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history : greenough

george greenough
1966 - 1969

1966 The Stretch - US noserider model manufactured in Australia by Gordon and Smith
Square tail,square nose with concave.+9ft(?)

Easter 1967 Midget Farrelly’s lightweight Stringerless concave kicked nose (chamfered pod?) 9ft with Greenough Stage III fin
Paul Witzig : Hot Generation 1968

Easter 1967 Nat Young’s Greenough designed 9ft 7" with 6" or 6 feet ? of V bottom with Greenough Stage III fin. - Bob McTavish in Tracks ,1972.
Paul Witzig : Hot Generation 1968

Mid 1967 Ted Spencer's 'Little Red',
Ted Spencer's 'Little Red',
Shaped by Ted Spencer and Bob McTavish at Keyo Surfboards, mid 1967
8ft 4" x 23" stringered rounded pintail, red Greenough fin.
.Clear deck, red gel coat on bottom.*
Details supplied, with thanks by Ted Spencer, November 2003.
Film :
Eric Blum 'The Fantastic Plastic Machine' 1969 Footage of Windansea Contest October 1967, Palm Beach.
Paul Witzig : Hot Generation 1968 Footage at Lahina Harbour, Maui.
Books :
Brian St. Piere : The Fantastic Voyage, 1969, page 146
Nat's Nat, pages162 to166

1967 V Bottom- Stubby - Fantastic Plastic Machine -Short Board by Bob McTavish & Kevin Platt (Keyo), Midget Farrelly (self),Ted Spencer (Shane Stringerless), Keith Paull (Peter Clarke) ,Bobby Brown (Gordon & Smith) and others.
Lengths started at 9 ft, then 8 ft 6",8 ft ,7 ft 10" and finally 7 ft 6". Wide point was 2/3 rds back about 23" -24".
Standard board :stringerless,50/50 rail, flat -rolled -vee bottom, +10 pod with+12Greenough Stage 3 fin set +8" from the pod
Extras: concave nose,chamfered pod,deck/kneel patches,Greenough Stage 4 fin, F fin (Richard Harvey) and early finboxes (Farrelly)
Film : Children of the Sun
End 1967
Extended Plastic Machines (9 ft with pointed noses) tested in Hawaii by Nat and McTavish
The design is overall a failure but Dick Brewer (US) endorses principle of length reduction.
Film :
Paul Witzig : Hot Generation 1968
Eric Blum : The Fantastic Plastic Machine 1969 Footage of Windansea Contest October 1967, Palm Beach.
Books :
Nat's Nat, pages162 to166

Peter Drouyn, Haleiwa, Hawaii December 1967.
Photograph : Steve Wilkings
Surfing Magazine March 1984
Volume 20 Number 3 page 82

1967 November Surfing World Vol 9 No 6 " a short board yesterday was 9 ft - tody it is 7 ' 6'' " - uncredited
Kenno (Bob Kennerson) : Retrospective, includes "War at Malibu - Fain vs. Dora"
Note continued US interest by Australian surfers.
Keith Paull : ReEntry (Hot new manourve)
Peter Clarke Surfboards Advertisement - adds Northside factory at 20 Carter Road, Brookvale.

1968 Pintail Vee all the elements of a Plastic Machine but with a full pin tail Importation (from US) of finboxes : Waveset (Bennett) and Safeset (Keyo)
Film : The Innermost Limits of Pure Fun

1968 Mini Gun Dick Brewer design 7 ft 6" to 8 ft 6", 22-23" wide,wide point forward of centre, often stringerless, finbox and soft vee.(Farrelly)

1968
Duke Kahanamoku : Aloha, 22nd January 1968.

1968 February/March? Surfing World Vol 10 No 2
Notes death of Duke Kahanamoku, see above.
Kevin Platt : Is there any other way? (Article on Shortboards)
Design study on a surfboard, page 37 ( Nat Young's Cuttlefish, see Gordon Woods Surfboards)
Windansea Contest (October, 1967) : Photographs by Dave Hartnell
Reported, uncredited :
Nat took 3 boards to the Islands, all under 9' - 8'8'' Rolled bottom, 8'7'' Speed board with Racing (Snow) Ski rail contour, and a 8'8'' radical Vee bottom.
US surfers kept Keyo (Surfboards) busy and returned with boards as short as 7'6''.
Duke Contest won by Jock Sutherland, Bob McTavish forced to ride his short board after leaving his gun in Honolulu.
Some of these reports are possibly incorrect/enhanced.

1968
Keith Paul, Mark Martinson and travel to Europe with film-makers, McGillray-Freeman. While the American surfers ride Vee Bottom designs, Paull rides a current Australian design - the Round tail.
The footage would be included in Waves Of Change, released in 1969.
Other 1968 vistors to France included Nat Young, Wayne Lynch and Ted Spencer, whose surfing would appear in Paul Witzig's Evolution, released in 1970.

Keith Paull, Billy Hamilton and Mark Martinson, France, 1968.
Photograph : MacGillivay-Freeman
Surfing Magazine March 1984
Volume 20 Number 3 page 99

1968 Tracker Bob McTavish design based on Hawaiian gun foil template but shortened with a 4 - 6" square tail. 7 ft 6" - 7ft X. 22", wide point 2/3 rds from tail Often stringerless and finbox. (San Juan)
Film : The Innermost Limits of Pure Fun

1969 Double Ender Wayne Lynch - semi-pin tail and nose with vee in the centre 7 ft 6" - 6ft 10" X 22" (John Arnold - SA)
Film: Evolution

1969 # 171 Round Tail :further use of the foil concept but with a 8" soft round tail.7 ft 6" X 22" by Nat Young (Keyo Surfboards and The Ski by Weber Surfboards )
Film: Evolution
1969 March/April? Surfing World Vol 11 No 4
Randy Rarrick : Australian Boards - "By Easter (1968) V-bottoms were on the way out. By the Australian Titles (May, 1968) all but a few had converted (to narrow tailed designs).", page 11
Advertsements :
Gordon Woods Surfboards - Tracker and Pintail and removable fins (Waveset?)
Farrelly Surfboards, Palm Beach Post Office NSW 2108 - Pintail, also Tracker models. Page 38
The Way We Like It - new film release by Bob Evans.
Surf Beaches of Australia by Jeff Carter - new book release.Design study on a surfboard, page 37 ( Nat

Chis Brock, George Greenough, Dog, Garry Keyes and
Bob McTavish.
Wilderness factory,
Angourie - Byron Bay ?, 1969.
Surfing World Magazine,
Volume 12, Number 5, 1969.

REFERENCES FOR THIS SECTION Image top
George Greenough/North coast freefall 1965
Photograph by Tanya Binning
First published Surfing World Vol No 196
This cropped version from Margan and Finney , page 310
The most outstanding photograph of committed high performance surfing up to this date, this level of performance was probably not achieved by stand up surfers for another ten years

BOOKS
1972 The Best of Tracks (Vol. I) Editors : Falzon, Albert; Stewart, John; Grissim, John. :
Tracks Publishing Co Pty Ltd. P.O. Box 178 Avalon, NSW.
'Bob McTavish’s Personal History of Surfboard Design – Pods for Primates Parts 1' (pages 120 – 122).

1992 Stell, Marion K. : Pam Burridge
Collins Angus & Robertson Publishers (Australia) Pty. Limited
A division of Harper Collins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Limited
25 Ryde Road, Pymble NSW 2073, Australia

1997 Warshaw, Matt : Surfriders – In Search of the Perfect Wave
Tehabi Books, Inc. Collins Publishers, 10 East 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022

1978 Warwick, Wayne A Guide to Surfriding in New Zealand Second Edition
Viking Sevenseas Ltd Wellington, New Zealand

1979 Young, Nat ; Photographs by McCausland, Bill: Nat Young’s Book of Surfing
A.H. & A.W. Reed Pty. Ltd. 53 Myroora Rd, Terry Hills, Sydney.

1983 Young, Nat with McGregor, Craig : The History 0f Surfing
Palm Beach Press,40 Palm Beach Road, Palm Beach NSW 2108

FILM
1985 A History of Australian Surfing Nat Young.

MAGAZINES
1971 Modern World July Shane Steadman/Terry Fiztgerald (possibly) : 'Surfboard Design' pages 30 to 36.

1972 Surfing World. Volume 16 #4. Bob Evans : 'remember the time when...' pages 30 to 35.

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