OK, Full disclosure- I’m now officially helping Mick out with making his boards available up here in the US, so my hands are sullied with commerce and I’d understand if the mods wanted to move this thread elsewhere. That said we’re very small time with this and the reason I got involved is because for a few years I’ve been really impressed by what of seen of his shaping and design concepts. Friends back there in Australia have had nothing but raves about his boards and now I have a few in my hands I totally see why. First up here’s a sidecut fish, same design as the board Dicko is riding in ‘Glass Love’
and here’s the legendary flextail
(the pink bunny is my daughters- not mine I promise)
I got this one out in little, clean but dumpy waves this AM and even in far from good conditions I could feel the push from the tail off the bottom turn- I’m psyched to get the thing out in any size wave with a bit of face as I think I’m going to be really pleased. The decks are textured and I was surprised how well that worked although I think I’d feel safer with a bit of wax, and I was stoked on how well the flextail paddled for me- it’s really thin for me- 5’9" and a hair under 2.5" thick, and I’ve spent most of this year on a 5’5" and maybe 2.75" thick EPS mini Simmons. On the 2 or 3 near decent waves I got (drop and turn was as good as I could hope for today) the flex felt easily as fast and fun as the mini Simmons. I’m beyond stoked to get two boards in one year that are as downright exciting as those two. I’m told the sidecuts are pretty epic too, the feel of a ‘regular’ fish, blazingly fast and the rail line gives you an awesome whip into turns. Mackie is doing some epic stuff, the more I handle these things the more I realize is going on- the rails are definitely not standard fish style, there’s a bit of pinch happening there and the foil is very shortboardish. I have more pics of some more stuff he’s playing with if there’s interest.These are some of the least retro ‘retro boards’ around I swear. Which reminds me- I saw one of the modern singles Tim Griffin is shaping for Wayne Lynch up here. Another awesome board, one of those ones you can look at and know will work good. Too many boards, not enough time (or money) as is always the case!
I got to fondle some of his boards and met him briefly at the Oz fish fry.Real approachable , down to earth guy,certainly following his own muse , and good on him.
Cool boards. Can you share some of the numbers? What is the distance between the tips and how far up is the buttcrack on those boards? I’d love to fondle him… I mean fondle his boards, too. Mike
sidecut is Mick’s term for the boards with the more curved rail line- hard to see really well in my lousy pic and on the smaller 5’7" board, but there’s a definite little ‘waist’ just above the pins- this is Kidman print of Garth Dickinson with one of the early sidecuts:
The idea being the board follows the curve through turns basically. Here’s Mick’s explanation: ‘It shortens up the arc a bit out of the end of your cutbacks. It flicks you. It’s excellent of the wash and in that last hook when you go into a roundhouse cutback.’ (Oh for a wave you can do a roundhouse cutback on!) I’ve not ridden a sidecut, but the boys down under love them and say they are as fast and whippy as you can want in a little surfboard.
Rooster- the flextail is about 12" pin to pin, and I measured the sidecut and was surprised to see it’s 13". The swallow is about 7" deep on it, and I’ll measure the flex- it definitely seems to have longer pins. The early models he did are nuts, HUGE pins based on the Winterstick snowboards. I’m jonesing to get the thing in some point surf this week, it’ll be interesting figuring that flex out. My previous experience with flextails is that if they unload at the wrong time it can be a nightmare, and the flex under the foot is not fun, but when it works it’s a joy. On a couple of smaller dumpy waves yesterday I felt the thing do it’s job off the initial bottom turn and even there it was good, so I think it’ll epic on a better wave.
Cuttlefish- please post a picture of that board, I’d love to see it and as Nuclear points out, it’s easy enough to turn you in to the missus.
epic- the flextail I have here (which will be staying with me- everyone else can wait) has futures boxes and Mick set me up with some of the Rasta cutaway keels which seem pretty sweet- I’ll check the futures catalog and see if there’s anything like the 12" bases there- it’s been glass ons for me for a while so I’m stoked to be able to play with fins. Those bonzers look wild too- do you have one of the super narrow and big flex fins in it?
Didn’t spot you or Peter in the incriminating shots at Fish fry
That board in the picture that the kids are looking at caused a bit of a stir …
Here’s a clue … bit hard to read on image but says “MM Misty Hollow Design”
I picked the board up and it defied logic … feather light.
When I was talking with Michael later in Dick Van Stralaan tent , (I think Peter was there as well, hey cuttle don’t know if you rememmber?) he stated that the board is actually hollow … he then looked at dick and me and said there’s nothing at the “Fry” lighter “G’teeeeed”
Next couple of shots shows who was spending a bit of time around his boards and in particular this one, (who iis that capped man anyway ???)
you nailed it- the design comes directly from the Milovich Winterstick snowboard according to Mick. I think the quote from Mick above is the best explanation of it, but basically I guess the deal is when you lay the board into a turn, the water is following the curve of the rail line and it makes the board ‘whip’ through the turns. Andrew Kidman told me it’s one of the funnest fish he’s ever surfed, really fast and he loves the feel in turns, very responsive and pivoty. Mick says Terry Fitzgerald worked with a sidecut design called the Screwdriver back in the day, as did Rodney Ball. (Typical that Fitzy was doing it, that guy played with so much stuff we’re only just revisiting now!) The boards are insanely light too, I’ve been used to pretty heavily glassed fish so far and these things seem hardly there- I can’t imagine how light the hollow thing at the Fry was. I’ll get the flextail out on a point tomorrow I hope, so I’m pretty stoked, and as in a couple of weeks I’ll be out of town for a bit I’m going to leave it with my mate Ryan who is a better surfer than me and a big fan of the more unusual board designs, so he and Jeff Beck from Ninelights will no doubt put a few more pressure dents in it and have an interesting take on how it rides. Here’s another pic of the earlier Winterstick influenced flextails and one of the early sidecuts which Garth Dickinson was riding in ‘Glass Love’
