“The most dominant force in surfing around the world…”
They sure don’t make ‘em like ol Geoff McCoy anymore and maybe there’ll never be another like him. A child of the fifties and sixties, a man of the seventies and eighties, unsullied by the viruses of the modern world.
The legendary surfboard shaper and designer whose no-nose concept paved the way, at least partly, for the modern thruster outline has died in Tasmania, aged seventy-six.
Geoff McCoy, described so poetically by Matt Warshaw as “creative, intense, cocksure” is best-known for his Lazor Zap design, a tear-drop shaped surfboard with a big ass and a needle dick that Cheyne Horan rode to consecutive world title runner-up finishes in 1981 and 1982.
Geoff McCoy’s Lazor Zap surfboard design—generically called the “no-nose—looked incredibly sexy and futuristic, but was skittish and high-floating and drive-free and more or less impossible to ride unless you were Cheyne Horan. Harder to surf than a twin-fin? Difficult to say. Pick your poison. The twin-fin was like riding a bar of soap, the Lazor Zap was like riding an air-mattress pumped up to 75 PSI. Anyway, it didn’t matter. Saint Simon of Narrabeen mooted this no-win choice in 1981 by introducing the Thruster, and in its protean glory the tri-fin remains the sport’s board of choice. We were saved.
Through the late seventies and early eighties, McCoy surfboards was killing it, a Lost, a Channel Islands, selling his boards worldwide.
In 1984, McCoy lost everything when a biz manager split leaving him with almost half-a-million dollars in debt.
McCoy never recovered from the setback, at least financially, and drew a narrative that he was being crushed by the “industry”, although he continued to shape in his little factory there in Tweed Heads.
Apart from the Lazor Zap, you could buy a Quazor Zip, an Astron Hot or a Nugget.
Hey y’all. Surfboards aren’t meant for piercing skin like arrows and swords. Thin tailed boards bog and sink in most cases while turning and carving. A convex bottom with thick proper rails turns way easier and quick with much more power, spray, and speed flow. Soft thick boards are what waves and water like. Don’t judge according to appearances.
I don’t agree nor like what Matt Warsaw says about Geoff. I have modern versions of his models and he perfected them. Three are single fins and one is a three fin. These boards absolutely rip and shred. When it comes to turning, flow, tube riding, and speed they are better than anything out there right now. My smallest is a 6’2″ Astron Zot single gull wing fin. It rips more than anything I’ve ridden. It was throwing fin with Arial tail chucks out the back and air dropping into the flats every time once I found that magic fin location using the extended tip gull wing fin. Before that board I rode Liddle Displacement Hulls for two years (because I dedicate my all into learning a new or certain surfboard design). But it made me so front footed that it ruined my high performance type surfing. With small McCoy it took some perseverance and time to get it, but once I did it shredded like nothing else with so much power, more and thicker violent spray going up off my rails, quick unpredictable direction changes, and super radical upside down hard hits off the lip. You draw such different lines on it and with freedom. Tube riding easier, deeper, and faster letting me take my time taking off and popping up to my feet in no hurry forever under thick double up lips on steep round thick tubes so easily. It sticks to the wave face. Once you learn to relax and just stand upright on your back foot not only will you do back side bottom turns and other stuff with barely moving your ankle, but when you get on thin HP surfboards you’ll surf much better because you have that technique that won’t allow you to dig rail as even many CT pros do due to being front footed which doesn’t keep the rail and fin in the water. Why do you think the style masters from Current to Andy to Ewing look long like Current or glance quickly like Andy Bruce or Ewing at or towards the nose of their board while initiating a bottom turn? It’s body mechanics which automatically keeps pressure on the back foot using the rail as a fin and keeping the fins in the water. I also have a 7’2″ Astron Zot that’s parallel railed. I had the best surf session of my life on it in 15 foot faces in Palm Beach Florida breaking on the outside reef like indo on February 8, 2016. I was only 160 pounds and this board was huge like a gun for me. I caught a zillion waves that day. Got barrelled so much and due to the speed and power of the waves and my light weight the board would lift out of the water like a hover board and stay upright and not bounce with blinding speed and such an exhilarating feeling like my soul was shouting and about to fly out of and about to leave my body. It was lefts north to south grinding hardly no one out. A photographer took a picture of me paddling into a wave super early the most epic pic of Florida and he said it was Delray Beach, but it wasn’t it was Palm Beach near the Breakers hotel. I have a narrower three fin Nugget 6’6″, and an 8’4″ single fin Pot Belly Nugget that is for riding off the tail like a short board off the back foot and it does the tightest quickest 180° turns and zips back down the line super quick. I’ve had the 5’10” modern Three fin Lazor Zap in tuflite but not anymore. My small Astron Zot would be riding a super fast almost closed out wave and I’d do a super quick 180° carving turn with spray right in the pocket repeatedly and some how it kept going down the line and make every section. In the barrel it automatically rides high or mid face and it really slots itself perfectly in the spot with it not wanting to go to the bottom of the wave or troughfor me to get pounded by the lip like concave flat bottoms do. I recommend for y’all to get a three fin Nugget, it has parallel rails. Unless you have talent good reflexes or learned on a single fin and your committed to mastering the Single fin. I’ve used all three gull wing fins. The straight tip made me do such a different type of surfing, an unrealistically quick succession of bottom turn top turn bottom turn top turn like firing a six shooter, but every bottom turn and top turn sounded like same, like throwing the biggest spray, swash swash swash swash! I went to Spanish House near Sebastian Inlet and there was one grom on the beach but no one out. He said it was closing out. He took the trail back and I went out with the Small Astron Zot and just stood up on it and let the board find it’s way. And it made so many sections. Then after a while people paddled out. The McCoy is for decent round shape shallow waves any size and for fatter waves at least thigh high. But smaller fat weak surf only my 8’4″ Pot Belly Nugget can do. If the waves are like San Onofre or super fat really small weak Malibu Cocoa Beach type waves then I take my Stewart redline 11. Yes I went there. Riding the front of that board in fast little lines feels just as good or better as a displacement hull. I can write so much more but no I won’t. I had to say something. I ridden almost everything out there from Original 1960s old d fin longboards, 1970s Ben Aipa Stinger, 1980s, then thin 1990s short boards I was short a skinning so no problem now I’m tall and skinny, to anything. McCoys are the best. Geoff made me some amazing boards. I corresponded and spoke with him a lot. Geoff was always so humble and kind and soft spoken. He was never cocky. He just knew what boards worked and which didn’t for most surfers. Even the HP boards they make for CT sould have a little more nose thickness and flip at the tip to keep the noses from pearling. He spoke the Truth.
Good luck chewing on that, and keep surfin’
Nestor
Was it “Blazing Boards” where Cheyne road 20′ Waimea on a 5’4 Laser Zap?
And don’t forget the Winged Keel fin that made the Laser Zap even harder to surf…. featured in some Curren battles.
Rest in peace Geoff.
I had that DVD but someone wouldn’t give it back, but I still have Beyond Blazing Boards
You do realise he was living in Tasmania DR? I spoke to him a few months ago and he hated it as it was so cold and miserable weather he missed surfing the waves in the Byron area.
Wow, I didn’t know that.
In 1979 I moved from East coast to Bay Area looking for big waves. A 6’6″ McCoy
Winger (complicated wing shape) rounded pin,with a Lexan blue fin and airbrushed blue bottom got LEFT BEHIND in my childhood bedroom.
Ten years ago I broke my right arm requiring lengthy rehab. At the same time had to go back home to care for mom.
There safe all thease years is the McCoy ready to rehabilitate me, AND IT DID.
THANK YOU
Simcha
Sounds great
The Lazer Zap design had many people, myself included, wondering if Geoff McCoy actually understood how surfboards worked – fortunately, Simon Anderson created the Thruster we and didn’t have to struggle ride a Geoff McCoy.
How many world titles would Cheyne Horan have won if he were riding a proper, functional surfboard?
If Cheyne was the type to ride conventional boards maybe he would’nt have been in the World title conversation in the first place.
I occasionally see him in the surf. I can only best describe his current equipment as looking like an aircraft carrier.
Still absolutely rip’s!
He won the Billabong 5A, the biggest event on tour at the time, on a quite conventional Glen Minami thruster – Cheyne could ride conventional surfboards, he simply chose not to, most of his career.
Of course he can ride them. He chose not to because he is wired differently. My point is that it’s that very wiring that drove him to be one of the best Surfers ever.
Ride a modern three fin McCoy Nugget and you will love it. How much dedication did you give to that Lazor Zap. I gave so much dedication for a month or two on my Modern Astron Zot single fin, the modern version of the really wide fat tail one. When I learned to just stand back and relax I learned it and it is the best. Leaning forward for speed isn’t necessary and is counter productive to it. If you lean back a little more you get more speed and doesn’t stall due to tail width and thickness. You can lean hard and stall it in an extreme way to get slotted.
the very first board that was “my own” was a 6’2″ blue McCoy glass on twinny my pops bought at a neighbor’s garage sale in Ox Shores for $12 in 1986. que le vaya bien, icon.
Que así sea.
RIP Geoff, you were a true pioneer and changed Surfing for the better……condolences to the family and friends!!
Amen
https://uploads.disquscdn.c… Loved McCoys growing up in the 70’s. Still have a few original gems in my collection. Remembering the iconic photos (here!) of Cheyne in SW mag plus team riders Mark Warren, Larry Blair and my old mate, Todd Ingham who ripped up Freshie on his single fin flame spray McCoy. RIP.
Nice
R.I.P Geoff. You made surfing fun again for me and many others. Thank you
Yes he did indeed