Swellnet Dispatch Talking Design With GSI's Mark Kelly

In: Swellnet Dispatch by Stu Nettle 22 Comments Wed 9th Jun '10

Tags: mark kelly , thomas meyerhoffer , gsi , greg webber , steve walden , surfboard production , Bob McTavish

On Friday night the Meyerhoffer Surfboard, the radical new design produced by GSI Industries, won an Australian International Design Award. The Australian International Design Awards are Australia's peak design assessment and promotion body. The judges who made the announcement said the board was a 'major design innovation' that would create 'global shockwaves'.

After receiving the award the boards designer, Thomas Meyehoffer, said, 
"I owe many thanks to Mark Kelly of GSI for his vision and surfing skills. Almost two years ago now Mark tried a Meyerhoffer prototype and was convinced that he was surfing better than ever!"

I recently chatted to Mark about future designs, industry prejudice and what's next for the Meyerhoffer...

Stuart Nettle: Since it was first produced the Meyerhoffer has encountered a level of resistance from surfers, partially based on it's looks, is this fair?

Mark Kelly: Yeah, well I think surfers are pretty conservative. But we know that once we get a few more people riding them in the water it will begin to get accepted and then things will start to change. We've already sold a couple of thousand of them around the world in the first year. That's pretty good. If some small surfboard company sold a couple of thousand boards a year they'd be pretty happy.

SN: And now the design has just won an International Design Award, it's an unusual thing for a surf company to receive, what will this mean for the Meyerhoffer?

MK: It's interesting, you know, it's a pretty radical thing to change the traditional surfboard shape. But I think riding the board gives a whole new experience to longboarding - it's like a longboard and a shortboard put together. It might mean more people take notice of it.

The surf industry has a propensity to look backwards - to look at what happened in the 50' s and the 60's and the 70's - and I doubt very much if you went to an aerospace conference people would be talking about the Wright brothers, like "yeah they killed it back then!' No, it'd be about future technology and better energy consumption and getting from A to B quicker and quieter. And for me thats what surfboard design is, it's 'what does the future hold' and 'who can come up with better designs'? And 'how can we make people have a better surfing experience'?

SN: Are there any plans for further development? Can the Meyerhoffer get better?

MK: Yeah, I was in San francisco last week with Thomas and our R and D guy, Corey Davis, and next year there's four new models coming out that Thomas has designed. They range from a little 5'3" pill that goes all the way to a 9'6".

SN: A 5'3" Meyerhoffer?

MK: Well, it's not exactly a Meyerhoffer shape but it is a shape that Thomas designed and it stems from the original.

SN: When will we see these designs?

MK: 2012.

SN: Due to it's offshore production methods GSI has met some resistance from proponents of traditional surfboard manufacture, what's your defence to those people?

MK: GSI has been around for eight years now. We run twelve brands internationally. We sell boards in 55 countries. We put a lot back into the surfing industry and also at the community and competition level. We employ thousands of people in the industry. I think we do our part of putting back into the industry. I don't think we need to defend anything.

SN: But you are aware that there are some people out there who are after foam and fibreglass and supporting local shapers, some of these people resent your company and what you do?

MK: Well, there are still people out there who hate leashes. There are a lot of haters out there. The surf world seems full of small-minded haters. Good luck to them. But I'm all about the future and being the most positive influence I can be on surfing and the industry as a whole.

One of the reasons we wanted to do the Meyerhoffer in the beginning was because we were looking around the world for different shapes. We license a lot of the shapes that we sell from guys like Bob McTavish, Steve Walden and Greg Webber, we pay many millions of dollars a year in royalties to different shapers and companies that own the trademarks and the designs. For me the Meyerhoffer was trying to open the door to new designs and new thinking.

Because, after being a surfer for a long time, I thought everything was becoming a little bit the same, you take all the labels off the boards in the surf shop rack and put them on other boards, would anyone know the difference?

I want to find new designs. I want to open my door so other creative people could come knocking and say, 'Hey Mark, look at this' and I can help them commercialise it. And, I think, while Thomas is a great designer, he's a foundation stone to let other designs and designers get a foothold in the marketplace.

If we didn't pick up the Meyerhoffer design then he probably would've made twenty of them and still be in San Francisco and that'd be about it. We've been able to help commercialise that board and for him this is just the first step. I also think that there's lot of other people with great ideas out there who just need someone to help them commercialise it. Thats part of our job.

SN: Thanks Mark...

Make your own mind up - GSI offer test drives of the Meyerhoffer at these stores.