So, as a matter of historical record, can anybody post credible and verifiable documentation that demonstrates the Johnson Stealth tail was designed, built and ridden by somebody else before 2007?
There is solid documentation that the Bill Johnson Stealth tail had been designed, built and ridden in early 2007. In a 2009 blog, Daniel (Tomo) Thomson claims he built his first FA-16 Afterburner tail in 2007.
C.J. Hobgood holds up the Johnson Stealth he rode to win the Lower Trestles 4-Star Jeep Body Glove surfing competition in April 2007:
Bill Johnson filed a patent application with the USPTO for his Stealth tail in May 2008:
With all of the hype about Tomo’s revolutionary technology, accusations that others have ripped-off Tomo and still others claiming Johnson copied earlier designs …
I have seen enough SIC hype. Set the record straight.
Let me set the record straight on this boring day at the office. It’s the Indian not the Arrow. Its all Bullshoot marketing hype and girls acting like 10 year olds. Better yet, perhaps the bad actors can post picks of their ding dongs…and may the biggest ding dong win.
As for CJ…you could hand him the biggest piece of crap I’ve ever shaped and glassed in my back yard and he’d still surf better than 99.995% of the surfers on this planet. He’s just that damned good. Its the Indian not the arrow.
The continent of Atlantis was an island Which lay before the great flood In the area we now call the Atlantic Ocean
So great an area of land that from her western shores Those beautiful sailors journeyed to the south And the North Americas with ease In their ships with painted sails
To them East Africa was a neighbor Across a short strait of sea miles The great Egyptian age is but a remnant of the Atlantian culture The antediluvian kings colonized the world All the Gods who play in the mythological dramas In all legends from all lands were from far Atlantis
Knowing her fate, Atlantis sent out ships To all corners of the Earth, on board were the Twelve, 'The poet, the physician, the farmer, the scientist The magician and the other so-called Gods of our legends'
Though Gods they were And as the elders of our time choose to remain blind Let us rejoice and let us sing And dance and ring in the new Hail Atlantis
Way down below the ocean where I wanna be, she may be Way down below the ocean where I wanna be, she may be Way down below the ocean where I wanna be, she may be
I would go as far to say that neither of them could laminate or sand their way out of a paper bag, and for sure they couldn’t do glass-ons let alone make their own fins; sometimes I just have to tell the truth.
LMFAO. If anyone does care, it’s that bit that Barry pointed out. The rest is bunk. I saw video of Slater surfing a door in a 3 piece suit and a piece of furniture. It was funny. Tail Wars is not funny. Like Mark Hamil bitching he wasn’t cast for the prequals.
Johnson’s tail drawing and concept: gotta appreciate hard work and creative thinking. Outside of that, chicken or the egg, which came first? No one cares in modern times. Maybe in the 80’s there was some notorioty and profit as a result of that claim to fame. Today, no one cares.
Ok I have been around a lot of shapers, really I have, and I have never seen anyone puff up the way Bill Johnson does -really. To me that’s not cool or fruitful. Probably get some hate mail or something from this but I am speaking straight on; I bet there are quite a few others who have had similar experiences with him; for Christ’s sake its just surfboards and a tail shape is only one variable of many that make a board perform well or poorly. For the sheeple its more fashion than function, and cool sells, so market perceptions often trump reality. Now that being said I pray him the best in all his endeavors.
You got one thing wrong, Tommo is the son of Mark Thompson. Mark was doing some radical build technology way back with legends like George greeno. I can tell you Tommo is very skilled and knowledgeable.
Hey Yorky, that’s cool you backed him up on this. Really what the heck do I know about Tomo other than he rips and his boards look different than most. I like his stuff and I have only met him in passing over here at the sacred craft type stuff. I wish him nothing but success, and don’t have an ax to grind with him. I hope your doing well and probably should not be so sensational just to promote discussion. Having a dad to show you the ropes takes years off the learning curve, at least I know that part.
You are right on that one Stoney. Since you haven’t built a board yet, I would have to be clairvoyant to know what you are planning. And since you haven’t shaped a board yet, you would have to be clairvoyant to know what it is like to shape and glass a board.
Really, you make this too easy.
And I know, you did shape a board once, twenty years ago while living in Texas…
I do believe there can be a performance advantage to a properly shaped angular tail design. It does not necessarily need to be angular to incorporate the specific fluid dyanamics aspects though. But as I said previously, I do believe using angles in place of curves would make it much easier to shape precisely.
My original inspiration was the retro fish tail My first generation design was all curves with no deep-V ass-crack. I continued to evolve from there …
With all this Johnson-Tomo hype, turf wars, and the zealots; I would be a fool to post it and be accused of plagiarism for a denovo design concept. Who needs multiple urine showers – not I.
