What’s the diff between a square tail and a round tail? Revealed!
The American surfboard shaper Jon Pyzel was born in Santa Babs but quickly became part of the North Shore design milieu when he moved to Sunset in 1992, got taken under Jeff Bushman’s big wing, and a few years later started building boards for a white-haired kid who would change the genetic code of the sport.
In 1993, Jon Pyzel wrote a letter to his Daddy back home explaining that he was working at Country Surfboards as a ding repairer and clearing a couple of c-notes a week, but keen as hell for the biz.
“I can work there whenever I want, and get paid by what I do not by the hour, and I am learning more about glassing, polishing, putting on fins etc,” the former model who was once described as “diabolically and transcendentally sexy” wrote.
“I really love surfboards, so it’s not even really like going to work (except for the itch). I really feel like shaping boards might be the thing I have been looking for as far as work goes, and I may give it a try, to see if I have any natural talent for it!
Jon Pyzel went on to rewrite the books with his game-changing Ghost design as well as attract a legion of diehard fans for his raw no-nonsense approach to design.
Do you remember when he called you all volume obsessed?
In a new series of short videos, cleverly shot on a Nokia 3310, Jon Pyzel explains surfboard design fundamentals with his opening gambit, the difference between round tails and square tails, a mystery that has haunted surfers and shapers ever since the rounded squash made its appearance on Simon Anderson’s thruster boards in 1981.
Do you know the diff?
Don’t watch the little move and comment below the line.
More essential than ever.
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Great advice and write up Gila. I don’t want to be a sad , self-pitying fat fuck.
Thanks for the video but isn’t this like completely self evident?
For me there’s way more dark art in bottom shape (vee, concaves, channels) as well as rails, fin placement, asymmetry, rocker, etc.
Do we really need identical fin size on the inside or outside fin? Should left and right side fins be exactly opposite each other?
Besides album and al Byrne, has anyone really tried to get asymmetry nailed in a surfboard? And I suspect Album is only tinkering with it to sell gimmicks at huge markup.
When was the last time anyone really experimented with fin outlines? Greg Webber? And even then, they are not radically different.
The pool is where they can and should do legit R&D with top surfers. There may be the next thruster waiting to hit, but probably a bunch of pigs before we get there.
Donnie Brink and Ryan Burch have done lots of work with asyms.
for once I am speechless about design or lack of it……been playing with high performance Asyms for decades…….RCJ’s boards/Tow and paddle , just like mine always have the fins asym….there is no logic in symetrics…….not that anybody really cares until it becomes fasshion!
Advanced my surfing faster than pyzel model crocs
But Gmed has black hair.
Its a little different in this neck of the woods at least for me Gilo. Actually reversed. See its flat here from pretty much now through September. Yeah there is the odd windswell (weak as fuck) and south swell which requires a lot of driving and is fickled (I work so can’t trust fund around at every south popping up on the radar). Its hard to get motivated for the odd day here the odd day there because you know you are gonna bog as it really takes three consecutive days to get your rhythm back. Not worth the suffering of an odd day of bogging and then a month to think about how much you sucked. So what do you do during the summer time blues? You fill it with beer and food. Now the whole goal is to not put too much weight on that your quiver from last year becomes obsolete for the upcoming winter. Now as summer becomes fall this is when things start changing. The excitement starts creeping in. Your hoping for a good early season of combo swells and epic conditions. Rare but it happens. Now those first few sessions back are tough. A lot of pondering of things such as- I think I need more volume? I think I peaked last year? I really suck now? Its the board? Its the waves? Its the fins? I need to lose some weight? But as fall turns into winter and I get more sessions under the belt the weight starts to burn off and the flow starts coming back. Maybe not hitting all the high performance marks of yester year but enough to leave the beach with my head held high (some of the time).
Sounds like the Santa Barbarian dilemma
Didn’t watch but will always comment.
Jon Pyzel there, we think of the letter ‘J’, gosh…
Jordy, Jules, Joel, wow, you had ‘Jaddy Baby’, John John of course – gosh – Jack Robbo! You think of Jeremy Flores… Jeremy of course was a big supporter of Joanne Defay, gosh, you had Joan Duru also representing France. You got Joao Chianca, always see him around the contest sight, just having fun with ‘Lulu’, both of them representing Brazil. You got Jesse Mendes of course, wow. Then you got Jessi Starling. Our chief commissioning commissionator Jessi Miley Dyer, she’s doing an amazing job. Jet Schilling – a big Andrew Tate fan, he’s also good friends with Griff n’ Croz, together they Love to visualise and just spend time focussing on their manifestations. Gosh, wow, where you at, Kaipo?
This shoulda been the article.
Jackson Bunch of course, as well as Jackson Baker, wow!
Jamie O’brien – we call him ‘JOB’ in the surf world. ‘Job’ of course also a biblical name…
We got John the Baptist, gosh, he was really just pushing the limits of what had been done before as a baptist. You had Joseph, an amazing carpenter and step dad, and of course Jesus himself, probably the most famous ‘J’ figure in history, gosh.
Jesus always gets a shout out from Erin Brooks when she’s on the glass in a post heat interview, gosh.
Erin and Bella Love to hang out, on lay days you’ll see them around the local area just smiling, skipping and having fun.
Erin’s Dad, a retired marine who moved the family to Texas, is actually called Jeff, so it’s really cool we got that ‘J’ initial just coming full circle there!
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so glad lulu got a mention
jojó de olivença…
A Freddy Mac bonza with channels! Now we’re talking
Have another pie you fat cunt.