another thought maybe instead of the 10 most influencial boards of all time why not look at the 10 most influencial waves that brought surfboard design to were it is today.
another thought maybe instead of the 10 most influencial boards of all time why not look at the 10 most influencial waves that brought surfboard design to were it is today.
I understand wht you are saying di99er, but the problem with that approach is shapers are kind of isolated in geographic regions as surfers are, but it is the finer point of a shape that tailor it to a spot, the general shape will work all over. For instance my board works great in thumping beach breaks, but I know if I took it to a point, I could ride it there as well. Maybe I could get a board that would be marginally better, but the boards would be nearly identical (maybe the one for the point or reef would be a round tail where as my beachbreak board would be a squash)
In the last couple of years either Surfer or Surfing mag did a graphic of a family tree of the lineage of influential shapers. It was very detailed. It wouldn’t answer your question directly, but if you had a short list of boards/shapers, you could cross reference the tree to see how a shaper could’ve influenced future shapers. Did anyone else see the graphic I’m talking about and can offer a better reference for it?
Other than that, I’d like to give a shout to a couple East Coast names. In regards to Kelly’s “glass slippers,” extreme rocker profiles went along with them. Although we most readily associate that development with Al Merrick, I’d like to hear more about what effect Matt Kechele’s “flip tip” noses in the early 90’s had on Kelly’s rocker preferences, if any. Also, in terms of the influence of the modern “pop-out” development and epoxy techniques: I know Greg Loehr was an early adopter and pioneer of epoxy. As of 2009 he was one of the largest supplier of resin to the growing epoxy market according to Surfline. Perhaps his first epoxy board in 1982 should be a contender.
Finally, tow-in boards have created almost a new genre of surfing in the last 10 years. Would there even be slab surfing as we know it without guys experimenting with lead-weighted surfboards at jaws and all the rest of their innovations?
Cheers, Heath
http://www2.swaylocks.com/node/1021992
yah, it was met with mixed reviews...
Welcome to sways, Heath. Re the shaper's tree thing, it was/is truly a thankless job for those involved. They got it from all angles; guys who weren't on the tree, misplaced, misdated, whatever. IMHO it is an honorable quest but always subject to controversy. It does show that a lot of us came from just a few guys who were shaping 60 years ago.
The flip-tip as done by Kech was actually Kirk Brasington's work. Guess who shaped all those boards?
GL was truly the ''mad scientist'' of epoxy in the early 80s. I remember when he had his first small reactor in his garage. Developing the first surfboard-specific epoxy was a great achievement, but maybe not a top 10. It depends on the context and criteria of the list.
The modern hpsb ''rocker chip'' might be Greg's best shot a top 10. Bill Hartley's mid-80s GL boards were the precursor to all of the modern shortboards, and the boards Greg did for Mike Notary and Scott Miller in the early 80s inspired Bill's.
Ah, thanks Mike, and thanks for the welcome. I hear you on the GL epoxy thing. I guess the criteria would matter. If the list was focused on innovative design then an achievement with epoxy doesn’t make sense, but if boards with innovative construction materials made it on the list then maybe it makes more sense.
I didn’t mean to step into the hornets nest with the shaping tree! I could’ve guessed it was a lightening rod of discussion on this forum.
Speaking of Hartley, I don’t know him, but the last time I saw him was years ago at monster hole. He was screaming downline and cutting huge archs. I thought he was on a Jeff Klugel (seven seas) at that time. I appreciate the tid-bit here on GL’s development with the sb throughout the early to mid eighties. Living in Vero while growing up, we sometimes missed the nuances of the story down there.
Have a good one, Heath
Defining influence seems to be a multi-faceted description. From an Australian point of view you would have to say the Duke's board was the number one influential surfboard as it was the board that started our nation surfing. The second most influential would be a generic description of the hot dog boards the U.S. team brought to Australia in the sixties, which were being duplicated within a week. And third but not in any particular order is Greenough's spoons which as Chrisp said, started surfers wanting to emulate that style of surfing standing up.
A few pics from McLaren brothers , Port Macquarie…1929
Thanks MD. Most people think Merrick did that. But in general there have been thousands who have contributed. All the GG talk … he influenced the way we surf more than board design. He really introduced the carve. It’s still the biggest deal although you’d think that air is the biggest thing if you read the mags. Which would bring us to Kechele. But board builders generally follow influences in the water. The top ten board building influences are guys building for influential surfing. It all comes from the water first. BTW, I haven’t seen Rabbit K. mentioned. Come on you HI guys.