I lived and grew up in Muizenberg, on the False Bay coastline, learning to surf there as a child, soon progressing on to the more powerful Atlantic side of the Cape Peninsular as a teenager.
I learned how to use fiberglass with the Sea Scouts and started to do my own ding repairs from my very first board. The book “Surfing in South Africa” had a detailed chapter on how to make your own surfboard, from design to shaping, glassing and finishing. I was a keen craftsman already and having learned to glass, I was confident that it could be worth a try. I was about fourteen years old at the time, and completely shaped, glassed and sanded to a fine finish my first board. While it was sort of made ok, it did not perform fantastically, and it took a few more shapes over the years to get better. By the time I was seventeen years old, I’d accomplished fifth place in the Western Cape Interschools Surfing Championships on a board that I’d shaped myself for maximum performance.
I did a job shadowing program with Pierre De Villiers, of then “Pacific Dream” surfboards, and was not only inspired to become a surfboard shaper, but had my mind opened to big wave surfing in Cape Town. As I learned more about boards ranging from six foot shortboards, to seven foot bigger wave guns, to eight, nine and ten footers, also expanding my wave riding to bigger, faster, hollower and deeper water, so also my passion for understanding board design grew.
Having frequently read the design articles in “Surfer” magazine, I was inspired by some discussions of the narrow boards used at Pipeline in Hawaii. After much detailed research I designed an experimental board focused on tube riding only. While compromising on manoeuvrability, the results were fantastic in deep barrels. Hallelujah
Later I was also inspired and influenced by a book on Viktor Schauberger, an Austrian Scientist who did comprehensive research in spiral reduction water flow energy, and this opened my mind to a whole new world of hydrodynamics.
Having worked for many years on racing yachts, also sailing in dinghies and windsurfing, I started to understand water flow and the quest for speed from another whole new angle. I was then better able to compare the differences to more clearly understand surfboard hydrodynamics. Sailing yachts at the top end, have progressed in leaps and bounds over the years, with the most high-performance trimarans sailing faster than the wind on advanced hydrofoils.
Recently inspired by working with Ian from Zeal Composites, and learning the beauty of the Shape 3D software, I’m excited by the possibility of taking surfboard performance to the level of progression to which sailing has already developed. With better dynamic flex characteristics, inherent properties of carbon fiber, tougher and lighter composite sandwich lamination, and maximum analytical research into hydrodynamic shapes using the vast information on the Internet and the ability to explore all the variables more fluently using computer aided design, all those hours, days and years spent in the ocean water, riding waves and gaining real experience, can now be used to follow the dream to advance wave riding equipment as extensions of our amphibiously created bodies.
