They say everyone has a story to tell…
Well these three guys definitely fit the bill…
Interesting stuff
Important stuff
sorry about the long read
but at least it’s all here, no links…
Cort Gion
Cort Gion -To Kiss the Sand
by Joseph Grassadonia
This article appeared in Ocean Sports International Magazine, 1984.
Big wave riders are an incredible breed of mankind. They are lion hearts of the sea. Out of billions of people in the world, only these few come and challenge the big wave. They take it on, one on one. Some die with heads split open from hitting the reef, some drown in the merciless rips, some quit.
And then there are those who never cease to attack: they charge heavily when the glory wave is staring them in the face. They go and they don’t back down.
The Big waves bring out a man’s true colors: they show him for what he is, courageous or fearful, cruel or compassionate. They take great risks, with each monster curl putting their lives on the edge. Injury is part of the game and everyone pay their dues. Why do they do it? There is more to them than can be explained.
In the following interview you will meet a genuine lion heart of the sea, Cort Gion. After 10 years of shaping in Santa Cruz, under the wing of the best shapers of that era, at the age of 20 ventured to the North Shore of Hawaii, determined to master the biggest waves in the world and make his mark in surfing history. And make his mark he did. After seven years on the North Shore, Cort Gion is a respected big wave rider and one of the leaders of the new breed of international surfboard designers.
Cort Gion is an incredible person in an incredible business¡ªshaping surfboards for those daring young men who want to ride the biggest, gnarliest waves in existence. His customers come from all over the world and with each surfboard, with each client he takes a special responsibility to design a piece of equipment that performs and meets that special challenge.
In this interview Cort reflects on his impressions and feelings living and shaping on the North Shore. He talks of courage and fear, life and death, cruelty and compassion, and of dreams. Cort spoke of those individuals who dream all their lives about the “glory wave”, the hero wave everyone would like to have, but only a few have the courage to take.
The interview shows Cort Gion’s colors too: it shows his inner strength and nobleness, his compassion and love for his friends, and his great admirations and respect for the local Hawaiians. He talks of spirituality and how there is more to a big wave rider than can be explained. . .and he so well describes the life and death struggle of man vs. sea everytime he rides a big wave. We talk of surfboard design and who has helped and influenced him the most.
Cort Gion is an attacker, he charges heavily. . .and when the big wave comes, when the glory wave is staring him in the face, he takes it on, one on one, he goes!
I know you will enjoy reading this interview as much as I have enjoyed writing it. --J.G.
S&OS: What do you believe is the reason for your success?
CG: I’m just building guys good boards and surfing as hard as I can. Surfing is an athletic skill, like basket-ball, football or golf: there is a right way to use a club, there is a right way to stand on your board and there is a wrong way. There is a right way to do every turn and every cutback in every position of the wave. You just have to use every one of those for you. I’ve been shaping a lot of boards for a lot of guys and they keep coming back, and in return they bring their friends and it’s like a snowball. You do your best job for everybody. If you’re not in the mood for doing it you’re not going to do a good job. If it feels like work then it will be work. ]
S&OS: How do you keep it inspiring!
CG: When you feel like creating something, you go to the shaping room and create. You are inspired and your friends are inspired. I have a lot of great friends, great surfers, people from my hometown who inspire me, and people from all over the world who inspire me. You see your best friends going out there on the biggest, gnarliest waves in the world. You don’t want to be responsible for them getting hurt. You have to make the best board you can so that they are going to have the best chance of surviving the situation and dealing with it as best they can. You have to be consistent, so when you’re not in the mood you have to tell them, “Hey, I’m not going to be able to build you the board you want out of this blank,” or “It’s not in this piece of foam.” It’s the same with surfing, when you’re not in the mood for surfing or you don’t feel healthy enough to make the swim-in on a 15-foot day you don’t go out there and subject yourself to it. You go out there when you feel on. . . and you ride to the best of your ability all the way to the end and you make yourself look as good as possible all the way to the beach. Do the best you can for your friends, and they will in turn help you.
S&OS: When did you start shaping?
CG: When I was 10 years old I shaped my first board. And then when I was 12 through 14 I was shaping all my friends’ boards, reshaping, all kinds of stuff¡ªanything. I was getting a new board every week.
S&OS: Who influenced you?
CG: There were a lot of different people. The first people I dealt with were Tom Hoyle, Mark Angell and Doug Haut. We were good friends. Mike Croteau, he was a character and kind of a wild guy. They treated me well. Even though they would always raz me and give me a hard time, they always gave me a feeling. They were trying to help me, too.
S&OS: Now you have a great following. Who is influencing you most now?
CG: That is hard to say. Mostly my riders. A few years ago I got a lot of direction from Mike Diffenderfer. I was always stoked on Gerry Lopez’ boards. And there were always Dick Brewer’s boards. I’ve picked up a lot of little things from all of their boards. “Diff” taught me a lot about being a craftsman and dealing with being a person. He helped me a lot and taught me a lot about wood boards. Now I look at all the shapers who watch me, like Don Johnston, Brian Bulkley and Chris Lundy. I like Dennis Pang’s boards. Brewer is going strong right now. He has made a hell of a comeback. I’ve influenced him. He was making wide noses and less rocker… and I told him, “hey, three fins can handle more vee, more rocker, more curve because you’re going up and down in the curves of the waves.” He changed his templates and now his boards look the most like mine.
S&OS: When did you decide to make the North Shore home?
CG: I was 17. I slept on the beach in Haliewa, slept in the YMCA in town and came with a couple of friend and none of us had anywhere to stay and I didn’t know anybody here at all. I met up with the Heitman: from the West Side of Santa Cruz and they gave me a place to shape at Pipeline. Finally I grew into that and I took over the shaping room. I had the shaping room for seven years right on the beach, at Eukhi Beach park right in front of Pipeline. I got to see Gerry shape in my shop. . .Rory and Owl. The energy was right there. You had Tom Stone, Jackie Dunn, and you’d go surf Pipe. I got to meet all the heavies. Ryan Dotson influenced me. Everybody had their different boards they were stoked on and everyone was trying to show me a different thing. The glassers were showing me things too. That is when I decided to stay.
S&OS: How dangerous is Pipeline?
CG: I’ve seen guys die as I was walking out of my shaping room. . . heard sirens and seen guys dying, receiving their last rites with their heads split from temple to temple. From one end of the skull to the other from hitting the bottom at Pipe.
S&OS: What motivates these men to take the risks they do!
CG: A lot of them. . . it’s in them already. They come here and they’ve dreamt about it all their lives and they are going to go out there and do it. They want to get the best boards they can and they want to go out there and put down their act. A lot of guys try and try and they get hurt a lot and they never get good boards, and when they finally get good boards then they start coming on. Like Bruce Hansel, an incredible big wave attacker at the Pipe and Waimea. He charges heavily, whether it’s second reef or wherever When the big one comes he’s just attacking and not letting it go. When the small ones come it doesn’t really matter to him but when the 15-footer is staring him in the face and it’s the glory wave, he’s gone. He’s my airbrusher. He influences me a lot.
S&OS: How would you describe the “glory wave?”
CG: It’s the wave everybody wants. It’s the killer wave and a lot of people don’t want it but most would like to have it and a lot of guys will sit out there for an hour waiting in that spot and knowing one is going to come. You’ve seen that same kind of wave coming through that spot and you go there and sit and maybe it is in some kind of territory you’ve never been in your life. It will come and finally you’ll catch yourself one. You put it together and you’re saying, “Wow! This is the heaviest!” but you planned it out ahead of time. You saw it and you watched that wave come through. All spots have different waves that come to different parts of the reef and have different characters. It is which kind you want to sit and wait for. Maybe you want to wait for the inside reef hollow kind or maybe an outside bowler that wedges together with two bowl that goes all the way through. You know where that spot is and you know what your chances are to hang in that spot. If you get lucky you can hang in there without getting cleaned up, and get that one. That is the unreal wave.
S&OS: How scared do you get?
CG: I rarely surf big Pipeline. Pipeline scares the shit out of me. I’ll surf big Sunset, I’ll surf closeout Sunset. I’ve been worked at Sunset where I never thought I would get to the beach but I got to the beach and kissed the sand. I’ve done the same at Pipeline. I’d rather surf Waimea than Pipeline because I’m regular foot and I can deal with the deep channel and paddle out better. It’s heavy at Pipeline¡ªit is shallow and quick and you just have to be right on. Everyone who has been here before the cord era has had to swim in on big waves and they know what it is like to get caught in the rip and take you 15 to 20 minutes to swim in.
S&OS: What is it like!
CG: You paddle over 13 waves, then come to one that has already broke in front of you so you just have to throw your board away. It takes you a long time to swim in, and by the time you swim in your board is that far back out again, going out in some rip outside of some other break and you have to swim out there and try and get it, then you get cleaned-up in the other break, then you have to swim back in again and try and retrieve your board again and by that time . . .Jeez. . .a couple hours have gone and you’re just thrashed. You feel like Silly Putty. That is a bad feeling, when you’ve submerged in the water up to your neck and your lungs don’t inflate with the full amount of air so you’re only getting so much oxygen. You start feeling like you’re “Gumby” or something. And there are 10 more [waves] that are sucking you right back in the line-up and throwing you right back into the impact zone, and you chowder again. After a few of those after a severe wipeout you’re hating!
S&OS:: Is there a way to avoid this?
CG: The best thing is to jump the first wave and go for a ride¡ªjust jump into that white water, so you’ve taken one bad wipeout instead of 10 bad ones. By that time you are so far inside that you pop-up and it is easier to deal with it. But if you just keep sitting there and keep ducking under it then you’re just going to sit in the same spot and keep getting worked and the more times you dive under the less air you’re going to have. It is a hard thing to tell yourself but you know from experience: “Stay on the surface and let this one take me.” My friend Doug “Roach” Brown, who has gotten a lot of pictures in the magazines on big waves and rides my boards, turned me on to that. He said, “Man, go for the ride,” and he would come in after a 15-footer and say, “Man, what a hell of a ride. The best ride I had all day. Took me for a ride I’ll never forget.”
S&OS: Do you use a cord?
CG: Cords help too. People don’t have to swim as much. Guys can ride Sunset with cords where they never could before. Wear a 12-foot cord and throw your board away. You can ride some mean barrels when you wear cords. When you get caught inside in the reef and it’s shallow, you just hang on to your cord and you get back on your board after the set is through and paddle back out. You’re pulling it off because you have your cord. Cords are a bummer for crowds and people letting their boards go and all that, but they do have their advantages.
S&OS: How many fatalities are caused by cords?
CG: Not too many. Cords save a lot of guys. Baron Spafford got saved because he had a cord out at Sunset. He got hit by his board. One of my friends, Steve Colburn, was paddling out there and he saw this surfboard dangling, going around in circles on its tail-block at the end of a cord. He paddled over to it and pulled the cord up. He told me it was like a nightmare movie. He pulled the thing up and here comes a face out of the water: Baron Spafford. He drowned. If it hadn’t been for the cord he would sink. Just like Beaver in the Pipe Masters this year¡ªthey pulled him up at the end of his cord too. And there is Bill Taylor, the “Professor”, saved a Brazilian guy last year at Rocky Point. He pulled him up by his mug out of the water. I know cords, guys flailing with them and they bounce back and hit them in their heads. But you can use cords wisely too. Stay under when you hear it land. You know what kind of maneuver you did. If your board is going up in the air or if it is coming straight at you stay under an extra few seconds or whatever. It is all being smart. If you think more in these days, instead of cruising all the way to the beach, that makes it better, because it will be more fun.
S&OS: What kind of a board do you shape for a big wave!
CG: It depends on where it is. At Pipeline you’re going to make more of a pintail and at Sunset you’re going to make more of a thicker, more full rail and softer in the middle part of the board, something that goes through the chop really well, with a steeper rail. At Pipeline you’re going to make something thinner, sleeker, narrower, lighter, more vee, something with a really tight tail that slides into the tube, because the wave has such a clean face. Something that is quicker, something that snaps quicker. At Sunset you want something that can handle all that push behind it. . . where you have a lot of face to cover. At Waimea¡ª that is a whole other story. Guys are riding thrusters on the smaller waves but all the bigger waves are all ridden on big single fins. . .from nine-foot to 12-foot boards. I have a 9’6". My roommate has a 9’6" that kills it out there.
S&OS: Who are the killer big wave riders¡ªthe watermen of the 80’s?
CG: Kent “Python” Bright. James “Booby” Jones is probably the best. He gets in the tube out there. There are the ever present guys like Gary Speece. He comes over in the morning, “Alright,” gets us out of bed, and you look out the window and the horizon is going off and you are going, “Oh shit, here we go.” Our eyes are barely open and we’re getting amped up and we grab our boards and you never know what you may have to deal with. There are guys like Steve “Beaver” Massafeller, Roger Erikson, there is always Bradshaw and “Adam-12” and Greg Bonner from Santa Cruz does a really good job in the big ones. Richard Schmidt made his debut. He was incredible. A lot of people were super impressed. Richard Gilette from Santa Cruz does really well out there too. Paul Dunn and Jimmy Richards do really well at big Pipe and Bruce Hansel does too. There are old guys like Ricky Grigg who come out there [at Waimea] and charge huge ones. Mike Miller, Mike Taylor. . .they just come out of the woodwork and charge the huge ones. Flippy Hoffiman goes out there. Flippy and those guys ride boats and big boards out to the cloud breaks and get towed-in by boats, like at Avalanche and Kaenea Point. Don “The Bear” Wert goes out there. . . and David Kahanamoko.
S&OS: What board designs do you use for smaller waves?
CG: Everything up to Waimea you ride thrusters. A couple years ago I experimented with four or five fins but found three fins are more predictable. So now we are sticking with three fins.
S&OS: What kind of waves do you generally like to ride!
CG: If it is closing out at Waimea I’m generally not out there. Sometimes Waimea can close out on smaller days and the biggest I’ve ever been out in is 25 feet last year when a guy drowned. I was out there for about an hour and a half and the river broke through and there was a heavy rip. And when I was trying to get in, and the river broke through I had to stroke over waves and scratch away from the point on a West Swell for about an hour and finally I caught myself the biggest wave I ever caught. I don’t know how big it was. It took me all the way to the other side of the bay. It scared the shit out of me. I was stoked to get that one wave and get the hell out of there. I had to paddle across the inside and a bunch of big soup came and washed me in and I couldn’t roll it or anything, so I just put my back to it. I had my 9’6" and tried to go with it. I washed right up over the shorebreak, right onto the sand on my stomach. . . just rode it right to the beach. I was so stoked to get to the beach. I don’t know how I pulled it off.
S&OS: What suggestions can you give to young shapers breaking into the business?
CG: Study your boards and feel them as much as he can under his feet. Look at them a lot and try and understand exactly what each one is doing. What makes boards do what they do. It is hard to tell someone to hang in there because there is going to be a lot of ups and downs, you get criticism from all angles. Everyone has something to say. Opinions are a dime a dozen. They are the cheapest commodity on earth. Everyone has an opinion and you only have one set of arms, hands, and you can only shape so many boards. And if you get shitty blanks there is no possible way you’re going to make something good out of it. Something that doesn’t have any curve in it, and you put a nice outline on it, nice rails, but you still didn’t get the bottom curve and the foil you wanted because it wasn’t there to begin with. People will take you apart for it. So you’ve constantly getting rapped and picked at so you just have to hang in there. Know where you’re at and what you’re capable of and what you want to make, and you make that board for yourself or your friends; you make that magic board.
S&OS: Is surfing an art form or a sport?
CG: It is both. There is a time and a place for each. When I compete, surfing is a sport, and there are times when it is a sport when I am practicing. We have our own little heats out here in the backyard and someone will sit on the beach and judge and leave a little head sheet on the table. Someone will come in and there are all these markings written down. That is the sport. When surfing becomes an artform, when you’re carving some archs and feeling free and you’re not thinking about practicing your maneuver over and over. You’re going through that maneuver and it’s not time to practice it anymore, it is time to just let it flow. That is when it becomes art.
S&OS: Do you think surfing has a good image?
CG: I think surfing’s image is getting better and better. There are more and more people respecting surfing as a whole. If you travel to other countries like Australia, for instance, you see it is a natural sport there and it is as big as any other sport anywhere. And if you go into the restaurants they know everything about all the surfers and all the competitions and they can tell you more than you know. That makes it respectable. People feel it is a competitive sport. But, there is a lot to surfing. There are the colors of the ocean, the reflections of the sun, the different textures of the water, the different crowds, the different times, the different swell directions. . . all that makes surfing interesting.
S&OS: It sounds like surfing is spiritual for you?
CG: Oh yeah. And for a lot of people who I know. . . most the people I know. Anyone who stays in surfing for any length of time has something more to them than can be explained.
S&OS: Why do you think so many surfers are spiritual?
CG: These day a lot of surfers are Christians and want to lead a better life. Guys are more healthy. The more in shape you are the more healthy you are and the more in tune you are, as a general rule. Some surfers lead the derelict life. They still go out, and they may not be as consistent but they keep coming back year after year. They are dedicated to it. There’s guys who live clean lives and power every day, but are afraid and don’t put themselves on the line ever. Then there are guys who are total derelicts who come out of the woodwork after a heavy bender and put themselves out in the water that no one else wants to touch, and they get a 15-foot barrel and get spit and everyone just goes, “Jeez,” where did chat guy come from?
S&OS: How do you feel about the heavy commercialism of surfing?
CG: There is a lot more sponsorship these days so a lot of these guys are pushing it real hard in the surf. When they are sponsored they don’t have to worry about having good jobs. Their sponsors are paying for things that other guys would have to clutch at and scratch at tooth and nail to get. There is a lot more money in surfing than there ever was, and it is good to promote the sport. It helps the sport. All the money comes through in the big circle. The evolution. A lot of people are afraid of the evolution. They want to stick in the nostalgia and everything. But everyone has to grow. This is 1984, last year was 1983, and next year is '85. We all get older every year and everything changes, our music changes. . .you have got to be able to not just stop. You have to be able to just keep evolving, and that is where the sport has to go, and in a positive way.
S&OS: Does most everyone here feel this way?
CG: It is a general rule that everyone is stoked. Every sport get covered except surfing. All the surfers want to see their sport too. It is like downhill skiing or slalom or trick skiing, anything like that you see on television. Even the triathlons and all these strange things that people do. . .but you might see 20 different sports in a row and you don’t see surfing because nobody focuses on it. But it is a sport. There are as many people into surfing as many sports in the world (tobagganing, badminton). Some people get bummed-out because there are too many contests, but it is all regulated now. You only get so many permits per each beach each year. So there are only so many contests and they can only have so much time to do them and if they do not do them it doesn’t come off.
S&OS: Do you think pro surfers should unionize?
CG: I don’t know. Maybe the builders should. I don’t know. I think maybe it should remain individualistic. There are too many small sponsors who are just lucky enough to get their noses in the door. To have surfing unionized a lot of these guys are going to be left out, because they do not have enough clout to get into that. It is just going to hurt the small people and help all the people and businesses that are already established and already big time. All the little people are going to be fighting at the door and they are going to be knocking, and no one is ever going to open up to them.
S&OS: The North Shore is built on respect. . .
CG: Humility.
S&OS: What kind of respect do you have or feel you have here?
CG: I’m just another surfer in the water. You are what you are to other people. It you’re an asshole to other people or if you treat people in a bad way they are going to treat you the same. If you try and do everybody right they are going to respect you. If you go out and do your best and you are out there with your buddies and you all get cleaned up together and all 15 of you swim in together to the beach, that brings a little camaraderie to you. When you live in harmony with other people and you try and help and flow with the style and not try and push a bunch of stuff on everyone and push a bunch of change on everyone dramatically and just try your best, people are going to respect you for it. When you neglect yourself you neglect the people around you and you neglect your reputation. When you respect yourself, other people will respect you. There is violence and all that. Those people walk right into it. They come over here to be the arrogant her surfer from “no name beach”, to go to Kodak reef and be the star. There is already a pecking order there every day of the week when it breaks. And if they try and break into that it is going to take them a long time. If someone comes and puts their nose in there and they try and find a high spot in the hierarchy, in the pecking order, they get shut down. They find opposition. They find it on the beach picking up on people’s girls or whatever. There are a lot of little things you do not do.
S&OS: What kind of person is Cort Gion!
CG: You ask me, "Why I have my reputation and why I get my following. It’s because I can deal with people on a realistic level instead of trying to push a bunch of realistic BS on them. I tell them what I have learned. All my experience is where I’m at. Every day I go surfing I feel little differences and all the feelings with different people has shaped the kind of person I am.
Ned McMahon
Homeblown
Ned MacMahon is one of the men behind the Eden Project¡¯s award winning ¡°eco board.¡± He is the General Manager for Homeblown US, a company manufacturing polyester blanks using the less environmentally damaging MDI (Diphenylmethane di-isocyanate) foam. In their environmental statement, Homeblown states that they use a ¡°chemistry that mimics the best characteristics of our competitors, without breaching too fundamentally our environmental concerns in a tortuous balance of the environment and commerce¡¡± It is interesting to see a company that must struggle with their own environmental ethics and the reality of making a successful product while trying to achieve a measure of success. It is a fundamental question that the surfing collective must also ask itself.
Aside from being a business man, Ned is first and foremost a shaper. His shaping roots go way back and he has worked with some of today¡¯s most revered craftsmen. Ned is also a writer whose contributions can be seen on Wetsand and The Surfer¡¯s Path - we have actually referenced his work here on Phoresia on previous posts as well. In his interview Ned talks about shaping, the surf industry and the future of shaping.
We welcome your feedback and comments, as dialog is essential for change.
Ned MacMahon Interview:
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Q. How long have you been shaping surfboards? Can you tell us a little about the progression and your inspiration?First I want to say thanks for allowing me to share some thoughts and ideas with you and your readers. It is truly an honor to be heard.I have been shaping professionally since about 1976 when I returned from my first trip to Hawaii. I needed more boards than I could afford so Courtney Parks of Ocean Magic let me make a board, coached me a little, and when the boards started to look OK he gave me my first job shaping. Shortly after, I went to work at Sunset Surfboards in Encinitas. It was perfect timing because with as any craft practice is essential. 1978 was the first Japanese boom for the surf market. Where surf factories would be busy in the summer and usually found other work in the winter, now with a Japanese order for 1000 that kept us going all year. It was great too because it would be 10- 5¡ä8¡ås, 10- 5¡ä10¡ås, etc. That was when I really felt I became a shaper.Blanks were terrible then too ¨C we were making 5¡ä8¡ås out of a thick 6¡ä9¡å blank so you really had to learn to shape rocker and foil from a bit of a blob. I got inspired by just the beauty of the process of shaping ¨C the art form ¨C a white block of foam, dark walls, the side lighting ¨C when you stand back and look at a finished shape on the rack it is truly beautiful. All the compound curves working together were awesome.Throughout the years I have been very fortunate and have worked with some great surfers and shapers. When I worked at T&C Ben Aipa was an inspiration. He was so meticulous. He and I would usually be the first ones to work at about 6am and the first thing he would do was to walk through the shop and check everyone of his boards. He would leave tape on the boards with notes regarding air in the lams, or not the right edge in the sanding. I thought it was really great that he cared and watched all the way through. Tom Eberly was another guy I learned a lot from. I only worked with him a short while at Lightning Bolt but he knew how build boards all the way through. He could do any job in the shop and he could do it better than the guys working at it day in and day out.
There was a guy named Sid Madden ¨C he had a reputation as someone that was a bit out there ¨C and I worked with Sid a bit and one thing stands out. Back in the 70¡¯s the boards were all quite thick with really full ¡°Brewer¡± rails. Sid started tapering his rails really thin and said I should try it. The thin-railed boards worked great in the smooth California surf. One day I was off to surf some points up north, Rincon and beyond. Sid said stop in and see my friend Al Merrick in Santa Barbara. I did, Al was in the back of his shop in the shaping room and then after talking a while Al asked to see one of my boards. I was quite proud of this new 7¡ä3¡å I had just made. When he saw the board Al just laughed and said that it was way too thin, thin rails will never work, Sid is crazy. I think Sid was perhaps just a little ahead of his time.
Finally, I¡¯ll make a comment about shapers in an interview with Randy Rarick. He was asked to define what a good shaper was and his answer was one that could shape a short twin fin, gun, shortboard, and longboard all in the same day and have them all come out nice. Since then I have always wanted to shape anything that has come my way and I¡¯ve shaped everything from bodyboards to tandem boards and done so in just about every material possible.
As for the surfers, I have had the honor to make boards for guys like Gerlach back in the 70s to Sunny, JBG, Bruce and Andy Irons, and many more. It is just as much an honor for me shape boards for my brothers or my friends ¨C some of whom now have their kids also riding my shapes. Friends like Donny McQuiston are an inspiration because at almost 50 and all the responsibilities that go along with family and running a business, he still surfs a 6¡ä5¡å, he still rips, he still finds time to go to Indo for a couple of weeks a year, and usually a trip Kauai each winter too!
Q. You mentioned in your essay Wake Up in The Surfer¡¯s Path the idea that there is a ¡°soul¡± connection arising from a board being manufactured by someone who actually surfs. I wonder how many consumers out there know what processes are involved in the manufacturing of boards in Asia?
¡°Soul¡± ¨C surfers often use this term as a qualifier as in this guy has soul or this shaper lacks soul because he uses a machine, etc. Through the years I¡¯ve come up with my own idea of soul particularly since surfboards have become closer to a commodity.
Surfing and surfboards are magic. There is no quantifiable measurement that can be used. The experience is totally personal ¨C and that¡¯s the magic. Everything else in the world can be measured, tested, declared one better that the other, new and improved, etc. Surfing is the only thing that can¡¯t, a fact that is easily proved by going surfing on your ¡°magic¡± board while your friend is surfing his ¡°magic¡± board. You¡¯re both catching waves having a great time. Now switch boards ¨C the magic is gone. Surfing is that personal.
All shapes work, all designs work ¨C yes, some generally work better than others (really just feel different not work better or worse). Retro twin fins with box rails or hi-performance longboards that are only 2 1⁄2¡å thick ¨C which one is better? That is the magic!
Once you accept the fact that surfing is magic then you can accept that there is soul. For me soul is not whether you use a shaping machine or not but soul is who and how that tool is being used. For example, a machine that cuts 10- 6¡ä1¡å squash tails for a non-shaper to simply smooth the grooves ¨C not too much soul there. !0- 6¡ä1¡ås that Merrick will shape for a team rider to squeak out a bit more performance is using a tool correctly. But the best part is the magic still exists because even those supposedly identical 6¡ä1¡å Merrick¡¯s won¡¯t all feel the same.
Further, as the surfboard reaches the point of commodity (which can never be allowed to happen) people and places that have no connection with the ocean or surfing have started to make boards. This is where the issue of ¡°soul¡± really comes into play. So my definition of soul has evolved into the level of connection.
Where there is a close connection between the surfboard builder and the ultimate consumer, soul exists. When there is a disconnect between surfboard builder and the ultimate consumer, no soul exists. Where a guy in China is making surfboards in a place away from the sea and he has never had the experience of surfing or possibly never even seen the sea himself, there is no soul. This is not a knock on the individuals in the shop making the boards. The skills of surfboard making can be learned by anyone but the feeling of surfboard making is something that only comes from years of experience playing in the ocean.
Q. Many blank manufacturers have moved out of the United States to avoid environmental laws. So now the problem is simply being moved to another place, out of our backyard, but into someone else¡¯s front yard as it were. What do you think is our responsibility as surfers to the global community?
Blank manufacturing moving out of the US isn¡¯t really the issue. Yes they can get around some EPA issues but the bigger problem is time is up. The time is now for us to do something that is thoughtful, sustainable, and good business. Any surfer that is regularly playing in the ocean wants our sea and beaches clean yet we all use a toxic piece of plastic to do so.
We at Homeblown are making MDI foam. It is more difficult, it is a little more expensive but it is cleaner for the workers in the shop and it is cleaner for the local environment than the status quo of TDI foam. MDI is not the answer but it is a step in the right direction. At Homeblown, we are continually pursuing environmentally responsible alternatives in surfboard construction. We have diligently been working on a type of foam that is about 50% plant based material. We don¡¯t want it to go out to the market until we feel it is at least as good as other foam blanks. We are very close but not quite there yet.
Surfers actually must step up and be the leaders in the ocean environmental movement. So many companies, selling so many products from all areas of business, use surfing as an image but we must collectively hold these companies that use our image of surfing accountable. Yet we can¡¯t hold anyone accountable unless we first do it ourselves.
Q. What is your definition of sustainability as it relates to the surfing industry?
I read what Tom Wegner said about sustainability and I agree that respect is the first part of the definition ¨C in fact starting with respect in many areas may help solve many of the world¡¯s issues. Tom goes on to say that the board should last a long time and perhaps that is true. This is where I differ a bit. Surfers want to get new boards and try new designs. It is fun and it is what helps things grow. I just think the key is to give back and equal amount to what you use or take.
Recently my partners from the UK traveled to San Diego for our open house. For their travels they all made contributions to areas that offset the carbon footprint of their travel. Since we are not there yet with clean surfboards there are other ways to make up for that so that sustainability becomes a part of everyday life as I know it is for Tom Wegener.
Q. You mentioned before that natural color foam, without the ingredients to make it white, is stronger and lighter than it¡¯s whiter counterpart. What can be done to change the aesthetic of surfing so that something as simple as color does not dictate or sacrifice the durability of surfboards?
We could make our MDI foam better, cleaner, lighter, stronger and less expensive if we didn¡¯t have to add the ingredients to the formulation that make it white which the present consumer demands. The ship of surfboard trends is turned very slowly and can¡¯t happen all at once. We recent built a board of plant based foam, hemp cloth, and plant based resin. It produced a usable, sustainable surfboard but didn¡¯t quite match up to what a consumer would expect from a new board. We have decided to simply focus on one thing at a time. We will get the foam right first. Then we can work on alternative skins, then finally the resin. This may take a few years. All of the natural components will be of a straw color. All of this white that we have gotten used to is a result of color additives, enhancers or bleaching. The natural versions are stronger and lighter and for surf blanks even less expensive. I think slowly that the straw color will creep into the market and over time it will win.
Q. Home Blown is providing products to both professional shapers and home shapers. Where do you see the craftsmanship tradition headed in the next few years? Do think that surfers will continue experimenting with their own creations more and more?
The process of shaping by hand or otherwise a foam core is a great way to make surfboards. I don¡¯t think we need to change the way shapers go about their craft. Foam and fiberglass allows for ultimate customization and surfers and shapers will continue to experiment as well as the next generation needing to experience what we already have done such as the resurgence in the fish.
As for where the craftsmanship is heading? The main thing that happened as a result of Clark shutting down is that all this peripheral technology has had a chance to come to the forefront. The molded boards have been lead by Surftech, then we have hollow carbon, EPS, parabolic stringers, and on and on. Some technologies are just not suited to a varied high volume process, some like EPS have other issues like epoxy allergies to deal with. By the way, polystyrene has been around since WWII and has been used from time to time throughout the years. Polystyrene is not enough of a new step in the right direction to have any real significant change in the way surfboards are made. The molded boards have other issues. Although they appear very strong initially, when the do get damaged the damage seems to be catastrophic. The worst things about the molded boards are that a certain model can look the same. It¡¯s like wearing a cool shirt to a party only to find your friend wearing the same shirt. I don¡¯t want to be at the beach when another surfer comes walking up with the exact same board ¨C length, width, fins, color, everything!.
Q. Thanks for taking the time to talk to us. Any final thoughts you¡¯d like to leave us with?
We are at a crossroads for surfboards and the environment. We need to be mindful of cleaning up the mess we made over the past century. I don¡¯t look back and feel bad about it ¨C it got us a lot of great things we have today. Progress has happened and now its time to clean up. We are doing our best everyday to do our small part and I hope others join us.
More importantly for surfboard craftsmen though is the idea of surfing having reached a point of acceptance in general that will lead to a surfboard being a commodity. As I mentioned before, surfing and surfboards are magic. It is the only truly individual experience. I don¡¯t want to see all the craftsmen that have dedicated their lives to making surfboards because of a love of the artistic process and the love of the surfing experience, lose that livelihood to an Asian factory where there is no connection between the maker and ultimate user ¨C this makes the surfboard just another widget and it certainly is devoid of soul.
Tom Wegener
Tom Wegener Interview
If you have seen Tom Wegener in Siestas & Olas you¡¯ll know that he surfs some heavy waves on huge boards. Tom is a respected surfer and has inspired the likes of Joel Tudor and countless others with his classic style. But Tom is also a master shaper and designer. His design philosophy and choice in materials has been causing a stir in the surfing world. Tom took a few minutes of his time to talk with Phoresia.org about Permaculture, sustainability, and the essence of the surfing experience. Be sure to check out Tom¡¯s articles on design and history at Wegener Surfboards.
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Q. When I saw you mulching your trees with the shavings from your shaping room in the movie Sprout I immediately made a connection with Permaculture. Has living in Australia, the birthplace of Permaculture, inspired your work?
The Permaculture crew around here is big and they are amazing! We are slowly transforming our property into a micro farm and looking to them for guidance. I grew up in Los Angeles and had little contact with the land. Now I have the opportunity to see how things grow and the immense difference working in tune with the land makes.
This is sort of a crazy example, but a hippie lives near and he helps me choose where to plant the trees. He can feel the underground water movement, (and I can too with a bent piece of metal wire) and he teaches me how to plant or build things in accordance to them. If you ask the earth where to plant a tree it will tell you.
Living in harmony with these forces of nature, though invisible to the eye, has proven to me to make a difference to the plants and to us. I am just beginning to learn and there really is a lot to learn! Many things like the above example seem really trippy to me. Also, living that way takes a mighty effort and is a never ending job. But it appears that the rewards are worth the effort.
Q. Sustainability is a tricky word. It can be seen in all types of publications these days and often the meaning is blurred. What does sustainability mean to you and how do you think it can be applied to the general surf industry?
I think of respect as being almost synonymous with sustainability. If you respect something you do not squander or neglect it.
For years I was a team rider for Donald Takayama. I would get a brand new surfboard andI would want to keep it forever. But, by the time I got tuned into a new board, it would start getting stress fractures and the deck would start caving in. I respect Takayama¡¯s shapes so much that I thought it was criminal that the board would deteriorate. The Clark Foam era of surfboards was at a low point in surf history and the ultimate in un-sustainability. When a master craftsman makes something it should last a long time.
The key part of sustainability for surfboards seems more toward making a board that will last as well as surf very well.
Q. Surfing can be done on any type of board ¨Cwhether prone, or standing, or on your knees, or even without a board at all. The feeling of being on a wave is what moves us internally and keeps most us coming back to it. The lifestyle and fashion and type of surfboard that we use seems to be more motivated by industry than by the inherent act of surfing. Do you think that the act of surfing has become overly commercialized? Do you see a future where the act is more important than the things that come with it?
I think surfing has been over commercialized for a long time. It seems odd that surfers like to think of themselves as rebellious, however, it seems obvious that it is a very conformist culture. I have always experimented with different equipment and I have copped an amazing amount of flack from people doing the ¡°in¡± thing. I remember reading Sam George in Surfer Magazine ranting against the growing popularity of longboarding in the late 1980s. I was just amazed. At that time I was longboarding virtually empty Malibu, San Onofre and Cardiff Reef on vintage longboards that I bought for basically spare change.
In a way, the tight conformity of the masses offers great opportunities to surf empty surf that they are not interested in. I have been riding longboards from 12 to 18 feet this year and having a great time in surf that is out of bounds for normal surfing. Also, the Alaia opens lots of great waves that are not much fun on finned boards. I enjoy surfing in crowds, but I have to balance it with long, soul searching sessions by myself. The different boards offer a balance.
J. Paul Getty said that the only time he was truly happy was when he was playing in the surf as a kid. Just playing in the surf is so much fun. The whole obsession with equipment doesn¡¯t seem to add much to enjoyment. I love my little slabs of wood to help me angle across a wave (The Alaia).
Q. I think many of us are quite unfamiliar with wooden surfboards. I myself have never ridden one, and the only type I¡¯ve seen are the solid balsa longboards. Do you think that in the future wooden boards will play a larger role in the industry?
Wood is here to stay. First, it gives a great feeling when on the wave. You just have to experience it. Second, there are lots of ways to make wood boards inexpensively in your garage. I am seeing a quiet revolution happening where lots of people are going back to making their own equipment.
Back to how conservative surfers are, it was gospel that balsa and redwood were the only wood for surfboards. This stifled wood board design since the 1960s. I now know there are lots of other woods. The Paulownia I use is the best that I have found, but there may be even better woods.
I think the next jump in the wood board revolution will be when the garage wood board builders get better at joining the wood together and make them water tight so they do not have to be glassed. Glassing is such a bummer. Oiled wood moves through the water better and the glass is just dead weight on the board. My solid Alaia boards are just oiled and they feel great! I have pursued the un-glassed hollow board now for a year and I have made seven of them. There are some problems and I am constantly working out the bugs. Soon I will be making a DVD with a few different approaches to making these boards.
Q. You have been an inspiration for us here at phoresia.org. I think that maybe you inspire many people who are seeking to simplify what surfing means to them. Any words of wisdom that you¡¯d like to leave us with?
Try an Alaia!!! Just get a piece of plywood or glue together some fence posts and give the ancient style a chance.
Nainoa Thompson
Nainoa Thompson: Wayfinder for his people
By Diane Ako
The first day of winter arrives to find Nainoa Thompson at the helm of his boat, plodding through mildly choppy waters of Maunalua Bay in Hawaii Kai. The day is clear and sunny, but in the distance, towering cirrus clouds warn of an approaching storm.
¡°See that grey patch?¡± Nainoa points out. ¡°The winds will blow the rain squall this way in about an hour.¡± He smiles. This is his favorite time of year: not any particular season itself, but rather, the changing of seasons.
Fifty-two year old Nainoa is a handsome mix of almost-half Hawaiian, the other half a blend of Chinese, English, French, and Tahitian. He is best known for his work as a navigator: first, literally, as a member of the Polynesian Voyaging Society that took the legendary Hokule’a canoe from Hawaii to Tahiti and back using only the stars for a map, the first modern Hawaiian to do that in centuries; then second, figuratively, as a trustee guiding a Kamehameha Schools in crisis.
But we are not here to talk about any of that today. If you want to know about that, there are some 11,800 Google hits about it.
This is a look at early influences on Nainoa: who made him the man he is today, and how does he plan to perpetuate the honored role as a teacher? It starts with his father, the late Myron ¡°Pinky¡± Thompson.
¡°My dad was my greatest teacher,¡± he starts. ¡°He was everything to me- my best friend, my wisdom, my strength, my clarity. I have powerful memories of him. He was the best dad in the world.¡± Emotion quietly chokes his voice. He takes a twenty second pause to catch his composure, before weaving a long, compelling story about his father’s life.
It is not easy for him to open up to new people. Nainoa shares with me what I want to know, but still, I am a stranger. His body language speaks an interesting duality. It’s clear he is setting up borders between us. Sometimes hunched, sometimes shifted away, and sometimes at the other end of the boat. Nainoa admits he’s introverted and intensely private, allowing the spotlight insomuch as it affords him a means to his goals.
Nainoa tells me his father, as a child, learned to value community service. Myron grew up sharing a modest household with a steady stream of countless Hawaiian orphans. During World War Two, he suffered a major eye injury on the beach at Normandy on D-Day, and spent two years recovering in a New York hospital with bandages around his eyes.
During his blindness, he learned about the power of vision. When he recovered, he worked to make his vision of social equality come true, using politics and the power of education to better peoples’ lives.
These are the formative lessons he passed along to his son. ¡°I became him, and he became me,¡± reflects Nainoa.
One of Nainoa’s strongest memories of his father is when PVS was at a crossroads. On March 16, 1978, the Hokule’a attempted to make its second voyage to Tahiti, but it was swamped 6 hours after takeoff in gale force winds in the Molokai Channel. World renowned big wave rider Eddie Aikau paddled away on his surfboard in an attempt to rescue the crew and save Hokule’a, never to be seen again. A passing Hawaiian Airlines plane happened to see the overturned canoe and rescued them.
¡°This was and still is one of the hardest times of my life,¡± states Nainoa, with characteristic intensity in his deep, soulful eyes. ¡°Eddie comes from a proud Hawaiian family, a beloved son of Hawaii and a Hero to all. He deeply loved Hokule’a and clearly understood the importance of the pride the canoe symbolized for all of us in Hawaii. The voyaging family understood the need to sail Hokule’a to Tahiti to honor the vision and the purpose of Eddie Aikau. But at that very difficult time, among us there was no one who knew how, and no one who could take the lead. On top of all this, I had lost a friend, and the guilt was crushing. I ran away.¡±
For ten days, Nainoa sought refuge in the ocean by day, and under the stars by night. He wanted to be alone to mourn. ¡°Finally, on the eleventh day, my dad stepped in. He knew better than to approach me head on. He came up from behind, put his hand on my shoulder and said, ¡®If you really want to do this, Mom and I will be with you when you let go of the lines (that tether the canoe to the dock), and we will be with you when you arrive.¡±
Myron Thompson recognized the group needed direction, so he told his son to arrange PVS leaders in one room the following day- a task akin to herding cats because ¡°we were not talking. We were broken with shame and guilt.¡±
Still, Nainoa did what he was told. Myron walked in. ¡°In 15 minutes, he navigated a course of hope and strength for us. He told us to develop a vision and harness it, know where we are going, know the path to get there, and above all, be clear about who we’re serving along the way.¡±
Myron saved PVS that day. He also taught them to create a vision that the community can understand, because without that support, the fledgling operation would fail. Myron insisted the men write a plan and train hard to follow it, because ¡°95 percent of success is in the preparation.¡± He advised the men to reevaluate their dream at the end of this training period to confirm that it was worth following.
¡°Then, he looked at me and said, ¡®If it is, have the courage to let go.’ I knew he meant that about me as well, because I might not come back,¡± remembers Nainoa, who went on to sail the Hokule’a into international fame since that conversation.
As of 2004, the Hokule’a has crossed 100,000 miles around the Pacific Ocean, equivalent to sailing the world four times. ¡°Crisis is extraordinary for growth if dealt with the right way. It’s a chance to realign yourself,¡± declares Nainoa.
Today, Nainoa tackles a different realignment- that of Kamehameha Schools. The school has been under siege lately, defending itself against a barrage of legal threats to its admissions policy which gives preference to Native Hawaiians. It’s been in a state of healing for nearly a decade, a tumultuous time that began in 1997 when its previous slate of trustees was investigated for mismanagement, then publicly ousted by the courts. During his time of leadership, he’s weathered one crisis after another at Kapalama Heights.
His attention is bifurcated. He still commands the helm at PVS, and reveals that the Hokule’a is undergoing a less urgent, but equally important, evolution. The voyaging canoe has met and exceeded its original goals. Now what? This summer, the PVS leadership got together to chart out a new vision for itself, one which looks at what’s next and why.
¡°To maintain symbolism, we decided we must sail long, and sail every four years. When it’s at home, we can use the canoe as a school,¡± he explains. To that end, PVS launched in June a new educational project called ¡°Na Pua O Maunalua,¡± which has students cleaning Maunalua Bay and learning about it at the same time.
Over the summer, 72 students from Kaiser High School, 20 from Niu Valley Intermediate, and nine from the after-school program Hui Malama in Waimanalo participated in the inaugural program.
¡°It’s so important to mentor children,¡± asserts Nainoa. ¡°I want the youth to know that if they believe and work hard at something, they can achieve their goals. I want them to develop a personal relationship with nature, and learn to care about and for it.¡±
The 24-hour event brings students out on the Hokule’a to do a reef check, which includes counting fish and measuring the health of the coral. Then, the kids remove alien limu and replant native seaweed species. At sunset, they sail further out to take in the view of the island, learning about the boundaries of the ancient ahupua’a. At night, they learn about the stars, go diving, and sleep aboard the canoe.
¡°These are awesome kids,¡± smiles Nainoa. ¡°They get to learn math and science principles in a fun environment, and we get to develop a scientific baseline for the marine life in this bay. The only baseline that exists is anecdotally. My memory of this bay as a child was a thriving place. It’s upsetting that it’s changed so much since then.¡±
For a man who loves children, he has none. Recently married to third wife Kathy Muneno (of KITV fame), he says the idea of parenthood is appealing, but he would want to bring a child into a healthier world.
We have arrived at a good diving spot, and I’m to see for myself what kind of shape the bay is in. Nainoa stops the boat and throws anchor. The seas are churning, and the small skiff is tipsy in the current. I struggle to get my dive gear together.
He helps me lift my BC onto my back so I can roll into the water. I am lumbering and awkward, but he is poetry in motion- a person clearly at home in the sea. Incidentally, I am surprised to learn his love of the ocean comes from family friend Yoshio Kawano. His mother fears the water, and his father was simply ¡°not an ocean person.¡±
He hooks his air tank over the side and jumps overboard. In a flash he’s rigged up. Down we go.
There is nothing to see at 40 feet. The ocean bottom is barren, save the occasional coral head with its satellite of fish around it. We poke at a few green worm tube things. Then Thompson sees the anchor dragging slowly across the floor in the strong current.
He tries to remedy that by driving the metal deep into the sand. The steel easily unearths itself and scrapes across more rocks, as it heads straight for a living coral head. He tries several more times and fails. Finally, he wedges the anchor under a piece of dead reef, taking the risk of breaking it off in an attempt to save it from destroying one of the few living coral heads left.
Fifteen minutes later, we’re back on board. He returns us to the coast. Warm winds tousle his salt-and-pepper hair. I ask him how the visit makes him feel. ¡°Sad,¡± he answers. ¡°The bay is dying.¡±
His life’s work is to show people how special Hawaii is, and encourage them to care for the land and nourish the culture. ¡°My greatest honor is not as a navigator, but as a teacher,¡± affirms Nainoa, who once again is navigating a path using faith and vision as a guide.
To learn more about Nainoa’s work with Hokule’a, go to http://www.pvs-hawaii.com/.