While in Wave Front Surf Shop one day this week I took notice of a new Boardworks model that was white with a faux wood stringer painted on it. Boardworks of course being a molded board it’s usually pretty easy to tell them apart from the traditional foam and fiberglass boards, but the white with a faux wood stringer board could fool you for a minute. I find it curious that surfboards that aren’t made with traditional materials and methods still follow the traditional colors and lines.
Seeing that board and then receiving some pictures from my e-mail friend Barry of Dale Velzy got me to thinking again about the future of surfboards. So this may go along with my post of
What we now call the Surf Board Industry had its beginnings just 50 or so years ago. And the number of guys that are still at it that started with either wood boards or the early foam boards is a very small piece of the overall builders pie. Shaping a board out of a big block of foam, learning the process by trial and error and looking up to those that did it before and learning from them is the tradition of shaping and making surfboards.
This tradition is very important to surfing history. It is core to what surfing is about. And as more and more years are added to surfing history or, as surfing gets older so too do the remaining shapers that were brought up in the tradition get older. There will come a time when they are only in pictures. The boards they made will remain though, held by those that honor the tradition.
The late Dale Velzy in his shaping room.Some may not see the point in the shaping tradition, and that’s fine, but the fact that it’s possible with your hands and eyes to sculpt a finely foiled and balanced object to ride waves on is really pretty incredible. Well, with the help of a computer a machine can do that! That’s correct, and any bone head can be shown in short order how to finish the machined blank off. And there are those in
An interesting side note…. I was acquainted with this guy some years ago that was a pattern maker. He worked for a big sports equipment company. His job was to make the patterns for the wood drivers in a set of gulf clubs. The company had very sophisticated computer controlled machines to make the patterns but they found the end result wasn’t good enough… it needed to be tweaked by hand. The human hand and eye did a better job. If I remember right they ended up ditching the machine process altogether and my friend ended up making the patterns from scratch.
The hand shaped tradition.
D.R.
4 comments:
Hi Dennis, I totally agree with your drift. The guys who designed these shapes spent years and many changes getting to where they are now and I wonder if we will progress when they are gone and computers are doing all the work. A surfer can't sit down with a computer and discuss what he would like his board to do better and discuss a suble change that can be made. I'm sure many boards were shaped that just didn't work but by doing this you learn and it has got us to where we are .It's good to look back so that you can move forward .Unfortunatly today's world is all about money and if it is not'financially viable' then in most cases it doesn't happen.It's time some shapers were treated with the respect that they deserve and were paid accordingly instead of just taking their knowledge and copying it.
Sorry I am ranting a bit but it worries me where the industry will be in twenty years from now. Tim
That’s ok Tim, rant if you like. Actually, you can sit with the computer and make subtle changes to a board design. My lament, I guess, is there may be a time when the act of creating a surfboard shape with head, hands and eyes and those that have the experience and ability to do so are done.
D.R.
Hi Dennis, a good rant does make me feel better. I understand you can make subtle changes to a board on a computer but my point was if you are discussing these changes with a shaper then you are using all his years of knowledge for him to put into the computer.If we end up with people who only know how to programme shapes and don't have 40 years of experience handshaping then I don't see the industry progressing as much.Also I feel that a handshaped board is like a piece of art because every one is different . Listen to me talking about progression , I only really ride Classic's mabye that's really why I am scared that we are going to lose all of the Legends !
Ha Ha while I'm on a roll , I can't see sites like this or sways existing when computers rule the world!
Respect Tim (sat at his computer)
Yeah Tim, I know what you mean. Things may progress but if what you have is computer design guys and or machinists then that's what you have. But not guys that can shape.
D.R.
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