Greg Pautsch Article: Early Newport, McCoy, Quicksilver, early Surf industry

I for one think the Zap’s sucked.  Cheyne would have had at least 1, if not 4 world titles if he had better equipment.  Pautsch’s worst boards are and were better than anything McCoy probably ever made.  McCoy’s designs ruined Cheyne.  And without Pautsch’s influence in Newport, Quik would never become what it is today.  Mcknight, and Kwock are purely money driven drivel, and they should pay GP just for putting up with their buffoonery.  I saw it, and lived it, and that’s how it was, and should be.  

I don’t think the first generation zaps sucked at all. They were 12 x19.5 x15.5 x2.5 normal dimentions that would become the thruster. I do think the thruster actually accomplished what it was Geoff and Cheyne were trying to accomplish for the average surfer…though I think it killed creativity and experimentation and made surfing completely close minded for awhile.

I think going so wide in the back end while on tour created resentment, prejudice and wanting to see him fail. He still came within a hair’s breath of winning on them and I wonder what would have happend to design if he had?  His boards cost him, the ridiculous things Slater was riding in the movies in 90 helped make him…and they rode similar…no forward projection all pocket surfing.  Says much about what the industry actually is.  It’s funny… much of what Cheyne himself experimented with when he left Geoff is being copied and folks pretending it’s new.  Look at the Firewire Patatoe thing. Watch Scream in Blue. 

 

True on Mcknight and Kwok…volcom too. They came from Quik. If you are one of their dealers…they will slit your throat for a bigger dealer down the street and still cash your checks.  They are pure industry folk.  GP is just a husband, father, and craftsmen.  There are others like him the industry. Not well known in todays world of hype but who have carved out their own influence. I hear Russell was one like that. I never knew him.

Hey solo, if the tails were 15 1/2’’ they weren’t “first generation” zaps.  If that was the case things would have been a little different.  Anyways, Pautsch is a great shaper, solid surfer, and a good guy, and should be rewarded for his fundamental contributions to what became corporate business- first, souless surfing.  After all its all about image- right.

Cheyne Horan was doing some AMAZING things on the North Shore in the early and mid 80's on very short and wide boards. He was nearly pulling off carving 360's at Sunset one day. After a while I got out of the water to just watch. I've seen him go as fast as anyone has gone on a surfboard at Laniakea one day. All on what was considered then freaky equipment. Board or Surfer????

 

 

[img_assist|nid=1061361|title=Horan first generation zap|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=207|height=640]

Ghetto,
Here is the main first generation Zap Simon got his inspiration from. Many of the early ones were between 15.5 and 17. I believe this board had a 15.5 tail I could have been 16. Agree with what you said on Pautsch. Also…I think his shapes were very underrated. GP never stayed mired in the past. He moved on.

I would disagree that this image is first generation Lazor Zap, this is the board that Horan rode in the second year into riding Zaps. The first years model is the clear board that you see him riding in a movie that Solo posted up a while ago, surfing at Burleigh wearing the yellow vest.

There was an article in tracks at the same time and that board only had a 14 inch tail and wide point at about 2 inches behind centre, that was considered radical at the time. Horan rode that board in the Australian leg of the tour and had pretty average results , but then went over to Japan and won there on that board.

Now I’m just a surfer…but I was riding an early zap back in the day.

The only zaps that were at Bondi at the time were owned by Cheyne and his brother Steve, Adrian Espizito, my mate Dave and I.

The zaps my mate and I had both had really pulled in noses. The nose on my mate’s was sharp enough to have a squash ball stuck on the end.

Noel’s yawning now as I always bring this up.

Just thinking about Cheyne’s boards and Slaters at a later date…I know the planshape was very different but what about the thickness of a zap and its foil and rails compared to a early Slater era chip?

The thing that I found similar between riding my single fin zap and a 2010 zap tri-fin was it slowness to react to my input.

Thoughts?

 

 

Nice to hear from the other side of the world, about the zap, and their is no doubt Cheyne ripped on anything, but the zap was certainly limited, and yet still is an iconic board that helped define an era.  It would be great to hear GP’s recollections since its a thread about him, not that I care if people want to add anything or even call me out on dimensions.   Solo, it sucks that the surfboard guys like Pautsch always are the ones getting burned, yet they are the ones that work the hardest.

 

No doubt Ghetto.  The reason I started The Independent surfer was to tell stories you won’t find in main stream mags until they think it suits them.  I have some notes about GP recollection but he was very humble in not wanting it to be too much about him. He knows the controversy and has never been one that wants to involve himself in the needless side of that.   I can say this, He pretty much agrees with what I wrote as it pertains to Newport and what he knew of that era.   

 

There were earlier Zaps. Geoff told me one time he had been working on them as early as 75…but what became known as the Lazor Zap looked pretty much like the Pink board at first.  Radical for the time as mentioned.  In late 81 he went super radical with some of them and they started to get noticed a space age.  Funny thing…folks can barely tell you who the last 20 world champs were, but most of them rememeber those wide tailed narrow nosed boards from the 80’s.  I’ll bet it’s the most copied design in the history of the shortboard.

 

On Greg Pautsch: Another non spoken fact is his factory and boards were like Merrick or Lost today. All the shops who were anyone carried them.  Look at the inspiration they gave to folks like Schroff.  Wooley told me one time, " I wanted to be Cheyne Horan " when I was a kid.   I know folks who named their children after him.  Geoff, Cheyne and Pautsch were early surfing super stars. It’s just that super star then was different today. If the main magazines wouldn’t write about you…no one would know and your tour ratings and sponsorship had a way of suffering also.  There were no blogs, no internet, almost zero news coverage unless it was in Hawaii.  

 

Like you said earlier…you take Pautsch out of the equation and McKnight and company don’t have nearly an easy time with Quik. Having a respected local shaper as part of McCoy helped the brand in America in my opinion.  I can’t write about it here because I have not gotten permission from Geoff and likely won’t…but he told me the story about how the Quik license came to America and that in itself is a tale worth reading one day.  One you are not likely to get the accurate version of anytime soon. 

 

As I state here often…it is not in the industry’s interest to tell the real story over the award winning and should be Oscar nominated false story they would have you believe.  The pro tour was started for the benefit of a few. There was nothing fair about it right from the get go and it hasn’t changed much. Same with amateur.  A friend of mine who helped start the ESA in south Florida and puts years of work into was treated rudely by the new soccer witch admin of the ESA for asking where his lifetime membership had gone.  There response was prove you have it? 

This is the surfing industry.

 

The few shapers, writers, retailers and such that are the good part of this industry are priceless. The rest ain’t worth shooting.

 

I’m not yawning. I always appreciate your input.  I think one of the things that might come out of this article and some future ones I am working on is how different the Aussie vs the American side of this was.  It took on a different form by the time it reached America I think.  What ghetto is noting is how like in Oz.   those involved here…Greg Pautsch…never got their just due.

The other thing that happened around the same time was Rip Curl introducing 2mm rubber to wetsuits, with the Aggrolite series, and others with layered rubber(thin rubber on arms and thicker on body). I remember seeing thse first adds in Surfing World magazine, pink, blue,yellow, white wetsuits any thing you wanted, it was a shocking and because i was young i wanted in. Those were the days when wetsuits were made in western countries and you could custom order the colours and style you wanted, it was good fun, it was a tropical fish bowl out there. Not everyone agreed with it but it added a little individuality to scene and pissed off the the older conservative guys.

Good one Tombstone,

we must have grown up in the same era. The first time I saw someone use a legrope at our local break , the older crew were waiting for him when he came in to share some pain on him for f@#king with our reality. Hankerchief sales must have boomed after that as that was what you tied around your ankle and the cord used to really make horrible fin chops in the tail of your board. Those that dared to be different did so at thier own risk !

Staying on topic , I rode the GP today which has modern rails, but McCoy thick (rolled a little more though) and it was super fast and really loose for a 7' board.  Who would have thought modern rails would work on one of these things ?

All new info to me , i really appreciate these threads that give some history .

 

Thanx Solo and all the other contributers

I dig GP, and his shaping abilities, and his relevance in a critical time, so I keep posting.  Quik should kick $$$ to Pautsch.

I dig GP, and his shaping abilities, and his relevance in a critical time, so I keep posting.  Quik should kick $$$ to Pautsch.  Or at least some stock options.

Hey Mono, good to hear your happy with the new board, yeah the seventies were an intolerant and violent time for a young surfer. It is kinda of funny that if you surf without a legrope these days your considered a poser or a dickhead. My dad made my first legrope out of surgical tubing rope and an old sock tied around your ankle, sort of worked, the board came back so fast due to the stretch of the tubing that it was too dangerous to fall off.

Hey ghettorat I dont know how Quicksilver is performing on the market at present, but read Billabong are currently trading around 60% down on last year, Who wants to get paid in stock if the man on the street has no confidence in your business, the problem with public companies you got to keep share holders happy first. Then try to make an inferior product as cheap as possible and market the hell out of it, to sell it for the highest margin. then your called a smart business man, a semi knowledgeable customer knows there just polishing a turd.

I can't believe some brand" name boardies are 100 bucks a pop. I was stunned when i saw it. FFS, normally YOU get paid when you advertise someone else's product!!. Shows how strong the "hype" is!

Good points tombstone, and 100 bucks for board shorts that don’t make you surf any better.  I remember hanging out in the sand at 54 before the deluge, around 74-5.  It was different there then, and Mcknight was just an average surfer.  Kwock didn’t surf there, he hung out at 36th, but was getting really good. People mostly coveted their custom Katin’s, or their Birdwell’s; the original OP shorts were just becoming cool, and “Five Summer Stories”, plus 4,5, kept playing.  I saw the whole thing develop from a great place to surf to “Studio 54”, and “echo beach”.  I used to call it “wannabe beach” at that point.  Another guy who should be getting paid by Quik for helping it go was Mike Moir; he was on that beach every day, and the buzz became a beat in part due to his documentation; he really made it happen; he had his favorites, and the mags saw lot’s of those guys because of it; Kwock, Preston, Gothard, and Parker, all were his guys to shoot.

 

Ghetto,

How can I contact Mike Moir and some of the others? I totally forgot about Moir. You are right.   I hate to say, in some ways I really enjoyed that time. Stuff was so new. As I became a surf shop owners…I truly learned to hate it though.  You go to an Arab bizarre where they haggle for price in the streets for your dollar and you get less hassle than surfing expos.