Keen readers of Swellnet will notice we've recently run a few pictorial histories of old surf labels. First up was Gash Surfboards then Headworx. We toyed with the idea of calling the column 'Dead Surf Brands' but a quick bit o' research showed some brands still registered a pulse. Yeah they might be living a hermit life sold for pounds in the south of England - think Headworx and Hot Tuna - but they're alive nonetheless. So we dropped the moniker and stuck with 'The Rearview Mirror'.

Today's peek in the mirror is Nev Future Shapes, run by energetic ginger Nev Hyman and was the transition between his cottage operation, Odyssey, and his world dominating label, Firewire.

In 1972 Nev Hyman started shaping boards in his garage in Perth's southern suburbs before starting his own label the very next year. From 1973 to 1977 he shaped Odyssey Surfboads with Phil Usher and Bruce Smith. Then in 1978 he crossed the red desert, landing in Burleigh Heads were he opened Nev Hyman Surfboards.

Nev's early advertising efforts were equal parts enthusiasm and atrocious spelling. So it was no surprise he adopted the pidgen sounding 'Neva' in his taglines: Neva look back, Neva say Neva etc etc. Fella knew how to turn a weakness into a strength.

Nev slipped into the Queensland surf industry and took the forward thinking name 'Nev Future Shapes'. He began building a team from local (Craig 'Scat' Pitchers, Dan Adler, Munga Barry), interstate (Dog Marsh, Merrick Davis, Nick Wood), and overseas (Sunny Garcia) surfers.

With a keen eye for promotion Nev made his own VHS video, 'Munga Militia', which starred "Munga and the boyz" (there's that pidgen again!). He also parlayed Guiness World Records into marketing buzz. In 1994 he built the largest surfboard ever - see last pic - then had 47 people ride atop it on the Gold Coast (in 2005 he did a similar thing with Firewire but in California). After the event, the oversized board hung over his shop like a surfing version of the Big Pineapple.

In the early 90s Nev was among the pioneers of computer shaping, involving himself in the development of the APS3000 / AKU Shaper which is now industry standard. 'Pioneers get the arrows, settlers get the land' is the old saying and Nev copped his fair share of barbs, yet he was always open about his involvement. “I shaped the original board and I shaped it without a machine,” Nev defiantly told Tim Baker at Tracks in 1991. Subseqently many of his ads offered custom shaping: "Talk personally with Nev".

In 2004 Nev folded Nev Future Shapes 'cos the future really had arrived. A meeting with Bert Burger convinced him of that. Within the year they were making Firewire together...but that's a whole 'nother story.

See also: 'Nev Hyman: From mowing foam to building homes' because the Nev Train just keeps on rolling.