 |
surfresearch.com.au
bob
mctavish : pods for primates #2
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
We could trace
the change from the old trimming boards to the new short carving boards
from two different lines.
Firstly, in America
they smoothed out their lines before they went short.
Dick Brewer working
with Bing (Surfboards) made his pipeline ( "Pipeliner") series
which were beautiful pin-tails, this was early 67; by the end of
the year he had made a couple of 9ft versions of these pin-tails.
Here in Australia
George Greenough had been coming to our shores for several years riding
belly-boards (sic, kneeboards - the Greenough
Spoon) that carved and extracted so much speed and power from the wave,
without having to use a turning point and separate trimming point, they
were both combined together.
It became fairly
obvious to surfers that had seen him that this was the direction to go.
Nat in Easter
(April?) of 67 (1967) made a 9' 7" board with 6' (6''
?) of V in the bottom which was based on a Greenough design.
This thing turned
like crazy and carved incredible arcs. (seeHot
Generation, Part 5)
Later on in the
year Kevin Platt and myself at Keyo's (Surfboards) started making
V
bottoms.
First they were
9', then 8' 6" then 8', then down to 7' 1 0".
The first reaction
of stepping on these boards was the incredible power and speed and bashing
ability in a turn, in fact the first time you rode them, they usually flew
out from underneath your feet.
At the same time
Midget's(Farrelly) shop at Palm Beach was running stiff competition with
us at Keyo's.
As we'd cut 2"
off, Midget would cut 4" off, then vice versa.
We took our boards to Hawaii in late 67, they were, just large versions of V bottom stubbies we were riding in the shorebreaks of Australia and they were pretty miserable failures except for Nat's board which was more of an arrow planshape and Ted Spencer's little double end sausage ('Little Red ') which went well in small surf. (see Hot Generation, Part 6)
Midget took to
Brewer's ideas and came back making pin-tails.
Up on (sic)
the San Juan (Surfboards) factory, in Byron Bay we started making
7' 8" then 7'4", then 7', they were getting shorter and shorter, lighter
and lighter.
Finally we sacrificed
one layer of (fibre) glass and broke the 10lb barrier.
The same things
were happening in shops everywhere.
Down south Wayne
Lynch was making 7' 6" very
full pin-tails
with a V bottom in the middle which gave him a tremendous looseness and
the width of the board gave a lot of speed and power and he could direct
this speed onto vertical work, he was punching up through the width
(?-
lip?) heading up vertical and coming upsidedown for a brief second,
he was really pushing it a long in this direction. (see EvolutionPart
1)
Late in 1968 Nat
(Young) was making his skis (Ski
by Dewey Weber Sufboards, USA, see Evolution
, Part 5?) which were soft railed, for in 69 in Hawaii it was Joey
Cabell, Brian Dobson ( ? Ryan Dotson) and Dick Brewer who
were the top designers, making speed shapes with narrower noses, longer
lines and the rails were getting lower and lower.
By then I was
riding approximately an 8' board in 12' Sunset surf. (seeSurf
International, Vol 1 No. 6 1970? pp 8 to 11.)
Meanwhile in
Australia we were going the opposite direction, the boards were getting
short, the rails softer and softer, this is when the Greenough hulls took
on with very high. rails in the front turning down at the tail.
This is when Ted
Spencer was making white kites (White Kites)
at Shanes (Shane Surfboards) with a soft rail
all the way thru.
David Treloar
was making soft rail foils at Nippers (Nipper Williams Surfboards).
These boards
you could really bank them over on the rail but when you got them over
they did nothing.
There was the
occasional exception, Gary Keyes made a board at Angourie that had almost
down rails and about 1/4" of shape up from the bottom, much like a modern
rail.
This board was
very sleek, fast, smooth turning and even had a little bit of side slip
release, but it was controllable.
Then (at)
the end of 1969 Russell Hughes came back from America and brought with
him a Dick Brewer board with down rails from nose to tail.
It wasn't the
first; they had been around for a couple of years but only cranks and crankpots
were riding them.
But now they
had become the standard equipment in Hawaii.
Russell also
brought back a Lopez board with down soft rails.
This really blew
the Australian designers apart because they had been going in a soft rail
direction for some time.
To suddenly step
on a down rail gave you so much speed that you could see a section looming
way ahead and you were past it before you knew what to do with.
It certainly
took a lot of adjusting.
Their application
in Australia came first in the side-slipper.
It was short
with down soft rails and a small fin, which prohibited hard banking but
allowed for beautiful side slip release.
It was certainly
amazng to see a graceful surfer release his fin and travel side ways in
a full drift down the wall.
This design took
on with quite a large group of surfers, amongst them Midget, up and coming
Terry Fitzgerald, Col Smith, whereas Nat and Ted Spencer investigated another
direction (.)
(They)
they went shorter and shorter, broke the 6 foot barrier, put on big fins
and still using fairly soft rails but down they were riding micro-stubs.
Meanwhile Geoff
McCoy started his shop and started to promote this style of board in the
Sydney surf.
It was quite
successful, had its fair share of speed overturn, if the waves were short
and powerful it did quite well.
But they had
very little reserve of speed, they couldn't carry a super long arc.
When the World
Contest happened in Australia (Johanna Beach),
at the end of 1970 it really impressed most people to see all the American
surfers specialising in their own style of board.
Some were long,
some short, some side slippers, some were carvers, but its obvious now
the trend was towards speed, the rails were low, the plan shapes were drawn
and since then in Australia this has been a standard design which has survived
thru all the fads and changes.
Twin
fins (1)
hit not long after this (Summer
1970-1).
They took on
quite well but they weren't all good designs.
They are a hot
dog board, they allow you to turn incredibly well on mushie (sic) waves.
Its even a different
kind of turn, like a ball bearing turn or skateboard turn.
You can really
push your momentum around and thru a tight little arc.
But as the desire
for speed came on stronger, the twin fin plan shapes went narrower and
rakier and this defeated their purpose.
Nat was making some beautiful boards at this time, he came back from the Islands with some beautiful Cabell shapes, the rails were large boxy, they had a fair bit of bottom curve tail lift which was a new thing at the time, a sensible thing. (see# 38)
In 1972, the twin
fins had gone, the tri fins made a brief appearance
but it didn't hold for long and it was basically seat (sic?)
speed shapes.
A few different
freakie things came in, in 1972 there was extravagance in tail lifts, there
were super large soft rails almost like surf mattress rails, there were
tucked under rails, radical box rails, then we saw the appearance of the
keel. (see# 336)
This seemed good
potential direction, they are yet to prove themselves.
And this year
1973, we find it still the same thing, it's speed shapes, it's down rails,
it"s the soft bottom line, smooth nose entry.
We have lots
of designers all tampering with relatively minor aspects of the same design.
We find Midget
making hard tails and some beautiful pin-tails.
Geoff
McCoy is making nice speed lines, Bill Cillia, Tim Rodgers, Kevin Platt,
John
Blanch, Bob Cooper, Pat Morgan, there
are many many more.
There seems to
be a current of unrest running thru the various surfing communities.
Some people still
want more speed and why not!
Some people want
more banking abiliy at high speed, for instance whatever happened to nose
on the water turns that we could do in 1968 and we never did get upsidedown
for very long, did we.
The Greenough
bowlers (Hulls) at Angourie did it but what
about everyone else, and everywhere else.
What about out
thru the back, a board going at todays speed should be able to leave the
wave entirely and glide on the flat water behind the wave for a while and
then back in over the lip and into it for more speed.
Maybe there is
a radical new design needed, maybe we have touched on it over the past
6 years, maybe it was chines, maybe it was tucked under tails (rails?),
maybe it was full length V bottoms, maybe its in the fin.
While we are
waiting to see what comes up, a lot of surfers are finding themselves going
towards smoother, more artistic surfing.
They are using
the speed and the obvious sensitivity and control of the down rails to
put themselves in very tight positions and doing it gracefully and beautifully.
Even if the change
doesn't come up in the near future we are certainly going to see a lot
of progress in this direction, smooth, fast, flowing beauty.
One thing in retrospect
shows out really clearly.
Since 1967 we
have Iearnt to ride powerful waves.
In 1966-67 the
ultimate wave was Noosa, it was Crescent, perhaps small Angourie.
It was a long
clean wall.
Now we're after
juice, whether its tight, whether its long, high, short, thick, as
long as it has some juice we are into it.
Are we neglecting
the long small waves of Noosa, Byron Bay and Crescent, maybe someone should
be back on an updated 9 foot board, perhaps a 10 lb version of it, doing
all the old things we used to admire so much, the speed from trimming,
the stalling, pivoty turns, the graceful screaming nose rides, the head
dips, the fun.
At least now our
eyes are open to Australia's big wave potential.
The waves we
used to watch break but didn't consider riding them we are now hungry for.
There is lots
of juice pumping in around our coast, there's still lots of breaks, where
the crowds don't get and where our boards allow us to go, to use and really
get into it, but it can go a lot further.
|
|
|
|
|
|