I’m curious.
Can the boys running this community please tell us.
Who are the longest serving members (maybe 20) of the guys
Also
I'd be stoked to here the story.
How swaylocks came to be?
Its had me in its grasp for over five years, hundreds and hundreds of hours. Pretty radical really.
Anyway, all the best.
Cheers.
hmm I can start a list of OGs, can’t name them all of the top of my head
jim phillips
herb spitzer
john mellor
ambrose
was a pretty small group way back when (more than a decade ago)
MIke Paler set up a page and seeded it with a couple (!) of questions and answers, “why would I like a twin fin anyway” sort of thing…
you’ll hear more I’m sure…
http://www.allaboutsurf.com/articles/swaylocks?pg=1
Swaylock’s: Treasure Trove of Surfboard Design
photos courtesy of Swaylock’s
by JD Jenkins
posted 2003-09-15
Mike Paler occupies a unique seat in the new millennium of surfing. He’s the web craftsman and creator behind Swaylock’s Surfboard Design Forum, the go-to site for anyone interested in anything to do with surfboards. Design, shaping, glassing, history, culture? it’s all there, growing byte by byte everyday, thanks to a wide range of talented and sincere contributors.
BLESSED SERENDIPITY
Paler is still coming to grips with the size and popularity of what essentially started off as a science project. He bluntly refers to the whole thing as a “lucky mistake.” In the height of the dot com frenzy of 1998 and already weary of web design, he began teaching himself programming. He wanted a project that was themed around his great passion, surfing. And so it came to pass that Paler installed a humble script for a discussion board entitled “surfboard design forum”. He seeded it with a few campy questions, such as “What is a twinfin?” Then he called his fiance and asked her to post a few questions of her own. He then set out answering those same questions under a different identity, and let the internet slowly work its magic.
Perhaps it was the non-commercial nature of the site, or the talent of its growing number of participants, or maybe just dumb luck, but over time Swaylock’s began attracting big name shapers and sporting lively conversation extending over an eclectic range of topics. Paler had stumbled onto something special. Most who visited the site experienced the same realization. Swaylock’s was different, and quickly making a name for itself.
There are many reasons for the site’s durability, but Paler had a great advantage in being the first one to offer a forum dedicated to everything about surf craft, unfettered with advertising and flashing surf forecasts. Like a high performance surfboard, his website had clean lines and simplicity, but frankness in purpose. It had focus, yet it had fun.
“I think I just got in before anyone else did”, Paler muses. “I was originally going to set up a forum about graphic design. Then I realized there were at least a hundred graphic design forums out there and frankly I wasn’t that interested in graphic design anymore. I looked around for a surfboard discussion forum, and I didn’t find one.” The rest is history. Paler notes that since he’s cropped up, several other surfboard design forums have come and gone, none seeming to match the depth, maturity, and openness of Swaylock’s.
WHAT’S IN A NAME?
The name “Swaylock’s” has confounded many. It’s not a surfing term. But now, of course, it has become one. Admittedly the moniker conjures up images of a swaying ocean or waves, or surfers dropping and fading into the pit, only to be “locked into” a barrel. Nothing could be further off the mark.
The “Sway” part of Swaylock’s came from a childhood friend of Paler’s, who was always making up new words and nicknames for everyone around him. Paler was dubbed “Pay”, and one day, for no good reason, it evolved into “Sway”. Late one Saturday afternoon the two were sitting around watching a basketball game and Mookie Blaylock was hitting the boards. Mike commented on what a cool name the ballplayer had. In a flash, his friend bolted upright, looked at him and cried out, “Swaylock!” Michael Paler was henceforth known as “Swaylock”.
“It’s a funny name”, smiles Paler, “and the reason I applied it to the discussion forum was because I wanted to give it a name that had nothing to do with anything, something totally original.”
EVERYTHING SURFBOARDS
There’s a tendency to think the entire site boils down to how to shape a board. Paler is quick to point out that things run much deeper than that.
“It’s many things, starting with surfboard design, which takes place long before you reach the shaping bay. The stuff on paper, whether sketched out on the back of an envelope or on a computer screen, is fascinating and endless. Then it’s about shaping and all the tools and knowledge from that end, and artwork and glassing too… all essential parts of surfboard creation. There’s also a lot of discussion going on lately about mass production, the use of milling machines and the whole Surftech issue, so nowadays you have an ethics component. Finally there’s the element of history… of recognizing the heritage of surfing and where the roots of surfboard design took place.”
It isn’t uncommon for a participant to describe a board they may have picked up at a garage sale or found in someone’s side yard. “They see the name and the logo and they just want to know who made it and how they made it,” says Paler.
Paler also notes the inclusion of all surf craft. “There’s an openness to discuss any kind of vehicle on which we ride waves, including kneeboards, foam boards, and mats, to name a few.”
A HEADFUL OF DESIGN AND CARE
At the core of all this are the contributors themselves. Without the endless questions, answers, arguments and humor, Swaylock’s wouldn’t exist. Paler refers to contributors possessing the “Swaylockian” mentality.
“They’re soulful, sincere, serious, but have a great sense of humor and a real caring side. I’m constantly impressed with how cool some of the people are? the intelligence level is high and intense, as is the level of care and concern. Some of them remind me of the guy who taught me how to surf? how he instilled in me [at the age of 14] a sense of water ethics, etiquette and style. One of the biggest ideas he impressed on me was to surf with the wave, not against it? Don’t try to rip it apart, just become part of the wave. I’ve carried that with me and I think there are a lot of people on the forum that have that same sort of perspective.”
The level of caring for fellow board members could be compared to a support group. Surfboard creation presents a parade of questions and frustrations, especially for the amateur. Luckily there are plenty of seers willing to share their know-how. The site has been graced with hobbyists who have been at it for years, flanked by the masters, including such names as Dale Solomonson, Greg Liddle, and Paul Gross, to name a few. Newbies have shown up and received advice they could find nowhere else. They go back to work on their boards and eventually return with a finished product. Pictures are regularly posted, and the results are often nothing short of dazzling.
Several hardcore posters happily admit an addiction to the place, calling themselves “Swaylaholics”. The word was coined by a long time regular from Miami, who posted under his real name, Ramon. “He had the Swaylockian mentality,” remembers Paler, "just cool, soulful, and sincere. He was one of the first to ever submit photos. He had started a thread a long time ago entitled, “My name is Ramon, and I’m a Swaylaholic”.
He shaped these beautiful pin type eggs. He shaped this one board dubbed the Cuban Comet. He passed away a couple months ago, and it was heartbreaking. His cousin came on told us the news. All the old voices from Swaylocks did a eulogy for him. He’s gone now, but that’s where the idea of a “support group” came from. It started out tongue in cheek, but the loss of Ramon brought it home. These guys are obsessed with design, function and shaping, and they’re there for each other. On a personal level, they respect each other, their craft and their friendship."
Being on the web, Swaylock’s is starting to see contributors dropping in from all points on the globe. There’s guys from places as far out as Japan or Holland. Paler reasons: “Certain aesthetics that Swaylock’s holds up, like nice artwork, airbrushing, beautiful pinlining, the quality of a great glass job? these things seem to have worldwide appeal. There’s these guys in Amsterdam who want to make a beautiful fish? they’re just into the workmanship of building a perfect board, and they’re finding the guidance they want on the site.”
An eclectic range of topics is always present, and the best are reserved in the Resources section. Here you’ll find some of the more compelling articles, discussion threads, and frequently asked questions. There’s also a photo archive and links to other shaping sites. Paler realizes that his site has now matured into a full blown repository of anything to do with surf craft. With over 40,000 messages, he struggles with figuring out where it’s all going and how to organize it.
The important thing is that it’s all still there, intact and searchable. The best threads contain quality advice but plenty of humor. This lengthy discussion about which blank to use for a classic egg shape demonstrates the wide range and depth of input on such a topic: Which Blank?. In it you’ll find the technicians, who appreciate the close tolerances of shaping matrices, and those (like Jim Phillips) who lean more toward simple look and feel. Then there’s the bold discoveries that are generously shared, as in this thread started by Herb Spitzer, where he extols the virtues of the absorbent packing in diapers as cheap and viable replacement for surfboard filler: Groundbreaking Discovery. And in this post, a full history lesson unfolds out of a discussion of the Bojorquez egg shapes versus those from Greg Liddle: History Lesson.
COME TOGETHER, RIGHT NOW
Swaylock’s will reach a new high later this month, when they hold their first real get-together in Big Sur. Several dozen campsites have been reserved at Plaskett Creek by John Mellor, a talented big gun shaper, who volunteered to coordinate the event. Paler hopes that a lot of people show up for the jamboree, but admits that if only five people make an appearance, it will be just as cool: “These guys will show up with their rigs packed with sticks and we’ll just have a big ol’ board lovefest. We’ll drink some beer and cook up some barbeque, and maybe there will be a good south running or an early northwest.” At any rate, the event will be the first of its kind, ever.
It’s interesting to note that Paler, who has eleven boards in his quiver, has never shaped a board himself. “I swear I will shape a board someday!” he laughs. “I feel like I shape boards in my mind but haven’t done so physically. I’m concerned about how boards are made, how they perform, and how that relates back to design, but the bottom line is that I’m just totally into surfing everything. Growing up I was always fascinated with older boards… I wanted to try out different boards. If everybody was riding a 6’4” thruster, I wanted to ride an ancient 8’6" mini-log. In developing the site, my thought was, “I haven’t shaped anything yet, but at least I can talk with people that share the same passion for surfboards. And that holds true today for many like me.”
Paler, like the others, could also be motivated by cost savings. Not counting labor, shaping your own surfboard can be less expensive than buying off the rack. The hobby itself is, of course, priceless. Paler notes that there are many shapes he wants to personally explore that would cost him too much money to get someone else to shape for him.
NEW FRONTIER OF OLD SOUL
In a period of surfing that has seen unprecedented levels of conformity, Swaylock’s has emerged as an “outpost of surf culture”, as Paler puts it. “Surfing changed a lot in the last eight years or so. It’s become huge, mainly due to sheer marketing blitz, and I think it’s lost a lot of its soulfulness over that time. There’s a big component today where everyone is riding the same type of board the same way. They think and act the same way. It’s like everyone is in the same band, and everyone is just playing electric guitar.”
"Surfing has traditionally been the sport of individuals and strong personalities. The guys that involve themselves in the forum are saying, "I’m not going to buy what everyone else is buying. I’m going to make my own board. The result is participants who actively resist a herd mentality. Because of this element, Paler contends, the soul of surfing has no choice but to survive at Swaylock’s.
http://www2.swaylocks.com/members?sort=asc&order=Member+Since
(here’s a few of the oldest members that are still active)
Username Member Since Points
johnmellor 9 years 22 weeks ago 2394
PaulJensen 9 years 22 weeks ago 819
LeeV 9 years 22 weeks ago 489
tenover 9 years 22 weeks ago 355
resinhead 9 years 22 weeks ago 2273
CarlOlsen 9 years 22 weeks ago 94
darren 9 years 22 weeks ago 90
shapesandhulls 9 years 22 weeks ago 36
FBfla 9 years 22 weeks ago 40
jimithesaint 9 years 22 weeks ago 74
cmp 9 years 22 weeks ago 30
surfore 9 years 22 weeks ago 78
steiny 9 years 22 weeks ago 265
easternpacific 9 years 22 weeks ago 491
Matt 9 years 22 weeks ago 478
doc 9 years 22 weeks ago 574
ambrose 9 years 22 weeks ago 2214
silverback 9 years 22 weeks ago 79
platty 9 years 22 weeks ago 70
Feraldave 9 years 22 weeks ago 508
petec 9 years 22 weeks ago 653
d.d. 9 years 22 weeks ago 35
tomas 9 years 22 weeks ago 88
ErikG 9 years 22 weeks ago 47
GregTate 9 years 22 weeks ago 1787
jaimehcc 9 years 22 weeks ago 28
9 years and 22 weeks was the reset date
I was in over a year before and OI was late to the party .
it was after paul gross left…
and why BALSA was not listed in this disertation
is an interesting fact check inconsistency.perhaps
the list of re-regisration s was too extensive to try to make complete…
and the list of alumni goes way fatrther Robliges ,
and as evidenced by the post numbers some are not too active
and this article is dated by perhaps two maybe three years.
and the guy from astern europe building a 75# wood board
in a dungeon in the winter or the fine furniture guy
in finland making a board to take to france for the
summer was the highest tolerance of exactitude
for a very out of fashion set of design parameters
aka heavy flat and short.bringing to light
ALL WOODWORKERS FROM FINLAND
ARE FINISH CARPENTERS.
…ambrose…
up the revolution
There were about a dozen of us.................jim,lee,john,paul,crsIII,ramon+++..................i'll check my envelopes................i have everyone that was sent to me from the beginning(supercharger thing)and get back to you yorky.
jim p. was the first to hit 100 views back in early 2000.
herb
I was here a few years before the reset. You used to be able to go into the archives and go back to the original posts…The names that immediately come to mind from those old days were Herb, Jim Phillips, Dale Solomonson, Paul Jensen, Skip Saenger, Kirk Putnam, Matt Miller, Coral, John Mellor, Ramon, Cleanlines, Halcyon…
The allaboutsurf.com story was posted 2003-09-15, and the date is included at the beginning of the story.
If you click “members” on the banner, it takes you to a directory of Swaylocks members. If you click “member since” it organizes the list according to oldest members first down to newest, from the re-set date. I gave the link, so Yorky could click and see - then I pulled up three pages worth, culled those who haven’t been here in years, and posted the rest. Most of the members on my list with few points (that appear relatively inactive), have at least been to the site lately.
Because the re-set date was 9 years 22 weeks ago, there are pages and pages of members that come up with the same date. So I didn’t go through all the pages of the “9 years 22 weeks ago” members, there are plenty more that we know as regulars who were here, keithmelville, cleanlines, rooster, grasshopper.
Also, it seems some of the original cast show up as being members since 9 years 21 weeks ago, so was there a secondary re-set a week later?
Interesting, I just checked my old posts (the first ones I did) and they’ve been chopped off, was that part of the reset? I recall posting at least a couple years before that happened…
I was in before the reset…back when some days there were no posts…
Maybe I’m one of the few who have never shaped a surfboard and have little to no desire to do so…
I come here mainly to harass the pool man!
Mr. Kirk Putnam…a legend!
love you Kirk…
rogelio
It’s too bad the old posts are gone. There was a lightheartedness in the old days that seems to have all but disappeared. There were plenty of heated posts and trolling but there seemed to be more fun than nasty…that is until poor Paul Gross got taken out by some mysterious Santa Barbara underground mafia. About a fin template no less.
There is good with the new though…Sways is a lot more international than it used to be and, in general, the threads are more technical and informative. One thing stays the same, a bunch of good, smart, people sharing their experiences with John Mellor’s imaginary friends…
Thanks Mike!
Awesome, I can’t wait to read this in detail… got to go get dusty now.
When I joined I was like ‘what! How good is this place, I was dumbfounded as to how I hadn’t herd about it earlier’
Im sure a lot of sways fans want to here all your stories, this little sacred community has touched many.
Thanks,
Cheers 
I miss Doc. I should call him.
Hey Lee…Whatever happened to NewBaloney?
Anyone remember him?
roger
Y’all shoulda been to the first Swayaholics gathering in Big Sur…The connection of faces to names was entertaining…Around the fire and over beers, it was so classic with K.P. and Herb Spitzer swapping stories of their parallel lives never crossing, but connected to the same people…Rumors and innuendos confirmed…Oh the dirty rumors…I had to walk away every so often because my face was hurting from laughing and smiling so much…Right Lee…???..
I first heard of sways when the Parmenter manifesto was posted. Somebody told me about it, I looked it up and pulled the piece (pretty funny looking back on that as now Parmenter is doing popout boats made in you-know-where).
A few months later I visited the site and first thing I clicked on was one of Roy’s threads about a fish he had made. I looked at the pictures and thought “well, this would make a nice coffee table” and figured the site wasn’t very serious.
Next time I looked I saw a post by my old friend Jim Phillips, and looked a little further. There seemed to be a lot of technology talk and I was involved with some guys who did (and of course still do) some cutting edge work. Also finally hit me that there were lots of people on here looking for help with shaping techniques, and I guess I’m supposed to know a fair bit about those things…
I’d like to see hand shaping survive, I’m not a big fan of molded boards, standardized boards, or boards designed by committee in corporate meetings. So I figured I’d contribute to the insurrection.
I was richard prause before the switch over. http://www.swaylocks.com/node/1007598
Was fresh out of college and getting really bit by the surfboard building bug. I had shaped a few boards but not glassing yet. Some guidance from my old man and a lot of time on this site put me on my way. Built boards in my old mans garage in SC, then moved to FL and built them in my garage there. Then made the leap to Hawaii and landed a job sanding in a factory there. Came back to the east coast to give engineering a try (still building boards on the side). With engineering experience + the composite experience building boards (thanks in large part to sways), I have weaseled my way into a dream job building composite aircraft. Sooooooo thank you Swaylocks!!!
Newbalonie? He’s still around. Builds and rides fish these days. Posts under a different handle…
Paul,
I have never laughed so for so long as that evening although I came close when KP and Big Bay Al were going at it the next year. I remember your super clean camping machine and all of us bouncing around like potatos in a sack on a Willow Creek morning surfcheck…Gotta get back there this year!
You people have good memories - just short ones…
Kokua tops any list here - one of the more mellow and helpful members - ever. I joined when Ramone was the most stoked among us. The man shaped and glassed in a damn condo in Miami - and turned out neat stuff, he did a fish I eagerly copied - he went for it ! RIP Ramone - you epitomized the early vibe…
Herb, Doc, John, Keith, some good stuff from Paul Gross back then…and the core of the day - of which I do not include myself by any means. I saw a short note about design in the back pages of Surfer’s Journal way back that said it was sure to get the attention of the Swaylocks crew - looked it up and - Swaylocks Ruined My Life - but I don’t regret a minute of it.
Jees, back then, a dweeb like me could even buy some raffle tickets for the Swaylaholics Anonymous gathering from here on the right coast and win me some goodies that John Mellor would send off that week - still have the innaugural tee I believe Ambrose designed and printed…
Certainly is a much wider world these days…
So long as it’s still fun for you all, that’s what counts.
As Tom Morey said, when asked about surfboard design, " When the sun’s out and the surf’s up - who gives a rat’s ass…"
Don’t take it too seriously - cause nobody takes you too seriously
This thread is awesome!
I tend to agree. His user name is well chosen.