Joel Tudor's new label

General Discussion
41
Quote:

A solid case could be made that Joel Tudor is the most influential surfer of the past 20 years, period. It depends on how you choose to define influential. I would offer that anything other than Slater-style surfboards and tow-in boards can trace some lineage to Tudor influence. The people with intense commercial interests will say that contemporary cutting edge performance is tied to Slater and Hamilton…but if you go to any beach in 95% of the world what you will see dominating the lineups (more than 50%) is something we can relate to Tudor, which we could say is anything other than a tow-in board or something from the modern 6’2" thruster family.

Bearing in mind all the people mentioned are figureheads and others were involved in equipment etc. But they are the legitimate figureheads, for excellent reasons.

I am both amazed and curious how Tudor makes what apparently is quite a nice living given the cold shoulder the shorty surf world gives him. More power to him.

Nels

I respectfully disagree.

Tom Curren in the first instance was responsible for this current incarnation of fish riding in Aus. at least.

Photos and video of him riding a 5’7" Tommy Peterson Fireball (not a true fish but a highly complex hybrid) caused a sensation in Aus., while JT was still flapping around in the shorebreak with long hair and pink wetsuits.

Curren’s influence(not just on equipment) dwarfs that of JT.

Andrew Kidmans film Litmus, featuring Derek Hynd riding a fish at J-bay was the next shot across the bow of the modern short-board/pro-surf juggernaut…Kidman himself has probably done more than anyone to change perceptions about what is functionally acceptable surfcraft.

All this was happening while JT was a stock standard pro longboarder…a style of riding that had come back into vogue with the second coming of Nat Young in the early eighties…so no influence there.

The Seedling and “Longer” introduced JT to Aussies but strictly as a longboarder…his old school approach had some influence but again …most Aussies who ride longboards (with a few notable exceptions) seem to prefer more modern incarnations of this craft.

As for higher volume shortboards and mid-lengths lets not forget there was a time before Slater and some of us can still remember it…standard shortboard volumes in the mid-eighties and early nineties just prior to the Slater/Herring low volume revolution were significantly higher than that found today…

a 6’2 by 19 1/2 by 2 5/8 with full angular rails and flat rocker was a wave catching machine with a helluva lot of float…

Just post-Slater Geoff MCoy developed the “nugget”, a very significantly higher volumed shorty that liberated surfers from under-volumed wafers…all these concepts were developed as “first principles”, not recycled seventies concepts and none of 'em had anything to do with Joel Tudor.

If you look at the film “the Innermost Limits of Pure Fun” about half way through you will see a shot of Chris Brock holding, then riding a narrow tailed “teardrop” single-fin that looks identical to the one JT rides in his trailer…

Calling JT’s recycling of these late 60’s concepts as influential is putting the cart before the horse…it’s more fair to say he has been one of the most heavily influenced surfers in history.

What he has done well, via some very beautiful film-making ,is repackage that and sell it to a modern audience.

And as you say, more power to him.

As for antipathy from the shorty world I don’t see any evidence of that.

His ads are all over the big American mags…he gets a sympathetic press.

Maybe a crusty curmudgeon from Lennox gives him a hard time but I’m sure he’s big enough to deal with that.

Steve.

42

never even heard of him until swaylocks

watched a vid

oh yeah he can surf

no one i know has even heard of joel tudor

slater and curren for the yanks

43

“There’s a whole world of surfboard design between what he’s riding and modern potato chips.”

In an attempt to move this discussion forward, please discuss those designs-- I see all sorts of retro boards and thrusters in the water, but find it hard to recognize what is contemporary and not a thruster or performance longboard. Thanks for any help.

44

whos jole tudor

roys more famous

45

Modern twins, modern quads, hybrid quads, hybrid twins, round nosed shortys of all kinds of fin configs, semi-guns of all persuasions, nuggets, zaps and their multi-fin derivatives, griffin style 5 fins, short eggy discs, eighties style shortboards, etc etc etc etc pods, mullets, round nose semi-guns, fuller outline shorties, hybrid mal/guns, modern bonzers

I’m sure the list is much longer, but you get the drift.

Steve

46

LOL!

47
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whos jole tudor

roys more famous

Not in a million years

48

you girls fully have the juice on for joel baby

maybes you should get ya savings out of the one bank in america and go on a honeymoon to tavarua

dont forget the kookbox fish, apparently they go good at ten ft pipe :slight_smile:

edit… shit thayt was bit harsh for a joke

ah well

49

had a look at the site

looks like hes got similar to a couple of roy stewarts designs

apparently they work at ten foot pipe according to joel

i think i perfer the wood look to the house paint look

50

To get back to the thread, I would like to know what you guys think about the quiver.

I’m really surprised by 2 boards :

1, The Twin Pin … quite unexpected don’t you think ? How does it surf in your opinion ? What kind of waves ? What is your guess on templates, bottom, rails etc. ?

2, The Tube Bullet … looks really bizarre to me. It’s appetizing, but at the same time it looks like the typical pro-board that nobody is able to surf except a guy with the ability of Tudor (6 to 10 foot tubes in Pipe with a 6’ board or smaller ???)

Sure this quiver looks good, but boards are poorly presented on the site, as if you had to take their word for it without even being interested in the shapes details.

51

Irrelevant but had to say I did double take up above. Thought Lennox, when wrote this “a style of riding that had come back into vogue with the second coming of Nat Young in the early eighties,” said “in HIS early eighties” and I thought WOW I can hardly wait to see that!

52
Quote:
Modern twins, modern quads, hybrid quads, hybrid twins, round nosed shortys of all kinds of fin configs, semi-guns of all persuasions, nuggets, zaps and their multi-fin derivatives, griffin style 5 fins, short eggy discs, eighties style shortboards, etc etc etc etc pods, mullets, round nose semi-guns, fuller outline shorties, hybrid mal/guns, modern bonzers

I’m sure the list is much longer, but you get the drift.

Steve

Sure, but just taking one of those types of boards, can you go into a little bit of detail design wise, about what the difference is between say a modern twin and a retro. I’m personally interested in single fins.

53
Quote:

I respectfully disagree…Calling JT’s recycling of these late 60’s concepts as influential is putting the cart before the horse…it’s more fair to say he has been one of the most heavily influenced surfers in history.

Steve,

Tudor is at the least the figurehead for the movement away/apart from the shorty/tow-in surfboard at least in the states, which I would call influential. I think he would gleefully agree with you that he himself is one of the most heavily influenced surfers in history…he might point out that he tries to be aware and open to things which both interest him and are new to him, but he’s never to my knowledge denied the thrills and enjoyment of classic surfing from earlier eras. Just my take on him without knowing him personally…

I would offer to you that, again at least in the U.S., anything remotely like a longboard was both unknown and unappreciated and also freaking rare to anyone who wasn’t from Hawaii or around at least by the time of the shortboard revolution until the longboard came back in a period in which Tudor became the poster boy. As I recall it the early longboard return era in California and elsewhere featured a lot of the guys who were there at the end of the original one. Tudor was the most memorable young guy who picked up on it and took it somewhere. Not the only young guy, but for whatever reason (ability and support) the most memorable.

All the “alt” designs have always burbled around…Reno had the fish that influenced MR in the late 70’s etc, I saw interesting multi-fin boards in the shop Tommy Peterson had near Burleigh back in '78 that I don’t know what I would call them, Curren right after that legitimized the thruster in the conservative California/U.S. etc., and when Curren started to shed some skins and play with other designs he certainly was influential, but he didn’t like the media and Slater was on the scene by then…and Tudor seems to love playing with media.

Quote:

As for antipathy from the shorty world I don’t see any evidence of that.

His ads are all over the big American mags…he gets a sympathetic press

My personal feeling is that at various times Tudor scares the living crap out of “the surf industry”. There was a fairly annoying big-ass summer issue of Surfer a few years ago about the most influential people in surfing. Tudor made the list but way behind L. Hamilton, who was ahead of Slater, and the guy who was running Roxy, who was also ahead of Slater if memory serves. Yet over half the boards sold and carried to the beach were longboards. ???

Yes, Tudor’s ads are in the U.S. magazines…shoot, they would run ads for Swaylock’s if the money was there. I have the impression that most of the money Tudor actually makes comes from out-of-county. Some may say Tudor can make a long and profitable career of looking at contemporary surfing and then doing the opposite, and I say…I say “they’re right!”

Nels

54
Quote:
Quote:

A solid case could be made that Joel Tudor is the most influential surfer of the past 20 years, period. It depends on how you choose to define influential. I would offer that anything other than Slater-style surfboards and tow-in boards can trace some lineage to Tudor influence. The people with intense commercial interests will say that contemporary cutting edge performance is tied to Slater and Hamilton…but if you go to any beach in 95% of the world what you will see dominating the lineups (more than 50%) is something we can relate to Tudor, which we could say is anything other than a tow-in board or something from the modern 6’2" thruster family.

Bearing in mind all the people mentioned are figureheads and others were involved in equipment etc. But they are the legitimate figureheads, for excellent reasons.

I am both amazed and curious how Tudor makes what apparently is quite a nice living given the cold shoulder the shorty surf world gives him. More power to him.

Nels

I respectfully disagree.

Tom Curren in the first instance was responsible for this current incarnation of fish riding in Aus. at least.

Photos and video of him riding a 5’7" Tommy Peterson Fireball (not a true fish but a highly complex hybrid) caused a sensation in Aus., while JT was still flapping around in the shorebreak with long hair and pink wetsuits.

Curren’s influence(not just on equipment) dwarfs that of JT.

Andrew Kidmans film Litmus, featuring Derek Hynd riding a fish at J-bay was the next shot across the bow of the modern short-board/pro-surf juggernaut…Kidman himself has probably done more than anyone to change perceptions about what is functionally acceptable surfcraft.

All this was happening while JT was a stock standard pro longboarder…a style of riding that had come back into vogue with the second coming of Nat Young in the early eighties…so no influence there.

The Seedling and “Longer” introduced JT to Aussies but strictly as a longboarder…his old school approach had some influence but again …most Aussies who ride longboards (with a few notable exceptions) seem to prefer more modern incarnations of this craft.

As for higher volume shortboards and mid-lengths lets not forget there was a time before Slater and some of us can still remember it…standard shortboard volumes in the mid-eighties and early nineties just prior to the Slater/Herring low volume revolution were significantly higher than that found today…

a 6’2 by 19 1/2 by 2 5/8 with full angular rails and flat rocker was a wave catching machine with a helluva lot of float…

Just post-Slater Geoff MCoy developed the “nugget”, a very significantly higher volumed shorty that liberated surfers from under-volumed wafers…all these concepts were developed as “first principles”, not recycled seventies concepts and none of 'em had anything to do with Joel Tudor.

If you look at the film “the Innermost Limits of Pure Fun” about half way through you will see a shot of Chris Brock holding, then riding a narrow tailed “teardrop” single-fin that looks identical to the one JT rides in his trailer…

Calling JT’s recycling of these late 60’s concepts as influential is putting the cart before the horse…it’s more fair to say he has been one of the most heavily influenced surfers in history.

What he has done well, via some very beautiful film-making ,is repackage that and sell it to a modern audience.

And as you say, more power to him.

As for antipathy from the shorty world I don’t see any evidence of that.

His ads are all over the big American mags…he gets a sympathetic press.

Maybe a crusty curmudgeon from Lennox gives him a hard time but I’m sure he’s big enough to deal with that.

Steve.

Good stuff Lennox…JT is getting some credit for what others have already done. His marketing team has done a good job. Popular or not with the " The surfer having the most fun is the best " crowd, but I think the majority of that junk on his new site is just hideous. None of it interest me. Few of those old designs interest me very much save a couple that were light years ahead of their time.

I was riding a Lance Carson 9’6’’ when many were on Twinnies and when all longboards were hated. I tried to ride my old Lance Carson right after getting off my modern longboard and the difference is huge. I love my Carson, but it felt like slow and non responsive in comparison. I could do all the moves of it on my modern longboard. I still like weight on boards including longboards, but I think some areas have been improved with modern equipment. I do think some of the older equipment shines in certain conditions. What I don’t like about the retro movement is that it allows surfers to stagnate and not move forward learning some pretty basic surfing moves. I see these kids taking off on the shorebreak with these old look alike logs and running right to the nose…just for the sake of it, not because it’s the best place on the wave to get there, but just to get on the nose and feel valid. Kind of like arials…one move kids. Sorry, nose riding loses it’s appeal after about the forth wave for me now a days. I would much rather move it around more. I am sure I will go back one day. Thats the great thing about surfing. Variety.

Like I said…float is the main improvment of the retro boards. It’s opened minds. Thats a good thing. But some of that stuff needs to stay in the 60’s and 70’s IMO. Not only that, turing the retro thing is a fad is the same as the rest of the hypesters. Mostly B.S.

55

Hey FLong take a look at this–I think it’s related: http://www.surfysurfy.net/search/label/thumbl

56

Thanks for the link Janklow.

So both the Twin Pin and the Tube Bullet would be variations of Thumb. Their seem to be a lot of mystery about the shape though :

What exactly are the features of the board ?

What makes it work in the volume repartition ?

And of course, what can you expect of a twin fin set on this kind of board ?

Any one has an answer ?

57

all i see is that is that a thread has the name joel tudor on it

and it causes three pages of discussions… must have done something right!

58

these boards are not the only ones he’ll offer. all the super round

trashcan lid nose boards were inspired by an old Rick surfboards his buddy found in the trash

somewhere in the south bay(LA) years ago. everyone that rode that board really liked it so he thought

he’d just make different versions of it. the bullet thing is inspired by “the thumb”, which belongs to Peter SaintPierre, from moonlight. it has a bonzer bottom and the side bites are smaller than on a 3F bonzer, but bigger than the 2 back fins of a 5F bonzer.

59
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Hey FLong take a look at this–I think it’s related: http://www.surfysurfy.net/search/label/thumbl

ha ha…turn that thumb around and it would be perfect.

60
Quote:

these boards are not the only ones he’ll offer. all the super round

trashcan lid nose boards were inspired by an old Rick surfboards his buddy found in the trash

somewhere in the south bay(LA) years ago. everyone that rode that board really liked it so he thought

he’d just make different versions of it. the bullet thing is inspired by “the thumb”, which belongs to Peter SaintPierre, from moonlight. it has a bonzer bottom and the side bites are smaller than on a 3F bonzer, but bigger than the 2 back fins of a 5F bonzer.

I have had some dealings with Joel, His mom and his dad. My experience with them has been very positive. They had the opportunity to mess me up one time and instead handled the situation with honor and integrity. I have never forgotten that about them. The main thing I like about Joel is other than a talented surfer, he is just an end of the street normal young man. Exept for his comment about all surfers smoking dope. I didn’t care for that since it’s a major general statement. Not that I care either way.