Get out your jam jars!

By now most people would have heard about the young fella who was cracked in the head by the nose of a surfboard at the Pass last week. If not you can read the story here. In the wake of the accident internet blogs lit up with varying responses to the accident, everything from mandatory safety courses to regulated board design to 'do nothing and harden the f*ck up' has been proposed.

On Tuesday this week the Byron Bay Echo ran a letter to the editor from none other than George Greenough with his response to the accident. Greenough makes the claim that the pointed nose is a 'fashion statement' and adds nothing to the performance of the surfboard. In fact, he says that having a nose is detrimental to a boards functionality. The solution he says it to get out a jam jar, twist the lid off and place it on the nose of your board, then trace a line around the lid and saw off the section that sticks out in front. Finally, glass the nose up.

Besides the increase in performance the round nose spreads the impact and minimises the damage in the event of collision. It's interesting to note that Greenough claims pointed noses are merely a fashion statement. Going back five or six years Ozzie Wright caused a fashion trend with round noses. Ozzie chopped a large section of the forward section of his boards off - looking like he was using a bucket rather than a jam lid - and rode his boards with no nose.

Ozzie's disciples promptly followed suit lopping the noses off and crabbing their way down the line aiming at the next crumbling section. Arguments were issued about the improved performance characteristics of the boards but these justifications proved hollow. Within a couple of years Ozzie was riding pointed nose boards and his disciples also reverted back. The arguments about 'performance' drifted away.

In the last couple of years Slater has raised the issue again riding boards with rounder noses everywhere from big Pipe to tiny Trestles. Of course it's nothing to do with safety but performance. Riding seriously short and low-rockered boards, Slater has made up for the lack of volume by pushing the foam forward into a round - or at least rounder - nose. His performance on the boards show that the design is valid.

Lennox Head shaper Chris Brock, ironically a contemporary of Greenough, has been shaping boards with similar outlines for years. Brock must feel vindicated now that the design has caught on. Recently we ran a series of shots of Gold Coast surfer Chris Bennetts riding a Brock 'Bean' which got a big response. The young Ibis was putting the short board everywhere and people are starting to catch onto the fact that pointed noses really are unecessary, at least when the waves are small. So perhaps ol' George does, after all, have a point. Read George Greenough's letter in full here.