Revolution Undermine
Today's Wave of the Day on Swellnet shows Tom Carroll standing in a turquoise Padang Padang pipe. There are a couple of notable aspects to the photo: Tom's forward positioning on the board; his back foot connected only by the big toe; and, perhaps most strikingly, the diminutive size of his board. A quick email exchange with Tom uncovered its length – just 5'7". Tom also explained that he was riding a 5'9" earlier in the session but, incredibly, decided it was too long so swapped it for an even smaller board.
It wasn't that long ago that riding a 5'7" board in serious waves was considered a red-letter statement.
Recently, US surf website, Surfline, ran a feature on Tom Curren's famed 1994 trip to the Hinakos Islands in northern Indonesia. More than just the quality of the waves they found, the trip was distinguished by a single session at Bawa, a Sunset Beach-like righthander, and the surfing equipment Tom Curren rode there.
On waves that seemingly required Hawaiian-length guns, indeed he began the session on a 7'10", Curren rode a 5'7" Fireball Fish shaped by Tommy Peterson and did the best surfing of the session.
Before continuing some historical context is required: At the time, surfboard design was going through a stage of rigorous uniformity. Innovation was happening, Greg Webber and Al Merrick were making wafer-thin, highly-rockered boards, about 6'2" in length. That equipment worked for their top riders, Shane Herring and Kelly Slater, however the majority of the surfing world followed in sheep-like lockstep. In 1994 surfing's collective mindset was at complete odds to today's 'anything goes' ethos.
So when Curren surfed 12 foot waves on a bizarre 5'7" board it sent metaphorical shockwaves around the world (as a sidenote: in 2004 a massive earthquake – the third largest ever recorded – sent literal shockwaves around the world and destroyed the reef at Bawa). In the recent Surfline feature, author Marcus Sanders, called it 'The Quiet Revolution' attributing the session to the subsequent resurgence of fish surfboards and a wholesale reduction in board length.
I don't dispute Sanders' theory but would like to broaden the scope of it. Rarely does one person create a revolution on their own. McTavish and Brewer fashioned the original shortboard revolution while working independently from different countries. Hell, if we wanna look outside the surfing bubble, punk was simultaneously created on three continents with the Ramones, the Sex Pistols, and The Saints, their music and attitude largely unknown to each other but all reacting against common antagonists.
The 'common antagonist' for Curren was the staid design atmosphere that prevailed in surfing, yet he wasn't alone in his thinking.
In 1996 Andrew Kidman and Jon Frank released the movie Litmus. It was a well-shot but low-key and introspective affair that largely concerned itself with surfers on the periphery of the surfing bubble. One of the best sequences of the film was a visit the filmmakers paid to Derek Hynd, then living at Jeffreys Bay. Hynd surfed a number of boards but it was a few waves on a 5'8" Skip Frye fish that stood out.
Afterward Hynd riffed on the fish, calling it the fastest board he'd ever ridden. He also explained the design trail that led to it. "This board's father, a 5'11", was ridden by T.C. [Tom Curren] a couple of years ago and led to the interest in retro small boards."
In the late-80's and early-90's Derek Hynd worked for Rip Curl, his lasting legacy being 'The Search' campaign, a marketing marvel that Rip Curl still use more than twenty years later. The Rip Curl connection brought Derek Hynd and Tom Curren together, both were conspicuous in their apathy to prevailing trends and their offbeat influences rubbed off on each other.
I'd argue that, in Australia at least, Litmus and the surfing of Derek Hynd did more to revolutionise board design than Curren did at Bawa. Whereas Curren's performance was out-of-the-box freakishness, Hynd's was easier to relate to for the average surfer. And for those who felt hobbled by wafer-thin rocker ships those few waves at J'Bay lit the way to another design path: short, wide, voluminous.
At roughly the same time in Southern California, Matt Biolos knocked out a funky, trend-bucking board for team riders, Corey Lopez and Chris Ward. At 5'5" x 19 1/4" the dimensions were so bizarre they were a perfect billboard for Biolos' burgeoning surfboard label and his dicking-with-the-straights attitude. Sensing a promotional opportunity Biolos made the movie 5'5" x 19 1/4" in 1998. 5'5" x 19 1/4" defied the orthodoxy while still showcasing state-of-the-art surfing.
Interestingly, the namesake board wasn't actually a fish in the traditional Steve Lis sense (it's also debatable if Tommy Peterson's Fireball was either), the tail was pulled in like a late-70's MR twinny. Yet what it proved was that length wasn't as defining as once thought. Boards could go shorter as long as the foam was put elsewhere.
By the end of the 90's the influences of Curren, Hynd and Biolos – and likely others too – were being felt throughout the wider surfing world. The average surfer began to incorporate design aspects those three popularised into their own boards. And for the first time since the advent of professional surfing did recreational surfers ride obviously different boards than those being ridden on the World Tour. A trend that's continued to this day.
Comments
Did you guys ask TC the other dimensions of that board? (width and thickness) weird to see TC on such a short board, his boards always looked longer than anyone else.
I love short boards, have always ridden boards shorter than those around me, although there is negatives, to going real short you have to go wider and less rocker, and I find boards with very low rocker kinda fickle, one wave you do the best turn of your life then the rest of the surf the board just doesn't feel like its fits the waves curves, like a square peg in a round hole, I also find it real hard to swap from a more standard HPSB to a real short fishy kind of board of Biscuit or Potato type board
Im over the real short boards for that reason, but that in between size (5,8-5,10 X 19.5 X 2, 3/8) that you can still have a bit of rocker but still paddle well are good.
picked the board lenghth straight away always used to seeing tommy gun on a 6'6 plus and more stance toward the tail than most, on full zoom this pic shows a weird looking fin setup ? or does it ? is it a thruster ?
Good spotting Udo, he's got the quad setup on this one.
@ID,
Nah, don't know the other dimensions, except it was a Mike Baron quad.
Also, I'm with you, I've always ridden boards slightly shorter than everyone else. When the whole rocker ship/banana board thing was happening I was looking for design inspiration from, of all people, Vetea David! Yeah, seriously, I rode 5'10 -5'11' full-railed, low rocker things and was the butt of plenty of jokes. Wish I could've done a decent impersonation of his Tahitian accent: "People laugh at me, but I beat dem on dis board!"
At the time I liked boards you had to overcome, so the flatter the better - up to a point of course. Just about the polar opposite of the lively, reactive rocker ships. I've still got a few of those bulky old homages to the Tahitian warrior sitting under the house.
Also, it was a laugh digging through the old mags to find the photos for this story. Looking through modern eyes it seemed every surfer in 1994 was riding their step up board. The average board was only 4-5 inches longer than today, but jeez it makes a difference.
some pics of your poto pigs stu, luv to see them.
Here are two of them Udo. Not good shots, you can't see how thick the rails are:
http://s114.photobucket.com/user/stunet/media/Boards/PCCSpray.jpg.html?s...
http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n245/stunet/Boards/PCCWaterColour.jpg
Both boards I had around '95-'96.
I dont know where Cheyne Horan fits in to this, but nots let forget him surfing Waimea on a 5,8
http://www.swellnet.com.au/news/3221-waimea-bay-on-a-5-8-two-surfers-rav...
Board-talk & historicising...always interesting. Help me out here...where do Parmenter's stubb-vectors fit in the time-line? Also, I recall a Sarge flick where there's footage of Curren defeating Hoy in a heat in France on an old Skip Frye looking twinnie (memorable not only for the equipment and the surfing on said equipment...Hoy even has a crack!...but also because of the horrendous cliched super-excited-seppo voice-over of one of the George brothers...I'm guessing the bald one responsible for the abortion that was IN GOD'S ANUS or whatever)...the year?? I guess I could google-bot but fuck it...I don't get paid for THAT!
Also, howzabout Dana Nicely, Vinny Bryan, Bunker Spreckels (they know how to do names in the States!) & Bob Smith (er, um)...and the EDGE boards circa 67!? Check that shit! Electric sunshine!
Good article Stu,
Poto was a mentor, his backhand bottom turn was so powerful.
Was he the pioneer of choopes?...
The PCC watercolour on the board is that Burliegh Heads?
Classic spray jobs.
everything old is new again.
these sized boards were ridden in the early - mid 80's especially by Tom Carrol and, as Indodreaming pointed out, Cheyne Horan.
i think that these days anything goes in the design sense which is good to see
Ridden a 6'2" fish through it all ........... http://www.zigzag.co.za/multimedia/the-shaper-short-film/
I remember Midget writing a very authoritative article I think for Tracks a long time back, the gist of which was the dialectic in design history between the "pig and the gun". We gun it up, we pig it down, we gun it up, we pig it down. On each swing we always too far and eventually we retrace our steps, usually when an iconoclast like Curren or Hind or Slater or Cheyne or whoever starts being heretical and doing things that aren't meant to be done. But the cool thing is on each swing of the pig/gun pendulum we learn something new that stays with us forever. Nice piece Stunet.
Thanks a lot Grazza. Typical of Midget to take the overarching longview. Jeez, I'd like to get a hold of that article by him. Mighty Mouse, you out there? Can you help?
@Welly,
Nah, the watercolour is Cronulla Point. It didn't really work as a painting. The airbrush though, yeah, I dig the odd spray.
I'm moving house this weekend so have to pack up all my old boards, I'll check the dimensions on those from the 90s.
I think I should go counter cyclical and get a 7'6" small wave board......or maybe a 15ft olo board.
Or maybe a bark canoe....?
Plastic zen
World Titles-1970? Most Australians apart from Midget and maybe Keith Paull were riding sub 6ft boards made for steep smallish waves.Rolf Aurness and a bunch of Hawaiians and Americans were riding Brewer influenced mini-gun outlines which seemed to skate over large flat Bells waves where the Australian boards were bogging.Rolf won the contest in nice steep waves at Johanna and all of a sudden our boards got longer and rakier until people were riding radical narrow pin-tailed keels in unsuitable surf.If the whole contest had been at Johanna the small boards may have triumphed(Drouyn was in the final on a standard short board) So it goes...Round and round,up and down. "Turn to the left...Turn to the right"
The board makers must love boards getting this short, less materials and sold for the same price! I hope boards get even shorter as I just keep getting more and more waves on my bigger boards, bring it on I say!!
They may be shorter but they are wider so no real cost savings in cloth or resin. Maybe if you were churning out 100's of boards there might be a small saving, but with cloth at $3.80/m they are not getting fat off a few inches less cloth.
In fact, looking around at blanks for a small board around 5'3 a la merrick biscuit it is hard to find a suitable blank that doesn't need a lot of foam ploguhed off. I paid more for a 5' mini simmons blank then I do for a 6'3 HPSB blank at shapers/ south coast foam.
Great Article Stu. What fails to be noted is the influence of this so called revolution. I call it a de- evolution and and backwards progression to kneeboards. Derek Hind on his finless boards might as well kneel down as he has to squat so low as to lower his centre of gravity. We kneelos have been riding small boards on big waves for more than 4 decades.It just takes the footboarders a while to actually see what is happening under their noses from Greenough to Crawford to Parkes and Nov and Farrer.
Interesting comments Budgie. Bunker & the gang were cross-breeding in this department in the late 60s (see my comment above)...I'm sure there are other less/un-documented examples from other regions & other times. "The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting" - Milan Kundera
Budgie there was a moment in the early seventies when kneeboarders were probably technically ahead courtesy of Greenough and PC but it was only a moment and from what I saw there wasn't much progress until Farrer who at his peak was the most progressive surfer at Narrabeen bar none. The question is who's next?
Although they are shorter than the 90's and as short as some of those early numbers the sophistication in rail, bottom contours, thickness distribution and even outline is like night a day. I remember riding a 5'10" twinnie back in the early 80's and it was uncontrollable once it got juicy. The 5'9" I ride today can ride anything up to solid 6' as long as it is smooth and it paddles really well for my light weight. If it gets big, chunky with a bit of chop, more length makes it heaps easier. I recently took my old 6'2" gun out in solid overhead cross shore and it was like a cadillac, smooth and cruisy compared to the 5' 9" which was useless in those conditions.
The reference to Andrew Kidman .... my memories of those DVDs also includes boards by Mick Mackie and of recent times of Kidman riding 5'10" x 211/2" x 23/8" board he called the Dreamboard at maxing Kirra in 2008 while Fanning and Martinez were being towed in ... pages 96 & 97 of Kidman's 2010 book Lost in the Ether.
Checkout the link below to see pics of the Dreamboard in action & Mick's website
Dreamboard .... http://www.andrewkidman.com/surfboards/dreamboard/
Mackie .... http://mackiesurfboards.com.au
It still goes back to how someone likes to ride a board, quick turns and snaps or drawn out turns and carves. Every board has it's place.
Plus Tom Carrol is riding a 5'7 board, which is 7 inches taller than him!
surfed a 6.3' rond tail short board all around australia for 2 years, after watching Ozzie Wrong surfing style a decided to try his 5.8' surf board and bloody love it...
I bought it 2 years ago and just use it every where, surfed up to 3 meters waves in the south west and still handle the board.. small board became a bit shaky in big waves and they don t have as much paddle power, but there are so much fun it is worth the few more wipe out in biggers waves.......
loving my 5.8'...
Just a comment re the evolution of punk- Ramones , sure , give you that one, Pistols - well,Malcolm Maclaren was the genius/bastard there but the Saints - no no no - they were baby rockers at the feet of their idols the incomparable Radio Birdman.
Their last show at the Manly Vale Hotel.....epic.
Re boards - it might just have been one exceptional dude but at my local break this bean pole turned up one day and absolutely tore it up riding a lid.Standing up.There is a future direction for you all to ponder.The works - re entries, 360s , cutbacks tube riding. Amazing to see.
@MR,
I used to be a Birdman devotee. Although I was too young to see 'em live I had the patch, the albums, the box set, read the book, knew the history. And although I also knew the music of The Saints I didn't give them the same credence as I did Radio Birdman.
But, 20 or so years later, and with all the baggage that came with Birdman's history and their resurrection swept away I listen to both bands in a new light. In my opinion the first two Saints album blow away anything Birdman did. It's clear that Birdman hung onto the Stooges/MC5 template of heavy 12-bar blues and it's like a millstone around their neck. Meanwhile, The Saints, and Ed Kuepper's guitar in particular, is utterly ferocious, more aggressive, less formulaic, then Birdman.
A revolution has to overthrow what came before it and Birdman, in my eyes, didn't do that. The Saints did.
The Saints - Erotic Neurotic
Crank that shit up...
Fair enough Stu but the Birdmen did flame out as was expected in that time.....
Laughing Clowns ? great fun and all but that was almost glamrock!
5'7" at Padang!!..pffft
the Scientists??
Yeah, maybe, though they might've been just a tad behind the first wave of punk? Sounds ridiculous saying that as they first formed in '78 but I'm referring to the bands at the very cutting edge. Plus they didn't really define their sound till the 80's. The later influence they had on Green River and Mudhoney is worth a mention.
Other front running punk bands? Could prolly include the Dead Boys, Panic/Black Flag, and The Germs.
yup. blag flag def a contender but alas your knowledge of punk greatly surpasses mine. but i believe blag flag may have had influence on fugazi. Faark i love Fugazi.
Sydney punk scene 1970s-Civic Hotel, Liverpool Street Tuesday nights. Mandarin Club on some other nights.
After that - well the Numbers,the Reels( who can forget/remember their stylist Mitch the Hair Butcher?)and Jimmy and the Boyz with Joylene Hairmouth.
Jesus Christ - I had a great fucking time! Don't know how I ever ended up there but drink driving was the norm and drugs were cheap.....Yeah!
@mr Jimmy and the Boys! I had almost forgotten them they were a great live band, saw them several times though the wheres and whens elude me. I'll crank my memory up and see what else emerges from that era!
any one for a guess what size board Benjamin sanchos is riding at thumping nias, 6'1 -6'3
wheres Sancho ,vimeo
was a quad I think.
I would argue that Tommy Curren was under-gunned that surf...re-check the footage, he's ripping no doubt but he would have fared better on a conventional gun that day.
Sometimes we need to go back and take another look at things...case in point for myself was the Larry Blair / Wayne Lynch showdown at Nth Steyne. I was standing on the beach watching it that day, and as awesome as it was when I revisited the footage recently I was shocked at how much smaller the waves were than I recall. I think there are still a lot of people who would tell you that the waves were 6-8ft that day...the surfing was awesome though...no disrespect to Larry, but Wayne won that heat.
Here's the footage Pete
Some great barrels from 2:20 onwards, and it looks 3-5ft, but nearly as good as North Steyne gets!
Larry's barrel at 4:40 is amazing, but then Wayne's backdoor barrel the next wave is super critical!
From the video I'd say Larry got the best of it.
Memory is a funny thing, eh Pete? Our mind's eye only replays the highlights reel, but not only that, it somehow makes things bigger and better too. Perhaps it's in all the re-telling that things get skewed upward? Or perhaps that's how we want to remember it?
But the Curren/Bawa session: methinks it wasn't so much HOW good he was surfing - as you say it wasn't that good - but that he could get out there and do it at all. After 5-10 years of staid, follow-the-leader board design where small waves = small board and big waves = big board it was a shock to the collective system to see him surf large waves on diminutive craft. Curren fucked with the equations and got people rethinking the possibilities.
Wow, North Steyne is pumping in that clip.
Great clip from WWoS back in the day. I think I still have this on vid back home.
Classic commentary from Shaun Tomson- 'It's a real tuube riiding tussle out there' and cool mid heat interview with Larry. Was that Nat Young doing the interview?
Agreed Ben, about as good as a beachie gets.
Imagine interviewing a Pipe Masters finalist mid-final in the lineup? That's what's missing from ASP webcasts these days, I tells ya.
Haha, yeah that mid-heat interview was classic, Larry giving Wayne nothing at all.
And yeah Zen, it was Nat Young doing the interview.
Helloo all, all board construction undergoes transitional change, generaly based on economies of scale, (self constructed thru to backyard, small business to major manufacture.) Same can be said for so called "Big 3". Started small,grew and over grew. Some Keysian economics theory does apply. Supply and demand exists, otherwise I would not be writing this, And the Law of Diminshing Returns also applys, companies that ignore this law will fail.
Meanwhile where I live,I just go surfing when I can and dont wear any
particular brands, just what suits me...fit well comfortable and what I can afford. Having said that I question profitabily of certain manufacturers and that also includes many out side so called "Big 3"
I was once a sponsored surfer, gave that up many moons ago,
and so to close, from an Alby Falzon movie and some good crypic advice. "You cant step on the same peice of water twice."
Thanks for listening,
Verdt
Larry Blair went on to win the 78 and 79 pipe masters...at proper big pipe. Tommy Carroll is a freak who can surf anything in any conditions...a true inspiration to us all.
Revolution?. Or marketing?
Hi craig. I was on the beach at North Steyne for that final. Great surfing and a real turning point in Australian surfing history. The media went ape shit over Larry's wave and Larry's good looks. Coke got far more than their money's worth in publicity and so increased the viability of the Australian leg of the newly born pro circuit. Take that one wave out of it, Wayne wins, hates publicity, probably refuses to even pose with a Coke can....it could all have been so different.
Wow, massive turning point indeed! Thanks for sharing that blindboy.
Nice one, BB. It's easy to see how conspiracy theorists find and shape their material. Coke influencing the judging for future Coke profit etc..
If you want to go there it is worth researching the composition of the judging panels at some of the early pro events. Chief judge at Bells for example.
talking about influencing the outcomes of the BIG picture.......
Conspiracy theory alert: Zosea now operates the ASP - I think.Maybe they own it? Anyway what better way to ramp up viewer's expectations than a tight fight to the very end for the next world championship?
Kelly wins number 12 or is it 13? Too many for any healthy interest in
competition to emerge and energise the masses to get out there and buy more crud from Quikripabong.......so he forgets to wax his feet or something and we suddenly have a 'real' competition on. Or do we?
Zosea was founded by an ex-executive at Quik and Kelly Slater's long term business manager. You decide.
Once they buy SportingBet's surfing division we'll know that the industry is developing just right.
Would you look at this heaping ball of meaningless fuckall... shoots, there's more drama queens up in here than a Westerly Windina luau at Lady Jane beach.
come on Roller we all know it was you that shot JFK.
And sawed down the first 10 footer and decided that a logo would be cool for young ones on their boardies....
That was after riding a mat at Avalanche and as I remember planting the first pineapple on Lanai.
Dispossession, localism, vegetarianism - it is all your influence.
Just adjust your tinhat a bit to the left to cover that tumour and it will become clear!
Oh and bit weird about being uncomfortable with our liberated sexually diverse lineup too.
love the shorter boards, its just a matter of getting the other design elements right...its not just going shorter...I been riding a fave 5'4" 5 finner for 2 years now in waves from 1-5ft, fat crap to open pits...when I was a grom I rode 6'3" x 19" x 2 1/2", now at 40 I am riding a 5'4" x 20 5/8" x 2 11/16"....really depends on the design I think, for this particular design ( the Dumpling ), when I originally rode it, felt too small, but now it feels just right....surfers can adapt and once ya do, ya surfing goes to different places....
I reckon its great to see all of the sheep riding boards that are too short and wide to make sections, then if they do make a section their boards are tracking so badly from all the speed, which is not that much really. Marketing to the masses.
Does anyone realise the money that is being spent on boards that just don't work. Unless you are so talented that you are making a living from free surfing these short fat, flat, wide pigs will ruin your surfing. Most of the top 32 ride conventional boards cause they work the best.
If you want to take your surfing to different places get a passport and start filling it up with different places.
Even in tiny crap waves a high performance shortboard will out perform a retro short fat flat pig.
Nothing beats solid rail turns and power surfing, ride longer boards and do bigger turns. Unless you are Kelly Slater, then you can do whatever you want.