amphitheatre watching some of the best athletes on earth doing their stuff?
Those who make the trek to Raglan to see the event in the flesh, or tune in to the webcast, won’t be disappointed.
The stars on the scene include the brilliant Brazilian goofy-footers Gabriel Medina and Italo Ferreira, who are both past world champs and are now “frothing” over the opportunity to surf a playful left-hand break.
There’s also the queen of surfing, eight-time women’s world title winner Stephanie Gilmore, and young phenoms like current world champ Molly Picklum and Americans Caity Simmers and Erin Brooks.
Whether you are sitting on the verdant headland at Manu Bay watching the action unfold or sharing the line-up with the pros during the warm-up hour before the event starts each day, it will be a sporting spectacular out of the box.
As I write this ahead of the event, I’ve just watched Italo Ferreira complete a dazzling aerial manoeuvre where he soared almost two metres above a wave, spun in the air and landed back on the wave face.
My mind is officially blown.
I am heading out into the line-up right now to get a fish-eyed view of a new surfing Superman.
Trevor McKewen is a former head of sport at NZME and lifelong surfer. He is a partner with good friend Sir John Kirwan in bringing a $100 million surf park to Auckland’s North Shore