In this day and age of multinational conglomorates building boards faster than Kelly Slater can snap off the lip, it seems kind of silly to think about surfboards as art. It seems particularly presumptious to think of your own boards as art.
That said, I am going to a gallery opening at One Market Street in San Francisco next week where they are showing an exhibit that I put together for a show called “Design Matters”. And silly, presumptious, or both, I thought I’d share the photo I just got of the exhibit.
If the photo was from the other side, you would see the fish that I had shaped down into the other side of that big slab of hemlock. The “real” fish was shaped out of the the next slab up in the log so the grain lines all match. The 1" slab of glass next in line, however, came from another source entirely…
Presumptious? Not at all. Anyone who makes a surfboard by hand is a sculptor. Pure form: Nothing there that shouldn’t be there. I think of Constantine Brancusi’s sculptures of a fish and a bird, reduced to purest form.
Handmade surfboards are art. And the frosting on the cake is they are usable.
will your exhibit be shown back here in Oregon at some time in the near future? Would really like to see it in person.
Pictures on your blog site were very cool - major props for the obvious craftsmanship of old merged with new on display - the five fin bonzer looks very , very cool…
And don’t forget your wetsuit next week, as OB should be starting it’s usual fall banquet very soon now…
The board in the middle is shaped from a single log but it is not solid. It is clam-chambered from the inside of the top and bottom instead of from the sides like you do with standard plank-chambering.
One of the many problems in chambering a board from a single log is that unless you get it glassed within about an hour of finishing your shape, the tree is going to have some ideas of its own. This one took on a rocker twist of almost 1/4" over one night. I guess this Hemlock was a goofy-footer.
Hello Lcc. Thanks for the kind words. I don’t think this exhibit will make its way back to Oregon any time soon - the gallery bought the whole thing so I don’t really have any control over its future direction. We’ll have an open house at some point here at the shop and we’ll be happy to have you come out and check out a bunch of fun wood boards in a slightly more “natural” setting: an all-wood surf shop instead of a gallery. Glad you like the pictures. We really enjoy using old-school materials in new ways. New for us, at least. I’ve been riding a 6’3 version of that bonzer-inspired 5-fin you were talking about since last winter. In spruce it can handle size and speed very nicely - good for 3/4 of the year up here. All the best, Lars
Its funny, I have no trouble whatsoever thinking of your boards as art. Come to think of it, there are many people on this forum whose boards I immediately think of as art. Mine though, I always think of as “just” surfboards.
All the same, it will be fun to go check out surfboards in a swanky art gallery tomorrow.
Handmade surfboards are art. And the frosting on the cake is they are usable.
Exactly! I trained as a potter and the similarity between throwing and shaping is unreal. You are creating something that also combines mental thought and manual dexterity and heart and soul. Its also an obsession - its something you have to wrench out of you against the ridiculous pressures of this western lifestyle…sorry I’ll stop, I can feel an essay coming on. …I suppose they can only be considered art if people start paying millions for them…formaldehyde anyone! Cheers Andy
