RealSurf Surfers' Forum

Theres a nice little sequence on his site. Hope I can be pulling in like that at his age.

I remember the Cudgen Headland SLSC being full of Carey Kool Companions-a rectangular Deep V design with huge scimitar like fins. Bladey rails with a rolled bottom in front. All about 7'6" to 8'6".
All the older guys seemed to have bought them and quickly decided to stop surfing

I actually rode a similar shape a couple of years ago and you would really have to know what you were doing to get it going. By 1969 a lot of guys bailed out because they couldn't ride shorter boards. In two or so years the boards had dropped from mals to those deep vs, 7' pintails then 5'10" square tails. Great for grommets but no good for older surfers. It kept getting smaller after that. Lots of 5'6" a few 5'3" and I remember someone with a backyard 4'11" with a 3" fin

Early 70s it went long again for a lot of surfers.

yes beanpole
your memory seems to be ok''

i dont think this thread was about bob the surfer (that is well documented)

i thought it was about bob the spin king''
unless you were in a shaping bay with allthese guys coming & going
then you would not nearly understand what actually was realy happining in such a short time

True, but the people trying to make sense of what was going on when they bought a new board probably had a harder time then than ever. McTavish has always been a good salesman thats for sure and he has never been afraid to stick his kneck out.
From memory most Sydney boards plus a lot of McTavish's bluebird type models didn't get a very favorable response on the Gold Coast because they were all too fat.

I don't think that the average punter going in to a board maker or other place where boards were sold in late '66 or early '67 would order a short board. The only people surfing them were those involved in their making or those associated with the makers. Longboards lived on for some time after the shortboard revolution.

If I remember correctly, other surfers thought we were stupid for riding them and it did take some time before we could surf them to any level of confidence and ability, especially in anything over 4ft or on point breaks. It was the possibilities that drew us in ... and those possibilities (as is often the case) were not realised until the next generation, which in this case was the North Narra guys like Fitzgerald, Warren, Dappa, Wick and others.

People see possibilities, others create those possibilities, while others realise those possibilities and then still others fuck up those possibilities (usually by regulation or formalisation) or the enlightened ones move on to new possibilities.

I have no doubt that McTavish was the leader and the guru. I also have no doubt that his boards were shithouse to surf compared to others in his group ... but he was the one who saw the future.

If anyones seen Hot Generation you kind of see the change through the movie which ends at Honolua Bay. Nat looks to be riding these boards like a shortboard largely I guess because of his size relative to the board.

I can safely say that you wouldn't walk into many surfshops on the gold coast circa 1970 and find a board over about 6'4". 5'10" was the norm. My first board was a 7foot pintail some older guy had shaped but that was considered only suitable for a learner. It was ancient history.They simply couldn't sell old stock. No one would buy it. Joe Larkin was the shop with the best shapers.

The only person we ever saw on a mal was a mates uncle who was an airline steward. He used to ride a bike and had a flat top. Everyone just thought he was totally oncool.

I think Nat and McTavish had to make radical physical changes to their boards after they got to Hawaii to make them work.

I remember McTavish explaining to me one day at Keyo's how his boards were going to allow him to go vertical at Sunset and him drawing pictures of how each step in the manoeuvres would work. Turns out his boards just spun out on the bottom turns because of the width in the tails (he thought the deep Vs would overcome this). He spent most of his time swimming (pre leggies).

However, in my memory of the dim distant past I think the above events may have been separated by a couple of months. I vaguely recall that the era of the fantastic plastic machine predated the shortboard revolution - just.

I was just watching the Beatles on Max and I thought the parallel was interesting. McTavish and those around him - Nat, Spencer, Platt, Russel Hughes, Wayne Parkes, Keith Paul, Baddie, and many others - were not just guys who came up with a new direction in surfing. They were the best longboarders of that era. In fact, they were so far ahead of the others and what had preceded them that they had nowhere else to go but to find a totally new direction. Their frustration with the equipment's capabilities inspired the short board revolution. McTavish was the one who saw it.

If anyone has any interest in this topic they should talk to Baddy or Neal Purchase (snr) as they were right in the middle of it and were about the only one's who weren't totally off their face at that time.

Hawaii was a totally different set of circumstances and requirements.

About three years ago I put away my preconceived ideas about McTavish's boards and bought one. Got to say they are still as shithouse today as they were then, maybe more so!

You mean some of them were out of it on drugs

...

This is off-topic, but further back in this thread I mentioned a board by Jim Pollard.

So this is for Pridmore, who wanted to see it...only one shot I'm afraid, because the owner had sold it by the time I got to him, and only had this one...

I did'nt measure it up when I had my hand's on it, so no specs...sorry MP...but, fark it was a nice one, the one shot does'nt do it justice.

Josh
http://www.joshdowlingshape.com

why don't ppl ride boards like that anymore

mustkillmulloway wrote:why don't ppl ride boards like that anymore

Because you need thunder thighs to turn it?

Its a nice one hey, the classic garage sale find, which never happens to me!

JD

Looks similar to TF's earlier shapes.

It would undoubtably require some serious back foot stomp to turn it.

There was an article in SW on Pollard with Phil Bryne quoted giving him his due for channel shaping and the influence he had/has on Byrnes shaping, article featured a board with channels through the length of the board, funky looking. Couple of months ago the issue came out.

speedneedle wrote:

mustkillmulloway wrote:why don't ppl ride boards like that anymore

Its a nice one hey, the classic garage sale find, which never happens to me!

JD

it has a degree beauty rarely seen let alone surfed

the construction ....how i would loved seen and learn how it was glassed

they built em different in them days i think

as far turning...pfft.....given the chance one decent fade on a decent takeoff would suffice

i see soooooooooo many guys trying escape the standard shorty sufing style by getting a fish or something...than trying surf it exactly wat they tried escape

this design would offer no choice but surf new lines

I remember an article where Wayne Lynch said he wasn't interested in turning. All he wanted to do was take off and pull in. This has more cred coming from someone who invented the backhand re entry

mustkillmulloway wrote:the construction ....how i would loved seen and learn how it was glassed

Pigment tint, trim laps. There's a little lightening bolt/zigzag in the rail pinline thats actually cut in the glass.

Still off-topic in relation to the original thread, but indeed these guys did'nt so much surf off the back foot as trim from the middle. Wayne still shapes (occasionally...!) boards like that Pollard.

JD

i see soooooooooo many guys trying escape the standard shorty sufing style by getting a fish or something...than trying surf it exactly wat they tried escape

this design would offer no choice but surf new lines [/quote]

Now THAT would make an interesting thread discussion.

watching Bells and a surfer was trimming across the wave and it looked kind of good and the commentator said "he's just doing nothing he needs to turn soon" which is correct for comps but still looked nice, apparently one of the Fitzgerald kids surfed a Drifta (early eighties design) in a WQS comp (I think) and drew different lines, not sure how he went but feedback was positive.......