Who invented the shortboard? Who started the revolution?
I did.
Ssssssshhhhhhh!!!..
The old time islanders had a shortboard in their quiver!
This guys great great great grandfather had one.
Greenough is the root of the "shortboard 'r'evolution".
I agree with Brewer…the truth should always be told. How about that beautiful McCoy zap in the background.
If you want to go with who started the " performance short board as we have been seeing since the start of the Pro tour, I personally believe the emphasis of super loose performance was put on by M.R. and his twin and then the design plan shape that ultimately became the thruster came from McCoy’s Lazor Zap and then Simon.
All you have to do is go back and look at the outlines of boards prior to the zap and after to see the effect. Central to much of the coached success of the Aussies during that time was also McCoy. M.R. Larry Blair, Cheyne Horan, Damian Hardman, Pam B. , and Nicky Wood were all McCoy team riders and many more road them including many of those who started Quicksilver.
No doubt shortness and plan shapes by McTavish, Brewer and Greenough were instrumental in the ultimate outcome…but I still believe surfing on surfboards as we see today started with a duel for a world championship in the late seventies and early eighties.
Here is an article I wrote about my view of it as I remember it:
http://www.theindependentsurfer.com/editorial/the-birth-of-the-modern-short-board/
Also an M.R. interview I did a few years ago about his influence by Geoff McCoy and others:
If you want to step a bit further down the line, I think Curren’s little pin tails of the late eighties and early nineties sort of went back to where Brewer was heading. Cool thing about surfboards and surfing is there are so many unique individuals and surf craft. There is much about our history we may never know completely.
I’m an American, but I would still have to say performance surfing as we see it now started with a major Aussie flare.
Jim Foley, in Santa Cruz, was riding a 7 foot board, and ripping, in 1963/1964. (in the film, ''The Endless Summer'') Dale Velzy made a 7' 11'' board in 1956/57. I made, and rode a 7'11'' board in 1959. It is reported that Bob Simmons experimented with 6 foot boards, in the early fifties. Alan Nelson, of La Jolla, made a 5 foot balsa twin fin board around 1957/58, that he and others would ride in the shorebreak. Bear in mind that in 1967/68, in Hawaii, ANY board less than 9 feet was called a ''MINI BOARD.'' Plenty of folks ''did it first'' but I'd have to tip my hat to the Aussies for having brought the concept into focus for the great majority of surfers, and surfboard builders.
Well said Bill !!
It does’nt matter “WHO” did it first,but it was probly McTavish that changed
the direction it went.
No doubt. There was a guy in my hometown who rode boards with an 11.5 inch nose and a 15.5 inch tail in 77 before any of us here knew of McCoy, which is why I think who did what first should be put into context of in what venue are we speaking. I think there is no doubt that Aussie crew that started to make a push in the late seventies on the new tour were extremely influential in the type of boards and surfing that would be done until Curren came along. Even during and after Curren they made huge impacts. I think the truly formative years in pro style short board surfing was between 76 and 84.
You will be hard pressed to find too many more things popping up in other generations… from new surfing moves to various design changes that literally effected almost everyone that surfed for the next decade. I think chopping them off was just the beginning to see the possibilities and what I love about your comment Bill is it’s amazing to me how we are still finding that some of the experimenting done by folks like Simmons or the early pigs or pig fish way back actually had merit. They just didn’t have the push to compete for money driving it yet. It was all mostly about following the fun.
1st by a country mile
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Who invented the shortboard? Who started the revolution?
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Ah- you put it as two different questions there. As it should be.
Who invented the shortboard? Depends on what you're calling a shortboard, a cut-down 9-something or a smaller board intended to perform better and very differently than what I'd describe as 'point and shoot' surfing at Waikiki.
You got (in more-or-less chronological order) the paipos, Simmons, Bill Thrailkill's list, then the guys who are arguing over priority in the movie and a few others who didn't get as much press. All depends on what you're calling a 'shortboard', what your standards are.
Now, I think the more important question is, who started the revolution. Who changed the direction of surfing, from takeoff-turn as much as you could-make the wave or don't to a close-to-the-pocket, hard turning style. That drove the board developments and not the other way around. Some candidates:
Simmons - very different boards, he was maybe beginning the turning style, but who followed him in close succession and took it further? Nobody, really.
Greenough - good case here, his constant turning, close to the pocket style combined with his travel to Australia and influence there, though ( and as a kneelo it pains me to say this) those who followed him directly on kneeboards didn't do all that much. Or else this would be Swaylocks Kneeboard Forum and standing on a surfboard would be thought of as an oddity practiced by weirdos like me.
McTavish, Farrelly, Young and I'll throw in Lynch: Power surfing in Australia. I have to say that, on surfboards they are the ones who started the 'revolution'. The way they took Greenoughs moves and adapted them to surfboards, though further developments came elsewhere, such as
Barry K, Lopez, Sutherland, Hakman, et al - adapting power surfing and working it close to what I'll call 'waves of consequence', not contest-type waves.
Though this kinda goes out of the range of 'everyman surfing' and into a more rarified atmosphere. The 'average competent surfer' could and did acquire a board like Nat Young was using and make some moves like he did but he didn't have the opportunity or skills to do what Lopez was doing at Pipeline or what, let's say, Laird Hamilton is doing today.
Now, what direction(s) is surfing going in? Extreme stuff, contest stuff and everyman stuff? Waves-that-can-freakin'-kill-ya, air-and-spray but not necessarily functional moves, the average jamoke out there having fun. Where does it go from here?
Heh- now that I've done my usual job of confusing the issue.
doc...
Don’t you guys know nuttin’?
The first person to ride a shortboard in modern times was Murphy, ca. 1962.
[img_assist|nid=1049925|title=Captain|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=640|height=436] But it took a captain to bring on the aggro ripping
It was a polynesian, not sure if it was in Hawaii, Tahiti, or another island group, but it was a polynesian.
yep polynesian id have to agree and the proa and catamaran
good on you Solo. Captain Goodvibes was Australian. This video features him http://www.soundfoundation.com.au/directors/jack_mccoy/jungle_jet_set/
I can still remember a little bit about those early days…
The first shortboard that I remember was a 6’ red moulded twin fin made by Hanimex in Australia. It was owned by a friend, and was mainly borrowed and ridden by my old mate Rodney Sumpter, who absolutely ripped on it at North Avalon circa '60… before Bob came down from Queensland. For me this was probably the beginning…
It is also worth mentioning Frank Gonsalves, who shaped and glassed these balsa boards for members of the Palm Beach Boardriders around '59. Note the two shorter boards to the left of pic.
http://www.surfin.com.au/pbbr.jpg
I was on the North Shore the winter of '65 and I didn’t see anything short from Brewer. BK was riding a G&S Mike Hynson model as were many other hot surfers.
I spent a lot of time around Bob during the short board ‘revolution’ days. His vision and inspiration surely was a driving force for it all to happen, although I thought the two most underrated surfers through it all were Ted Spencer and Robert Coneelly. Robert spent a lot of time with Greenough talking about fin flex and design for his own boards, even though he wasn’t a boardmaker (these discussions were the first seeds of Wilderness Surfboards…). As for Ted, well for me it was he, more so than Nat, that showed what could be done on them…
While perhaps entertaining for the general viewer, for anyone with a serious interest in the history of surfriding** Going Vertical** is demonstrably less than “the truth on who started the Shortboard Revolution.”
Without any of the critical insight evident in the ABC recent Bombora
documentary (self-interest acknowledged), it simply rounds up the usual
suspects and regurgitates a standard collection of well-worn myths and
legends.
Hopefully, David Bradbury’s political documentaries exhibit a level of rigorous analysis clearly lacking in this production.
(Paraphrasing Basil Fawlty: “Don’t mention Midget Farrelly … I mentioned him once but I think I got away with it”).
No doubt. It’s to the industry’s benefit to regurgitate continuing myths and legends because they were written about in the hype vehicles called Surfing publications. In fact, most of surfing innovation has come from multiple folks. Which is why I said it’s best when asking the question of who was first…they should be way more specific about the context and time period. The whole Aussie vs American thing is simply a yawn and a cheap attempt to rekindle something that was mostly ego driven and purposely done hype to begin with. There are a host of folks you rarely see mentioned accurately in surfing’s history. It’s got to fit into whoever is putting up the money or doing the distribution version of history. Just like the Surfing Heritage foundation which leaves the Lazor Zap out of it’s line up on it’s site and most Surfing hall of shames Ur…I mean… Fames where folks can literally apply to be members.
Root a boot. I loved the old Captain. Those earth sized waves he always surfed with whatever he happen to find.