Unique and Pivotal Surfboard Designs
McCoy loaded dome , Webber banana , Outer Island flextail, AB channel bottom, Maurice Cole deep single concave.
If you want to curate your quiver towards historical relevance then on top of your current boards I'd suggest:
Early-70s egg.
Classic fish.
Late-70s twin.
Box-railed 80s Thruster.
Early-90s banana board/rocker ship.
Modern fish hybrid, preferably quad.
Tomo (or similar) parallel rail modern planing hull.
I imagine some boards wouldn't be surfed much, perhaps a few go outs after purchase to understand the design, maybe a few more when curiousity strikes. Personally I don't see that as a problem, if you've got the space then create your own li'l museum - surround yourself with surfboard history. Keep in mind that you can tumble down the rabbit hole for each of the above designs, enriching your knowledge by uncovering innumerable offshoots by little known shapers. Space permitting of course.
EDIT: My 'historical' list was skewed toward performance, but as Udo points out there are designs that don't necessarily fit that criteria but deserve recognition. Flex tails being one of them. Probably also whack the progressive fish shapes of Michael Mackie in there too.
Some single keels. Single keels had an era of their own. Nat Young liked them, but Wayne Williams was the master at using them to maximum advantage, as part of the all over design. A Wayne Williams, or even Nat Young keel would be very rare and unique.
An earlier Lis twin keel fish was a pivotal board too.
Good start - I think I will definitely aim towards a modern planing hull - just gotta see how it goes!
The 80's thruster has personal memories attached. I have never clicked on a twin - but need to give it another go.
If I could find/afford a AB channel bottom I'd be all over it! Love Mitchel Raes stuff - fondly remember my dads 6'8" in the nineties - beautiful craft. I am of the era that struggled in average waves with average skills on the banana boards - not sure I wanna go there again...but they are a relevant part of design history.
Didn't someone try make a spoon surfboard in Byron a few yeas ago - what a nightmare glassing job!
I think a simmons/mini simmons, as the precursor to the current Tomo/Slater Designs planing hull thingamijigs, would be a worthy addition. Fun too, if the reports are true.
In WA the late Greg Laurenson developed a multi channelled board single fin board around 1980 and he called it 'the penetrator'. the channels were biased towards the rail and followed the rail line in the tail, converging and exit-ing in the last section behind the fin. In his own words it was a bastard to glass but its performance as a single fin was impressive. Greg was the master of the rocker as well so his boards were pretty special. Unfortunately the design coincided with the advent of the thruster.... so the rest is history. I stressed mine at Black Point and then snapped it in Indo in 1982 and gave it to the young guy at the losmen. Seriously bummed at the loss. Keep an eye out for one.
Far out! mine was a 6'2" light blue with a fin box. that one has been fixed as the bottom clearly shows a solid top coat. It would make sense if I left it in 2 pieces Bali in 1982 / 83 that the locals would have fixed it and sold it to a backpacker who then took it back to the UK. I took the original fin home so that might explain the plastic piece of poo in the photo. Good find!
Anyway, check out the rails & channels, they are more like the rails & channels on a wakeboard that I had several years ago.
https://vintagesurfboardcollectoruk.blogspot.com.au/2011/08/greg-laurens…
Looks like they're an interpretation of Jim Pollard's channels. Pollard was the first fella to put channels on a board, something he first did in 1974. His channels roughly followed the rail line.
Here's one of Kidman's shots of a Pollard channel bottom:
Ok, this is where I believe Greg Laurenson innovated, he used only one or two channels (depending on how you describe it) and kept them close to the rails. The board above is quite different in shaping terms and actually looks a lot like what Tom Hoye was doing around the same period. If I can attach the photo succesfully you can see that near the rail is one very tight channel, then the second channel is merged into the Vee that goes across to the stringer.
I dont know how to attach photos so will try to add the link direct to the useful pic: https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-AYocntdC9-I/TluRSD4ilOI/AAAAAAAAFyo/n1_pOy-y4…
What about the Ben Apia stingers
Ridden with a lot of success by Buttons, Liddel and adopted by MR
Noel wrote:Ok, this is where I believe Greg Laurenson innovated, he used only one or two channels (depending on how you describe it) and kept them close to the rails. The board above is quite different in shaping terms and actually looks a lot like what Tom Hoye was doing around the same period. If I can attach the photo succesfully you can see that near the rail is one very tight channel, then the second channel is merged into the Vee that goes across to the stringer. I dont know how to attach photos so will try to add the link direct to the useful pic: https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-AYocntdC9-I/TluRSD4ilOI/AAAAAAAAFyo/n1_pOy-y4…
Guess there'll always be a bit of conjecture around these things, keep in mind though that Pollard was the first to put them on a board, that his channels followed the rail line, and also that some of his boards featured just two channels either side of the stringer. Pollard's channels were 'softer', more undulations compared to the clinker channels that came later via AB, Col Smith, and Laurie Byrne.
Laurenson may well have pushed the design forward, it's kinda hard to tell from the photo what the defining attributes are, but I guess that's how design evolves: each person innovating and, if it works, then subsequent shapers building upon that knowledge and driving it forward.
saltman wrote:What about the Ben Apia stingers Ridden with a lot of success by Buttons, Liddel and adopted by MR
Definitely a part of design evolution though it ended up a dead end of sorts. From memory the concept of Da Sting were 12 inches of board dropped out of the length and planshape, hence the wing and step. Aipa was trying to make the single fin downrailers more manouvreable, something that happened when MR re-introduced the twin fin which had more curve in the outline and whip in the tail, thereby making Aipa Sting's redundant.
Murray Bourton played with the Stinger shape a while ago...added some quads " The Chameleon ".
Some interesting concepts out there!
NO idea how you shape a spoon to be honest - just looked a lot more difficult!
Going to have to keep the eyes peeled for new things to ride - I think budget will be the limiting factor!
no idea how to shape a spoon? no worries...let bob mctavish show you in five easy steps.
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EDIT: My 'historical' list was skewed toward performance, but as Udo points out there are designs that don't necessarily fit that criteria but deserve recognition. Flex tails being one of them
Flextails aren't skewed towards performance?
quadzilla wrote:EDIT: My 'historical' list was skewed toward performance, but as Udo points out there are designs that don't necessarily fit that criteria but deserve recognition. Flex tails being one of them Flextails aren't skewed towards performance?
No. Has a flex tail been ridden in a top tier IPS/ASP/WSL contest ever?
"An earlier Lis twin keel fish was a pivotal board too"
LIs is a cripple, that's where his designs are aimed....some seppos stood up on them, some seppos glassed singles onto them.
in his "pivotal era" 67-73, his designs had no impact, apart from Nuuihwas getting nailed to the pier
Errr...yes. Let's please not have a naive conversation about people doing better surfing outside of the pro ranks.
I like flex tails, think the feeling is wonderful when I ride a good one, but I'm under no illusion that they're high performance.
Hmmm, YES, lets have a "naïve" point of view about PERFORMANCE!
PERFORMANCE is about performing in PERFORMANCE waves....
the pro tour is about selling PRODUCT, not performance
Brewer then TF flyered, single to double concave speed machines.
McCoy moving area back with a succession of flyers, ending up with the 'no nose' design that became the thruster template.
Simmons putting single to double concave into a board in the 1940s.
just a few Qs?....what flextails have you ridden?....In what waves(location/intensity/opinion)
how many have you owned?
How many were customs?
just curious!
Flextails are definitely about performance.
Brocky built his flextail in Morning of the Earth for performance, based off the flex theories from George's spoon, being mostly variable rocker and how it fitted the tighter pocket areas of the wave.
Mitchell Rae picked up that torch and ran very elegantly with it up till now, and added the energy return of the flexed tail springing back to shape upon being loaded up in a hard turn.
All this is outside the pro tour sure, but you can't argue it hasn't been done with improving performance as a goal and an a result.
stunet wrote:
EDIT: My 'historical' list was skewed toward performance, but as Udo points out there are designs that don't necessarily fit that criteria but deserve recognition. Flex tails being one of them Flextails aren't skewed towards performance?No. Has a flex tail been ridden in a top tier IPS/ASP/WSL contest ever?
Yeah that dude adam faunce did
Noel wrote:
Ok, this is where I believe Greg Laurenson innovated, he used only one or two channels (depending on how you describe it) and kept them close to the rails. The board above is quite different in shaping terms and actually looks a lot like what Tom Hoye was doing around the same period. If I can attach the photo succesfully you can see that near the rail is one very tight channel, then the second channel is merged into the Vee that goes across to the stringer.
I dont know how to attach photos so will try to add the link direct to the useful pic: https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-AYocntdC9-I/TluRSD4ilOI/AAAAAAAAFyo/n1_pOy-y4…
This is called the penetrator & its from west oz . Ive seen a couple of them
Possibly Adam Melling
,Mitchell built him a Hawaiian quiver a few years ago
AB's channels, Maurice's deep concaves, NPJ Duo fin design, McCoy for doing the shorter thicker thing before most
Col. Smith (Redheah, Newcastle) was making sharpe/hard AB style channels, single fins back in the day. I guess it was a couple of years after the Jim Pollard corrugated iron style channels (as a kid I had a 6' 4" area pin tail). He was a great surfer and came up with some great designs. I've often wondered was he one of the forgotten innovators???? I'd add one of his single fin channels to your list and a late 70's twinny with deep channels.
Having just added a Campbell Bros. Bonzer to my quiver, it got me thinking about those designs over the years that were pivotal to surfboard design, or had their own unique take. Would love to put together a quiver of unique rides - to complement the standard shortboards - to keep my surfing more interesting. I have a log, a mid length single fin and a mini simmons, but would love to try a Tomo shape and re ride an 80's thruster.
So what other boards do you feel fit in the group?
Cheers!