Never trust Big Surf.
One very bright spot in our surfing world, over the last seven years, has been the rise of the shaper. Once relegated to windowless closets where dust and resin poison, the brave craftsman would work tireless hours in order to make others shine.
The door has been opened to the humble artisan’s closet, though, and he is now a celebrated, lauded part of our experience.
The Industrial-Surf Complex, made up of the World Surf League, Olympics, Costco etc., long used to complete, power has not taken kindly to the intrusion.
If you notice, all shaper logos have been scrubbed from each and every board for the upcoming Ultimate Surfer to air on ABC.
Boards as naked a ISA chief Fernando Aguerre’s ambition. As white as WSL CEO Erik Logan’s teeth.
Likewise, there will be no surfboard shaper logos, names, at the Olympics either per the controversial Rule 40 which declares that “only approved sponsors” may reference ‘Olympic-related terms’ i.e. no logos with athletes only allowing to thank their sponsors, including shapers, a total of seven times.
All that work, those days and weeks and months away from family, to be scrubbed clean on the world’s biggest stage.
Will the shapers revolt? Surfers have their back?
Create a sneaky hand sign like Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games?
Something that means “This one goes out to you, Jon Pyzel…” without saying the words “This one goes out to you, Jon Pyzel…
Big Surf, man.
Never trust Big Surf.
I’ve had several customers that manufacture skis and snowboards have athletes in the Olympic halfpipe and slopestyle events, including gold medalists. The general rule on the equipment has been the equipment, including graphics, have to be stock and available to any consumer walking into a retail store or online. It can’t be custom. Problem is when you are a small brand that has been supporting these athletes, you are put on blackout during the games on mentioning your athletes Olympic accomplishments. At least this year they are allowing the athletes to thank their sponsors up to 7 times in social media, this is new. If Biolos didn’t like the WSL coming down on him for reposting content, he is really going to love the IOC.
https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
While the WSL tries to own all of global surfing from the top down they make arbitary seppo content for a seppo cable channel that only seppos could watch in anyway so acually only the cable tv watching seppos will be missing out on shaper’s logos. So the WSL can take their stupid seppo show in that ridiculous seppo format and shove it right up their wide open seppo arse -which is so full of seppo shit it’s actually stinking funny as hell!
A haiku for Florida and Elo man:
Train wake pool again same
Kelly Elo money lust enviro winter brings
Allocations wear thin water wasted
By NonJohn-san
I had to click on ‘load’ comments to comment that professional surfing is a ‘load’ of bull shit!
I like how we’re all pretending that the Olympics isn’t going to be the biggest embarrassment of all time for the “sport” of surfing. Watching the worlds best bounce up and down on the shittiest of waves when the average non surfers frame of reference for surfing is a wave like Pipe is going to take the cringe factor to never before seen levels. I’ll watch it, but in much the same way you look at an accident on the freeway, grimacing but unable to tear your gaze from the carnage.
Welcome to the adult table #IOC
The IOC clearly read your story and listened BG, even before you’d published. Shapers are gonna have their moment of glory, lauded as they should in the five-ring circus. https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
looks like surf life saving – I hope this is exactly what the girls and guys are going to have to wear
Right!!!
I was just thinking about the winter Oly’s and was gonna say Snowboard brands are everywhere. Clearly that Fernando fuckstain doesn’t want to share the love and sold out the grassroots for trinkets.
I can tell you right now that “big surf” dream of having their stickers on boards at the olympics. But they are small fry next to the huge brands like adidas and nike.
Understandably if you’re forking out squillions to be official garment sponsor you don’t want gabby Medina rocking the rip curl logo on his board.
When it comes to footwear there’s wriggle room. Because you can’t force every runner to wear nikes for example. Same with bikes and so on.
I actually thought board was allowed to have manufacturer logo on it, just not sponsors.
About the TV show, who knows and who cares. If you watch ridiculousness or myth busters everything is greyed out too.
Are you sure shapers want their names involved in these shit shows?
The only surfers with bigger egos than surfers are shapers …. ?
Thinking Mctavish v Brewer … Thinking fat Hot Buttered Fitzgerald ?
An excellent point!
How many shapers do you actually know?
I get the feeling theyr a bunch of wankers
coming from you that’s a compliment!
Probably met 100 over the years ..
did you meet any that weren’t driven by ego?
Are there any in Pfizer land ??
Lots …… I was lucky enough to have a deal with SKY and had wonderful boards from Neil Cormack …..Who looked liked Jesus and was possibly one of the most calm and humble human’s I ever met ….. I once phoned him from Sydney and his biggest drama was that he couldn’t stop his kids making cubby houses out of his surfboards .
Ok the vaccine …. Is a collaboration between German BioN Tech and American Pfizer .
Maurice Cole used to shape some fine boards. Wonder what happened to that “once cool” dude!?
I think that you are going to see a lot more in the next 12 mths……and being a cool dude is probably at the bottom of the list….LOL
A lot more “boards”? Are you going to do something surf-cool? Or is this something socially awkward?
very surf cool as you put it….movie/book….an untold story from the front line trenches of surfing…the real story warts and all…..I am actually designing and shaping the best boards of my life right now ….so there will be a lot coming in the next 12 mths…but at present we are not allowed to leave Australia , until next year…
I’ll buy that!
how bout JS and DHD..MB….???
Like just about every if not all surf related products the only difference is the actual logo , so who gives a fuck.
or maybe they decided themselves and did not want their logos seen, in that “venue”
Good point, I know I’d boycott anyone who took part in this charade..
Shapers attempt to raise their voices in protest but instead hunch over, stymied by their crippling emphysema, and crack an 11am long neck instead
I approve of this message but replace long neck, with a huge doob.
Remember when they were junkies/ dealers ……then went to prison , then found GOD ?
…and got their ghost shapers to pencil in the jesusfish along the stringer as proof.
or they were pioneering every conceivable thing from drugs/women/new waves/evolving surfboard design….fuck if ya haven’t been to prison you have missed out on real life experiences…….and yeah at the end we find God , because the physical/secular, eventually failed ….so WTF is spirituality……or do you endlessly pursue the world for secular entertainment and self masturbation on how great you are or were?
Brutus ….. I thought they / you were heroes ….. living life to the fullest.
what a really weird word to describe an era , heroes, was about as far from the truth…..I think we actually thought we were Lords of the Universe……but in the end , it was just Lords of the Puny Verse!!
Brutus I am not your enemy . I often write little things tongue in cheek and not meant to be taken to seriously …..it is BG after all . What I can say , in all honesty , is that I was inspired by images of you surfing in the early 80s in Hossegor …to visit France and eventually live there , study at uni in France , surf great waves alone and integrate into the life of a tiny French village and community …. Thanks mate.
HI James I know you are not anyones enemy….I actually might sound angry but I am actually tongue in cheek a lot of the time , especially with bexy….and Otto….
pretty sensitive times and always find myself trying to correct falsehood etc….plus I am a shit stirrer……..as you know I have a very different take on life, because of my life experiences…..could see you in France soon…..as I am not able to live here anymore because of some really heavy police harassment……a new exciting adventure coming again!!
Maintain the Rage Brutus and enjoy the ride Mate . I am in France on holidays at the moment ….Lots of waves but onshore …. enjoying riding a new 6 ‘ Pyzel Shadow in the 2 ft and over range and a 5’9” 38l JS twin in the tiny stuff …. Back to Germany next week and waiting for windy frozen slop in my new local …. The Baltic Sea . Long story but we were hoping to come to live on the NSW South Coast but after 3 years of preparation and shit loads of time and money invested ….the F@ckin governing body denied my wife , a German medical specialist , the right to work as a Gynecologist in Australia( which she has done since 2007 in Germany ) …. She has the right to work ….pick pineapples , make coffee , dig holes etc and …. but not work as a doctor in Nowra or Lismore or Port Macquarie etc who are screaming out for professionals working in Women’s health . So I kinda lost the last 30 so years of my life surfing between Ulladulla and Kiana on a daily basis …. one door shuts another one opens so am slowly moving on …..
Hope the Police get off your back and the never ending surf trip continues for as long as possible for you and the family .
Wow that sucks , I know a few people who have had similar shit , but not a Dr…..life’s not lost , FFS when you see here now , it’s packed with VALS , everything has changed here so quick…it’s a new urban community with a new demographic…….I think it’s harder to watch what’s happening now , as we have lived the most incredible surf era ….especially when you’ve been a local…….
yeah the police BS certainly has been part of my life for nearly 50 years, a lot of it race base, that’s why I fire up on racism …it’s getting worse…..so actually think it will be easier to travel O/S , shape /Surf and keep teaching people to shape…..
world is a small place , see y a in the soup….and good luck with the new adventure!
Thanks ….. Happy to be alive and surfing when I get the chance.
ENJOY THE RIDE and keep the BASTARDS HONEST !
Someone needs to put together a surf contest where you have shapers surf against each other in heats. Would shapers be willing to put their brand out there in the spotlight, subject to snarky ridicule like “Don’t quit your day job!”, or “Why does your shaping not work for you?”???
Britt Merrick can surf
So can plenty of shapers. What’s your point other than stroking Britt for some weird reason? (And don’t get me wrong, Britt can surf and shape and he’s a really good person)
Most shapers can surf, the ones that can’t are like unicorns and make better boards because they’re always trying to progress even tho they can’t, it makes for a better board. The guy who can surf anything well, can surf shit boards for years and not advance.
how do you progress a design without knowing how it goes?
Surfer/designer/shapers are the ones who evolved design , as they had to surf the boards, pioneering new waves/fins/hull designs etc….
I remember an old rusty video had rusty prisendorfer surfing at restaurants in the closing credits. For a guy was either the most famous or second most famous shaper in the world at the time he was a pretty bloody average surfer. Maybe a bad back from shaping?
There was a trip for Epoxy Boards and Rusty didn’t surf ( Josh Kerr did ) but Evan and Eric Geiselmann‘s dad went bananas and won the day …..
Some of us would have no problems doing this , but imagine if the shapers had to ride their own design….do they have their own design or is it a someone else’s?
Well, if we were to follow the WSL “no consequence” Seeding Round, they should ride other shaper’s boards that Round, then ride their own thereafter.
Or what would you suggest?
the shaper has to have a team rider on his original design , and have 4 wave criterias..
1) small grovelly waves up to waist high ( shoulder high if you are Tom Carroll )
2) good waves from chest high to double o/h….
3) waves of consequence ,,, 6-12 ‘ paddle in
4) 15′ > 20′ …tow in….
we would then create a comprehensive R&D ,program where all shapers/designers surfers would have to be creative/innovative and would be the foundation for evolving surfboard design …
The CT used to do this , but now it’s all about the look and marketing ….no real quantum leaps in design and performance……that’s why everything is so mediocre now…and accepted !
This sounds likes a Stab pitch, except their usual darlings wouldn’t want to have their lack of skill openly critiqued.
Actually wrote a plan to change the WCT…..by bringing in an F1 type of manufacturers title, 2 shapers work with the team….4 surfers….do the surfing…….
I’ll send money to this concept. Love to see it!
Matt Hurworth …..He makes great Boards for Chippa , still competes , grew up at Cronulla … and is ready for the challenge …. MH !
makes boards for Margo also…
Would you prefer chest high, or over head?
💡Pfizer to release a super concentrated sharks blood infused surfboard
Guaranteed to repel sharks 81.9 % of the time and complete air revs 18.1%of the time.
Bion Tech Pfizer ….. Medicine from GERMANY ! not the dodgy Oxford English Astra Clotica ….. never forgive never forget
2-0
Yeah boi!!
LOL , Pfizer was founded in the USA ….based on the NYSE!
Or your proctologist
His work is his own reward I’m guessing.
If your into it, it’s rewarding, just like board building.
Yuk
Up the bum no babies ?
At least Matt Biolis has some recent experience in this field. He should be well prepared.
He is so PUNK ….. NOT ?
he is actually a hipster now!
Fact is shapers don’t get recognition even when they do. If your good, really good you spend your days toiling making very famous guys boards but not getting any credit, hell you gotta forge that guys signature! So you finish this beautiful blade for your favorite surfer, only to have to sign it “AKU” or “shape3d” , the godamn computer gets a signature and you don’t, how’s that for a final kick in the teeth.
The glasser and the sander are the ones who get no credit.
Oh come on now superwolf and all those abstract guys get more love than 90% of the shapers. It’s gotten more exclusive, not who it was shaped by, but who was the Glasser?
i recently met a guy who left the shaping world a while back but worked for some big names in Cali.. the story is really incredible, he said his machine could have run 24 hours a day, but he needed to maintain it so he shut it down for 4 or so. that the boards don’t see the stars warehouse until they are about to get shipped. atleast mine are made local, just not by the signatura
What if the logo is not a commercial endeavor? Say a photo of Ashole and his yellow penis head hat, or photo of Backwards Fin Beth, or some other BG insider logo?
I could build it!
And they will come