Simmons worked as a mathemetician for Douglas Aircraft and it was there he was exposed to Lindsey Lord's book "Naval Architecture of Planing Hulls" from which he drew inspiration. http://e-j-m.com/lord-book.html
Hey Jason,
Personally, I think that the list would basically rotate around individuals.
Ancient Hawaiians
Tom Blake
Simmons
Quigg
Velzy
GG
McTavish
Brewer
MR
Simon
Merrick
…would probably be a good guess. Of course the list is much deeper, there are so many people that have contributed so much. But for popular culture, that seems to be the general consensus. Good to see your head pop up on this site. Hope all’s well! -C
MPs' shaping was and isnt recognised enough, his work on rockers and planshapes were light years ahead of his time, his craftmanship wasnt as good as some but the design ideas were there....
I’m not a reputable source but what about Greg Webber? Banana rocker in the 90’s, now he’s doing crazy deep double concaves, twin fin guns ect…
good lists. for sure-in a relatively small clique that's been recently exposed-liddle(and PG)-for taking simmons and greenough influences and refining them for over 40 years...did i see brewer and yater in there somewhere?
How about Glen Winton…Mr X…inventor of the quad fin in 1980? Only now is his invention coming full circle. You see them everywhere. On fish’s, Wiamea guns, longboards, short boards, stand up boards and tow-in boards. It seems to me that when guys choose quads for the boards they ride in life and death situations it becomes clear that this fin set up designed by Mr. Winton and refined by others like McKee is a major design accomplishment that should be recognized along with the others like Simon and George. Go ahead and give Simon Anderson credit for the tri-fin but time has shown that 3 fins has it limitations, limitations that have been improved on by the quad fin setup. Especially now days with his fin system being used on modern shapes of all sizes and styles it is becoming clear that the quad fin setup has improved board performance more than any other fin setup…in my opinion.
What did Rusty say???
Four fins are faster than tri fins.
Four Fins are looser than tri fins.
Four fins ride the barrel higher and tighter than a tri fin.
They drop in easier.
They come out of the gate quicker.
Accelerate on cutbacks.
Do better airs.
Can be ridden shorter.
Draw new and different lines.
Rubbish!
haaa’’ what he say he was dreaming haaaa’’
uhhh ** flat rock when**?
GG conceptualized, designed, experimented, refined, perfected… and INFLUENCED the work of others. How can anyone argue the spoon design and raked fin wasn’t immensely influential? Greenough put design concepts into his boards that allowed them to out perform all other surfing craft at the time. Suddenly, standup surfers wanted to surf like George, but on their feet, and a whole new world started spinning for shapers. That kind of performance became the goal and challenge for board designers. There’s where the influence lies…
Honolulu, I understand your point on discounting GG, and not going to argue some of your points in fact most of them are valid, but if you want to throw the fact that no one rides the equipment anymore, if it weren’t for Hyrdodyanmica how many people would be riding Simmons style boards?I would probably guess at a dozen world wide. If not for Sprout and the like how many pure retro fishes would have been shaped over the last decade?
Greenough brought an approach to riding waves that surfers are emmulating these days standing on their feet. And as far as flex goes, there is a 200 page thread on boards that have quite a bit of flex, and a very strong following for that construction. As a rider of aforementioned boards, I can tell you the spring and pop the board has is 75% of the reason I buy them. Additionally without the fins taking the direction they took at the time, we would probably not have had the boards evolve the way they did. Hell right now we could be still looking for the perfectly slow peeling mushburger to noseride.
good luck doing a turn like that with a big ass pivot fin.
Charlie,
So accurate, so well stated, with such clarity. I salute you.
Thank you,
Them's fight'n words . I disagree with everything you say but I respect your right to say it.
George Greenough is an enigma . McTavish and Nat Young thought of him as their surf guru and the boards they were making at that time (and now) wouldn't be the same without him. Nobody uses his fins anymore ??
He can sometimes now be seen as a speck from shore in the shipping lane at Flat Rock (shark ?)fishing on his under inflated mat , so even the universe loves George Greenough !
I'll dare to post a dissenting note re George Greenough. Surely what he did was monumental in his day. I remember the first time I saw him riding one of the Velo-style boards on film, but...
GG was an amazing kneeboarder but where are kneeboarders now? I used to be one and rode a variety of board styles... but those days are gone, mostly, since modern high performance short boards pre-empted almost all the things that made kneeboards viable and attractive. Too, the boogie board has opened up those areas with low cost, hig volume access and it has almost nothing to do with GG.
Ever shape a GG-style board? It's not near as easy as you'd think, and then some. Maybe this is part of why almost no one does it any more.
GG is recognized for flex... I'm not, and some others likewise aren't, fond of flex. It's great... on someone else's board.
GG is recognized for fin design... nearly no one uses his fins now. Fins are largely the province of popout plastic molding, even with some supposedly high-tech strange looking things which I expect are largely marketing, as is typical of most of the sport nowadays.
All in all, GG was a Big Deal when the surf media promoted him, but c'mon, he was a rich kid from SoCal. Innovative and energetic, yes, but I believe the surfing world now embodies very little of the things he was known for.
Individuals that were mentioned in other posts above contributed significantly to the evolution of surfing as we know it now, but to me, and having tried those aspects of the sport that GG represented, his work came to a dead end. Also note that he himself stated that the Velo-style board (perhaps his signal moment) was most suited to one particular type of wave.
I'll add that kneeboards are a real bitch to surf in any kind of chop. You will get very little respect on a kneeboard, so don't surf with shortboarders, longboarders, spongers, ...
I feel this could be divided into two categories, before and after the Greenough spoon.
The order would probably go like this in my book
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The first thing a human ever stood on and rode- without it we would still be either bodysurfing or bellyboarding
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Simmons board- not for the little soapboxes people are riding these days, while advanced for the time it is an evolutionary dead end in many respects. Short didn’t catch on at this point, neither did the use of multiple fins. Rocker starts becoming considered now that it isn’t dictated by the wood. Foam and fiber glass are first used expanding what a surfboard could be. The only reason these are above Greenough is with out these materials, the spoon would not be possible.
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Greenough Spoon- designs can either be considered pre or post shortboard revolution, this was the asteroid that marked the end of the age of dinosaurs; it was the catalyst which spawned the subsequent design explosion
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Kook boxes-made surfing more accessible to more people, Also the first board with a fin.
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Magic Sam- brought the possibilites of what GG had created to the stand up population(actually shaped by Young, he was shaping his boards at the time under Gordon Wood, but he was making his own boards. It should be noted that this was a collaborative effort between Young, McTavish and Greenough.
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The Thruster- say what you want, one of the most tested and most proven designs of all time. A excellent balance of hold, release, and control.
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The Brewer Hawaiian Minigun- Downed soft rails, pulled in nose and tail, these were some of the first boards that allowed the surfer to be in control of the board in the pocket. A huge leap forward from the super deep V’s that were being ridden. Adjust the widths for less than optimal conditions and boards begin approaching the modern era
8.MR era twin fin- opened up the realm of small waves to high performance, and when small wave performance goes up, bigger wave performance tends to follow.
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Kelly Slater’s glass slippers- bitch and moan all you want, when it comes to actually riding a wave, volume gets in the way. Slaters glass slippers, much to the detriment of average surfers in below average waves, really fine tunes the thruster as the high performance vehicle of choice.
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Tom Morey’s Boogie board-more people have ridden waves on this or started their journey to surfing on this than anything else. I have no statistics to back me up but I would be willing to put money on it. One template and rocker works in everything from knee high mush, to dredging slabs that no surfer will ever be able to ride (unless they are towed in and even then those surfers never fare well.) Proper Teahupoo for instance was first really ridden by Mike Stewart and Ben Severson.
I agree with Carl, and would add Gary young.
Hey, “the baff” if you’re who I think you are, then your film from a couple of years ago is my all time favorite.
I was hoping you’d do a film about the history of the South Bay surf scene.
Or maybe one about localism which would star one of the South Bay’s most neighborly spots- the Bay of the South Bay. Such a film would be very …mmmmm… controversial.
Anyways, whatever you do I know it’ll be good. Can’t wait. That is, if you are who I thin you are.
bob simmons - foam cores, bottom design, twin “fins”
gordon wood, who was nat young’s shaper? if not, who was?
george g. - spoon and raked/high aspect ratio fins
steve lis - fish
mr - twin fin
campbell bros - bonzer
simon anderson - thruster
Woody Brown, George Downing, and Pat Curren, were all MAJOR contributers to the development of specialized big wave riding boards. And big wave riding certainly captured, and for many defined the sport, in the 1950's and into the 1960's. Early films of their exploits inspired a generation of surfers. A winter on the North Shore became a rite of passage for many surfers.
A winter on the North Shore became a rite of passage for many surfers.