Surfboard design, an old Buggas thoughts.
When I started surfing , and like most of us then, knew very little about shape and design . Whatever Nat , Midget or Glynn Ritchie rode, we rode ,but in a few short years with Mctavish and Co. hurling out different bottoms , plan shapes and shorter lengths , an education and experimentation began and the culmination of it all is what you now see down at the beach. When everything went below 6' 5", rails and thickness at first were still related to bigger boards and the bottom shape was still the same , except for a few adventurous and very good surfers who could see that by changing the bottom shape to blend in with the planshape and rails , became wondrously faster with a maneuverability that had not been felt since the Plastic Machine days. Nowdays there is retro regeneration , and many a young surfer is discovering many an old style of board whether its long or short, personally its great to see it happening , and it is this that worries me with what some are riding , that is , boards we called dogs, cause they didn't work then, and still don't. Any wave under 3 foot you can get away with any kind of board ,but once it is over this size does your old school board excite you! na! Have a close look at all the short board shooters nowdays , they have very interesting bottoms , from channels to concave to dead flat bottoms and Flex, and combine this with the fin technology that has evolved .... its why they work . You can still have weight in say a longboard, but change the bottomshape and mix it with, what does work, and put a bit of excitement back into your surfing ,
Two different Dale Velzy shapes the first is a later model which he called THE PIG . It was restored by John Cherry in the States , the other is a 1957 CHIP style , and the guy that has had it since brand new Roy Meisel of Bare Nature is talking to Paul Joske at one of the Wood meets at Currumbin. There nearly 56 years old and they both still have a timeless shape, if ever you get the chance, have a close look, feel the rails, yep! beautiful boards.
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