Surfpolitik Design DNA: From Greenough to Slater

In: Surfpolitik by Stu Nettle 13 Comments Fri 26th Feb '10

Tags: george greenough , chris brock , michael cundith , terry keyes , gary keyes , ted spencer , baddy treloar , dan ross , chris bennetts , adam bennetts

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George Greenough at Lennox Head on his Velo

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Chris Brock's Morning of the Earth flextail

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Ted Spencer at Lennox Head

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Chris Brock - Lennox Head

Stuart Nettle
February 26, 2009

I recently ran a series of shots of Gold Coast surfer Chris Bennetts riding a Chris Brock-shaped board. Following publication of the spread I received a number of enquiries from people wanting to know about the board - it looked so different yet worked so well.

Also, the similarities with the boards that Kelly Slater is now riding couldn't be denied. However, rather than being new the design is something Chris has been working on since the early 70's.

I spoke to Chris about the design. Here are his answers:

George

It was 1965.

I saw an article in Surfing World about an American surfer who changed the direction of surfing with a fin design that made old mals manoueverable. On this fin, Nat won the world title.

George Greenough's surfing equipment was so far out, like nothing anyone on the planet had seen, and it took a few years for people to get their head around trying to ride boards that small standing up. His ability to turn and trim from the one point was my inspiration to try and head in that direction. Along with Ted Spencer and Gary and Terry Keyes we started making boards like that at 'Wilderness', Angourie.

The seed

I made my first flex board - which I am riding in Morning of the Earth - and the back third of the board was flexible. It was a big job to construct. I then thought I need to be able to make a hard board that fits the waves contours like the flex tail.

In 1977 I returned to Australia and started making boards at Sky Surfboards with Michael Cundith, working on double-concave triplanes carrying on the Greenough-inspired designs we were both shaping under the 'Wilderness' label in the late 1960's - Cundith in Santa Barbara USA and us at Angourie.

Al

Al Merrick acquired one of the early Sky triplanes and built a similar board for years. His ad in 'Surfer' magazine reads 'totally amazing'. Check Andrew Crockett's book 'Switchfoot II' for the ad.

Refinement

Around the mid-eighties I came up with the bottom shape I use now. As far as plan shapes go I always had some smaller round-nose, wide-tail boards. Over the years some shapers have tried to build smaller wide-tail boards but they often get the bottom shape wrong and eventually give the design a bad name.

Kelly

It will be interesting to see what happens with Slater. His knowledge of fin design is okay, but lets see what happens with the all important bottom shape in the back end of his smaller boards. And with the wider nose on smaller boards it is critical to get thickness distribution right. It is essential that his boards work to bring them into popularity.

Kids

It's great to see the kids riding these small safe boards that perform so well for them, it really brings the adventure and fun back into surfing. Plus, I hope the blunter nose comes into fashion for everybody's safety.

The Bean

How Chris and Adam Bennetts got my boards? A few years ago their Dad, Mark, a champion Iron Man came to me to make him some knee-paddle boards he could ride waves on. One day we got talking about his sons, good surfers, but looking like most good guys - same moves, restricted in their tracks by board design.

I told Mark about the time Dave 'Baddie' Treloar asked me if a very young Dan Ross could ride one of my boards. I asked 'why?' and Baddie said 'I want him to know there are different tracks'. Baddie bought a board. A few years later Dan got another of my boards, an orange 5' 2" that had heaps of roll in the bottom. Watching Dan ride that little board in solid six foot Lennox Point was head turning. Taking the little orange board back to Angourie it got labelled the 'Baked Bean'.

The Jumpin' Beans

A few years ago Mick Waters featured these boards in the movie 'Believe'. They were bright coloured boards and people were calling them 'jelly beans' but seeing them in action today I'm calling them 'Jumpin' Beans'. The small compact shape of the board allows for some tight deep turns with no nose in the way. The bottom shape allows you to go vertical, there's no resistance and heaps of forward momentum to leave the curl line, which is one of the main hangups of current fashion boards.

George

Yes, the length and plan shape has evolved similar to George Greenough's 4' 11" 'Velo' which he had almost fifty years ago. Boy was that guy on the money!

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