[img_assist|nid=1069918|title=WK|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=640|height=640] This is a local shaper friend of Reese’s getting into the groove of shaping boat nose types. I think Reese has had a couple do them other than Stall and GP. I gave them the lam so Cheyne would get proper credit and with Reese surfing on them and killing it will validate that they were functional designs. Reese sent me a note after riding the red McCoy I posted awhile back. He said Geoff and Cheyne were right and the pro tour was prejudice. He has become addicted to the red Zap and also the 5’8’’ epoxy by Forstall with a winged keel. His Zaps have the old lazor Zap fin in them. A basey pivot fin Geoff and GP used to put in the zaps. I think Cheyne preferred the thumb fin.
[img_assist|nid=1069919|title=MWK|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=640|height=478] Another one of Reese playing around in small Florida waves on a winged keel.
Love the old school fan in the back, brings back memories, and drives away mosquitoes.
It’s funny I have always been attracted by the look of those extreme wide tailed zaps, they look so outlandish but I they hold my attention. Then again I cant look at short boards with wide round noses, who knows they both probably work fine.
This is perhaps the funniest comment I’ve ever read on sways…very funny…nearly wet myself.
Cheers
Rich
Www.thirdshade.com
Sometimes I can’t remember what I have written, and have to think about it. I am glad you appreciated the comment. Its just I have a soft spot in my heart for Pautschy because like so many guys that poured their hearts and lives into their passion making surfboards their contributions have been overlooked. Somehow during the mid-seventies Australiaphiles took over American surfer’s consciousness. As messed up as this sounds to me, it was like everything went a shade of Aussie gay just like PT’s flaming pink boards. Oh yeah there was that Olivia Newton John crap, and the funny accents too. Pautsch was a good surfboard shaper on the mesa in the same place where surfings soft side, was about to change the world; he in the frensy locked down the McCoy logo over here. The Newport-Mesa crew took on a new focus in the media through Moir’s, and Junor’s lens, and quite a bit of the time that revolution of sorts took place on Greg Pautsch’s killer shapes; Quicksilver established credibility through this and made millions and Pautsch somehow got swept away in the dust. The surfing “industry” really doesn’t have any soul.
Gentlemen,
I love this kind of shape and it will get my eye every time.
This is my opinion; the concept was started by Dale Velsy and the “pig” (balsa days, wide point behind center). Later Dale had to go underground (short board revolution) and came up with the “needle nose”. I saw it and made one my way and rode it. This idea really didn’t catch fire. The problem was with no mass in the nose, the down the line projection we were used to was gone. A seven foot board acted like four footer and the turns became more vertical, perhaps we should have hung in with it longer. It wasn’t till the McCoy days and we saw Cheyne Horan riding Greg Pautsch’s boards, Greg had fixed the nose weight problem. By that time (or just prior) I was riding Geoff’s boards, Skip shaped a more conventional board and I rode the crap out of them. However I was totally bummed with the single fin. Cheyne came up with the “star fin” and I moved on to my own twin fin boards and maintained the pig template. The quad fin set up seems like the next move to try and keep these boards in the water when you jump on the turns as the thruster set up seamed to kill the snap and acceleration in the turns. Also the shape is becoming the “bump” another Velsy deal. I've been working on boards for almost fifty years any every time I think I’ve got something original I find out Velsy did it before.
How about some acknowledgement for Dale and Greg?
Mahalo Nui
Double up.
Found this old photo of Velzy promoting some boards in the late 60s getting into the spirit of the times, that stick on the far right is one mean mother of a needle nose and the others well not exactly perfect for Hunington.
Don’t fret Ghetto the tables have turned on us in Aussie land and well are lapping up what ever crap Channel islands come with and most everything Califorian whether it works in our waves or not. Global economy we are riding boards designed in USA for your waves which believe it or not are quite different to ours, cultural cringe maybe on our part or you are better marketers of product, whatever.
Those no noses can be fun in short peaky waves which is a staple diet here, you are one a west coast and most west coast’s get distant ground swell which are longer formed and more down the line requiring more rail line. Also depends whether you want to boogie or cruise.
Anyone who knew Russell, knew he had a big belly, and he used to say: “We all came out of Velzy’s belly.” Velzy would often say: “That’s just sour milk,” when he didn’t like something. And since this is a thread on GP it was so cool to spend time in the shaping rooms with him too. DR, Madsen, DK, Preston, Brazda, Henry Scheff and even Hill on GP’s and on top swells at 54- good times.
That’s about the time I first met Velzy at Roger’s Foam in Santa Ana; I thought he was a old man back then. He looks pretty groovy; Without argument Huntington Beach was the surfboard world’s global power center at that time. Main St. and beyond were essentially surf shops, that peddled boards and good times; no other place even came close. Orange County was way different then; surfing offered an escape from a society essentially at war between itself; somehow sleepy Huntington transformed into Surf City USA while military industrial suppliers ruled an economy filled with slick real estate pushers and construction workers. Nixon, his cohorts and their follies may have filled the front page of the papers, it really didn’t matter because he didn’t rule at the pier. The US Surfing Championships at the end of summer were the capstone of what would become professional surfing.
Ditto on the industry having no soul. Preaching to the choir with that one. Quik and the crew should have brought GP in and helped him the way they did some of their two bit worthless reps who happen to be ex pros. They have some good employees also, but no one played the distribution game like Quik. I spoke to GO yesterday on a custom. He is stoked when people enjoy his boards. He puts his best into the shapes and has a great bit of knowledge. Unlike some in the industry, GP never forgets to acknowledge his teachers and other influences. Ha ha on the Aussie thing…Southern Cal jumped on any new fad back then and Aussie definitely was up until Croc Dundee came out in the mid eighties. The whole scene both music and surf pretty much ended with the Wembly concert…bloated on MTV and hipness. Nothing against Australians. They couldn’t help it that southern Californians went ga ga over them for awhile. They were surfing really well and dominated the early pro tour.