“It’s designed to keep an imperiled, underperforming and overpriced military program alive.”
(Editor’s note: Yesterday, BeachGrit published the terrific news that a kamikaze drone boat, designed by surfers George Greenough, Peter Maguire and others, was out there in the Strait of Hormuz giving hell to the IRGC. Turns out, maybe not!)
U.S. forces continue to employ unmanned systems in the Middle East region, including surface drone assets like the GARC. This platform, in particular, has successfully logged over 450 underway hours and more than 2,200 nautical miles during maritime patrols in support of Operation Epic Fury”
—Pentagon spokesman Tim Hawkins
After the Pentagon made this announcement on March 26, 2026, I have received numerous queries about the roles played by George Greenough and I in this effort.
Although we invented the Greenough Advanced Rescue Craft in 2007 (since renamed the “Global Autonomous Reconnaissance Craft”), we sold our contracts and designs to Maritime Applied Physics/BlackSea in 2013 and have nothing to do with this supposed drone of death.
In 2024, after a decade of R&D and lobbying, MAPC/BlackSea received a 160 million-dollar contract for their GARC. However, due to their boat’s abysmal performance in testing, Military Times reported in November 2025: “The Navy’s draft plan for a new unmanned acquisition office calls for canceling and redirecting funding of…BlackSea Technologies’ Global Autonomous Reconnaissance Craft (GARC) to other unmanned alternatives due to underperformance.”
Although MAPC has shared no information about their GARC program with Greenough or me, it is difficult to believe that a diesel powered, aluminum vessel with a civilian halo radar dome can successfully conduct reconnaissance, much less survive an hour in the Strait of Hormuz.
Like most Pentagon announcements about “Operation Epic Fury,” this sounds like more propaganda. In this case, it is designed to keep an imperiled, underperforming, and overpriced military program alive.
The Greenough Advanced Rescue Craft was the result of the blood, sweat and tears of a remarkable group of watermen: George Greenough, Martin Splichal, Martin Splichal, Garry Harwood, Harold Ward, Stanley Pleskunas, Brian Duncan, Ivan Trent, Alaric Valentin, and Dave Baker.
Our intrepid military leader TC “The Colonel” Phillips, our general manager Patricia Dietrich (my personal Emma Peel), boat builders Gregor Welpton, Kevin Dick, Brad Dixon, and Jim Gardiner were also vital to our success. Once the GARC went into military production, Tim Hodgdon, Dave Packham and Gregor Welpton took a big chance on us.
I owe each of these people a huge debt of gratitude for their faith in the GARC and our unlikely team even though it did not pay off financially for any of us. I’m even grateful to MAPC/BlackSea for saving me from bankruptcy.
As George is fond of saying, “Nothing ventured, nothing gained.”
As I said in a 2013 press release, “This startup was beset with challenges worthy of a Herman Melville novel. Our success was the result of an incredible, multi-year effort by an unlikely team united by their belief in our innovative product and in one another. George Greenough deserves enormous credit for bringing this idea to life in such a short amount of time.”
Recently, George and I were invited by military industrial complex/venture capital players to compete in this latest arms race.
We had numerous meetings, drafted plans for a family of drones.
In the end, we decided against it.
After all, we invented the GARC to save lives, not take them.
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https://uploads.disquscdn.c… To some critics below, (whatever his faults), he had more style than some stand-up surfers.
https://uploads.disquscdn.c… He named his knee-board Velo—abbr.—Velosity.
(“a vector quantity representing the rate of change of an object’s position, incorporating both speed and direction”).
There is less hate in the middle east than there is in here from the jealous haters for George because he had a little privilege.
That is what separates perennial losers from the rest of us. Hating on people for not crash and burning but instead doing well with their elevated resources is the shit I see from homeless junkies at the bus stop.
Suffice it to say his ideas have contributed more to our way of life than most.
I think we use the word hate too much to describe strong feelings.
From what I can tell george has had an amazing life and contributed a lot in the 60/70’s….I mean who didn’t love the Innermost limits of pure fun….and the creative genius who on his knees, worked out you could ride a much /much smaller board…….but of course like all of us , there were dark periods and also exaggerated claims , FFS surfers are like fisherman….how big was ya fish/ how big and long was that barrel…….LOl….?
Peace through strength and all that good stuff from the Department of WAR! When is the designated 2 minutes of hate being implemented, cause I have some and am sure others might too.
Tyler Wright will apparently take the knee pre heats at Bells in support of all peoples that have ever strained a muscle & the trauma they have suffered as a result of said injuries. Her boards will be sprayed Sad for Soreness.
Channel Islands charter captain buddy used to own a Greenough-designed 2-seater he called a “G-Hawk” that for all intents and purposes resembled a rustic, marine resin Sea-Doo. supposedly a very limited edition near-shore model.
we’d beach launch under the Gaviota trestle and pin it north, riding pillion to the furthest Hollister point like neoprene pirates, one trusted board apiece, reveling in the streamlined, backyard hydrodynamics borne of the innermost limits of Greenough’s bowl-cutted brain, smashing PBJs and tightly rolled numbers in the channel between sessions of interminable sand-bottom runners.
hard to square those bucolic memories with the image of any Greenough craft being deployed in a deranged boondoggle like Operation Epic Folly.
Greenough v. The Law of Unintentional Consequences
Nah, simply more evidence that kneeboarders are diabolical monsters
can someone please explain why the USA does not have 1 mine sweeper?
Can someone also explain irans drone/mini subs…asking for a an insurgent who is having an identity crisis!
we literally decommissioned the last of them like a year before this operation🤪
to be fair though, I think those were crewed vessels. Unmanned is the future of minesweeping vessels, but we don’t have any such technology at the moment either🤪
yeah so that’s why the straits of Hormuz needs NATO as they do have a few mine sweepers…….
bingo
The littoral combat vessels have mine sweeping abilities. Three of them, the USS Canberra, Santa Barbara and Tulsa have been deployed to the area.
The reason they are not doing it is because if they come anywhere near the straight they will be sunk. Iran has been super successful in SEAD, destroying much of the US’s radar capability in the area.
The fleet is nowhere near the straight. They’re not even in the Gulf of Oman. They are way out in the Arabian Sea.
Thanks for posting that. Would never have expected such a decent quality report from the Mail
Not my usual watering trough but it was recommended to me.
Excellent C&P skills
it’s seems amazing when you consider ……7 mine sweepers were decommissioned last year….and also another 4 were decommissioned in Bahrain 2 months ago……and refits still going on to upgrade …the newer LCS…..I mean forward planning anybody…mines in the strait ‘s in the ME….who would have guessed a great time to reduce mine sweeping capabilities……??
The U.S. Navy decommissioned half of its Avenger-class mine countermeasure ships last year and began replacing them with littoral combat ships that possess anti-mine capabilities.
“The [littoral combat ship] MCM mission package is a sophisticated suite of manned and unmanned systems designed to locate, identify, and neutralize sea mines, at a safer distance from minefields than the Avenger-class MCMs,” ~ https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2026/03/12/the-us-navy-decommissioned-middle-east-minesweepers-last-year-heres-what-they-did/
yep LCM’s still being outfitted…….not that it really matters as all Iran/Yemen have to do is , say they have placed mines in the strait…and no-one will insure the cargos……so we will continue on , and navigate this never ending storm…can’t see a win?
read the article.
As far as the war goes, I’ll wait to see the outcome.
I’m not a military strategist so I’ll trust the experts.
I’m not stoked about the war, but I understand it. Willing to support our President for now and I have belief in our military, so I’ll withhold my judgement until the end of the game instead of being Debbie downer.
My pops was involved in the Viet Nam debacle for so long that I can look at the bigger picture.
If the President pulls this off, you’ll be looking at very low fuel and petroleum prices for…..a long time, and the world will be a much better place.
Even if we had them on hand they can’t get near the straight without becoming a submarine.
Poor old George , born into a life of unfathomable wealth and privilege , slips off to Australia to avoid the draft settles in Byron with a hand full of other extremely wealthy kids from The USA , proceeding to buy up and change the face of Byron Bay area for ever , years later enters into dealings to sell his so called lifeboat to the US military machine ….wanker.
Fark really ? I thought he was a stoner from Nimbin that only got to his knees coz…well..being a stoner
He was a rich kook that could not get it together to stand up very well, so road a surf mat until he got into the crip sticks, then created a myth around his super marine aquanaut type knowledge all very contrived.
smack talking about George says more about you than him.
The great side of the internet , exclusive use of the message stick was removed from the hands of the wealthy.
and enables trolls to talk shit, as well.
Are you his toy boy ?
Yes its given you a voice
Mate…that’s a ten point burn.
Kudos
https://uploads.disquscdn.c… George—kooking-out….
One reason he rode prone was, he felt that position heightened the sense of speed you felt on a wave. (see pics above)
Not eligible for the draft. Had open heart surgery to save his life as a child. Worked many years running lobster traps off the ranch until the storms of 69 destroyed them. You know fuckall of the man.
and you dont know enough
and kills every shark he can find……..the story was he went to Hawaii before Australia…scared the shit out of him there , so he came to the East Coast of Australia….because of his family being extremely rich he never had to really work….so he could tinker in the surf World!
not true mate.
George worked a pro fishermen lobster trapping north of Point Conception.
Very hard way to make a buck.
Built his own boat, his own house.
yeah problem is …..I and others remember……he came from railroad family money….very very well off….probably we would call them now trust fund kids….
Maybe he caught some lobster…but not as a living…and we remember him at Lennox on his mat catching sharks and everyone who visits his house talks about all the shark jaws in his house….
Brutus as iconoclast.
Who’d have thought it?
He knows this story as he was about at the time, good to see someone chip in and put a bit of truth behind the carefully constructed and derived GG propaganda myth.
Fortunately for the entire surfing world, George could wake up every morning of every day of his life in California and then, in Australia and do whatever he liked – plenty of money, no university, no job to make money, no wife and children, he could devote his time and considerable intellect to designing and building surfcraft, boats, camera rigs, windsurfers and whatever else he wanted to work on and in doing so, changed wave riding as we know it – others in a similar position of inherited wealth and privilege proceeded merely to poison themselves with drugs and alcohol, doing fuck-all with their time and money other than getting high.
From all accounts, George had little interest in drugs or alcohol and apparently; an equal lack of interest in women.
Bunker Spreckels has entered the chat.
Yes, Bunker Spreckles is a great example of an extremely wealthy individual who used their money not for any positive purpose, but merely to drug themselves to death, which takes absolutely zero talent whatsoever, any idiot can do it.
ah but not on the scale of Bunker….great surfer , wild child…too much money……..did you see the movie that was done on his life?
No. All too predictable and a waste of everyone’s time. Get money, buy dope, get messed up, die.
Art Brewer had some hair-raising anecdotes about being hired as Bunker’s personal photographer on his trip to South Africa – while high on Mandrax, alcohol and who knows what else, Bunker pointed a gun at Art and put a bullet into the wall next to Art’s head at the Beach Hotel in Jeffreysbaai. Art left the next day.
Said it was a good job, but not worth dying for some idiot on dope with guns.
are you saying George is gay?
maybe if he took drugs and drank alcohol he could have opened up a whole new creative altered state and not been so boring?
iconclast………yeah who’d a thought a descriptive of me….LOL.an image breaker and or , had to look it up…”someone who breaks with tradition, challenges accepted beliefs, or destroys established norms!”
fun fact: GG’s great great great was an OG American artist
https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
ʾAllāhu ʾakbar?
a hobby with Yater and co was not a job , just as having enough cash on hand in the 60s to hire a plane and use it to find surf up and down the east coast of Australia, built a boat in his folk’s gigantic beach house yard paid with his allowance money , lets also touch on the fact he was part of the crew that started that extremely exclusive surf club at the Ranch , the guy is one of the original cashed up extremally wealthy surf bums that the US is so good at creating.
Yuck if true.
Allowance money!
don’t listen to these kooks mate.
George made his own money. Had no vices and very, very wisely bought a spread at Broken Head when it cost absolutely fukall.
And when his Mum died the entire Greenough estate was donated to cancer research.
but what you are claiming with Georges Mum is just not true…there are no records anywhere of Georges Mum giving anything to cancer research…his Mum didn’t have much money….it was all on his fathers side………so yeah George made a bit of money ……but the whole cancer thing is a hoax!
records??
what, you are privy to the way the estate was settled?
You’re making a goose of yourself here MC.
definitely was a job mate.
Not north, south. He comes from piviledge though. Fishing wasn’t a need to do thing.
Early Trustafundian?
On the flipside, nuke bombs became an efficient energy source
This time of year In the Souther Hemisphere is pure magic.
Particularly in Australia. If you can’t find epic, uncrowded waves in a pristine setting somewhere around our coast during the autumn months then you really need to hang up the boardshorts.
This morning was a perfect example. Four to six feet Bluewater peaks along a blinding white crescent of sand. Not a single sign of human intrusion on the surrounding palm and pandanus lined hills and headlands. The water is gin clear probably 26 degrees ( 80 Fahrenheit). The air was the same. Light offshore wind grooming lefts and rights. A half dozen happy locals getting their fill on a blue sky Sunday morning.
There’s something about the light in autumn as the sun returns to its Northern transit, It gets so gentle and kind. Still wearing zinc but it’s not so hot to send you scurrying for shade and the sand no longer burns your feet. The blue in the sky deepens to azure as the washed out baby blues of summer become a memory for another year and the air gains an unbelievable clarity.
The mullet start to run up the coast and bait schools are a near constant companion in the lineup. Pods of dolphins get playful with bellies full on easy meals and their shimmering skin delights when they bust through the face of the waves you’re surfing. A very pleasant way to differentiate them from those other large silhouettes scouting below the surface.
This morning I even saw what I first thought to be a whale spout outside the lineup , then realised it also had a massive dorsal fin. Perhaps an orca? Unconfirmed sighting but very possible.
After surfing till my arms couldn’t turn over , come home for some smoko consisting of a bowl of the last of the mango season paired with cream and a coffee. Temperature is made for leisure and indulgence. The colours in the garden are popping with the last blush of autumn growth.
Now if I can just stay off the piss …..
Fuck, why would you? This is the season of our utter content. Crazy to think there’s crew driving death drones and bombing, shooting and murdering each other in other places. I’d been downright rude to not toast to our good fortune here in the lucky country.
Hope you’re all scoring wherever you are.
ah the life of a remote surfer……even though surfing history will soon be curtailed by sea level rise….make the most of everything we have had and are currently having…..
Had one of the better surf weeks of my life last week- every day OH to DOH.
Punchy sections galore in electric blue water.
High tide was best so uncrowded as fcuk because the rock-off was diabolically bad.
Saw some French chick standing on the rocks for a halfa while I checked it, then ran home, grabbed a board and got down to the rock-off.
She was still standing there like a stunned mullet.
I offered some words of advice, told her the exact rock I was going to rock-off.
Saw a gap and charged it.
Step before my rock was covered in water and I had to put my foot down as a matter of faith. Slipped and went straight into a crevice with about a second to remove it before I was about to sent to emergency by a sidewinding double-up. I got the foot out just in time to get absolutely pasted by the side-winder.
My eyes locked with the Frenchy for a moment- I could see the panic in her eyes.
Pancaked and basically swimming and fending off rocks I managed to find clear water and paddle out.
No dings, no cuts. I hooted at the sheer implausibility of it.
First wave was a DOH double-up that squared off right down the Point for some of the best turns I’ve done in years.
Been doing lots of strength and conditioning work all summer and for the first time in months, a few niggling injuries had left the building.
Every wave seemed to have endless, easy speed. Board felt like it would go wherever I wanted it to.
Good to feel like that as a Slater era gent.
Sounds incredible L.T. Stoked for you
ready for an Easter surf update????
Bring on ex tropical cyclone Narelle which I predicted!
Xox
Stoked.
Everyday is a gift these days,hey. That’s the downside of a couple of enjoyable beers on a day like today. Whilst tomorrow may not be a hangover, you’ve probably still lost that extra 20% spark that is getting harder to hold onto each year. It’s there in spades if you treat your body well but letting yourself go even slightly is recipe for punishment.
Glad you’re getting waves. All good surf journalists need to keep those gills fully rinsed.
Bet you never thought you’d be calling Best Evers as a half century warrior when you were a young Buck. And who knows…..it might not be the high water mark even yet!
Is he a journo? He’s not Longtom, right ?
Ummm, i don’t want to dox him but….
Cool. I thought he had skipped out when he retired the LT name.
Now he remains one of the very few writers remaining in these here parts.
The rock off sounds hectic but it may even buy you a bit of time. Perhaps that Frenchie will be on social media warning the next zillion gumby touring clowns that Lenny the Ox is not to be fucked with.
Fuck yeah
Had a nice week of swell last week and did some of the better surfing I’ve done so far. Just heaps of fun, lots of speed, board felt right… I even felt like I could get away on something narrower after 5 days.
Nothing like what y’all have down there but it’s all relative. Feeling tuned in when it comes to the surf seems to have an overflow effect into other areas of my life, which somehow validates all the shit annoying parts that come with this pursuit.
Count ya blessings!
Excellent work.
Which general region are you in?
Southern California, south of LA
Well done! Fine tuning the rig is so rewarding.
Xox
Isn’t it gorgeous. Bless.
Xox
Fuck I’m wasting my life trapped on a coast with no waves and surrounded by MaGATs
How the immigration process going ? or just gathering the troops to divide the Country instead?
Waiting for you to offer me a job!
Too opinionated.
That’s what you think! And if there’s no one to stir up shit, there’s no work!
Yes. Some Pedro Miguele to add some spice to our DR and Chet stew.
Get in there, lad.
Talking of Greenough, anyone has any memories of a magic board from years yonder? A local chick once had a Quiet Flight Stingfish. I had told the guy that she bought it from to tell me if he was ever going to sell it. He didn’t.
So she buys the board and i keep seeing her at our shitty, Windblown beachbreak. I offered her free surf lessons, US$125 and a replacement board that more suited her beginner status. Stubborn ….lady wouldn’t budge.
Back in those days I had only ever ridden two or three boards that really worked in our terrible conditions. But that was one of them and I only ever got to ride it once. A fuxkin shame. Of course, she never stuck with the surfing and it was a phase for her.
P.S. – congrats on your war machine, Pedro. It seems to be very deadly.
Track her down. Wine, dine, romance and ultimately marry her. Tell her she can keep everything in the divorce settlement except for the Stingfish.
Job done.
Saved you $125 and a surf lesson too.
Any magic board stories to share ?
recently?
Prefer from the past
But any story that you want to share. Recent or from the olden days.
too many stories of the holy grail of design……to attain magic status for the surfer also entails , one man’s magic board is another Mans dog……in the eye of the beholder!!
Ain’t that the truth.
I’ve had three Johnny Caba’s that are those rarest of Grails, hi-fi sleds the average man can competently-ish steer. It’s wild to me everyone doesn’t have at least on in their quivers.
Would you say that any one or two of them work noticeably better than the other /others?
A magic board, amongst three good boards ?
yes but a magic board is not a model or a brand….its a board that for some reason you never have to think about surfing…it’s like being connected with an umbilical cord , and no thoughts/reflexes become one…..that’s why Ct surfing has become so vanilla and boring…average good boards …good enough….has the magic been lost or resides elsewhere now???
Yeah, had a few over the years. I’ve currently got a 7’0:Webster Desert Storm. It’s a few years old now but built to last. Not even remotely an all rounder, is the Liam Neeson of boards; It’s got a very specific set of skills.
Good enough for a giggle in below knee high , useless in low period beachies but get in a powerful reef or point in a long period swell and it’s fucking unrivalled. Ultimate speed, drive and hold. Bottom turns like it’s got a 12 cylinder engine pushing you down the line. Trucks through hectic tubes with consummate ease. Paddles like a dream. Turns wide open lineups into a manageable ask. When it’s big and rogue you want to be running down sets, not getting run down yourself. It’ll take you from prey to predator.
Had some absolutely dreamy sessions on it at a particular offshore Indo reefbreak that Hoovers in all swell and is defined by relentless current, shifting peaks and clean up sets.
Fuck I want one of those !
7’2” DS in action! https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
Fuck yeah! Made for those conditions.
You like?
Yeah, I really do. Need a bigger and smaller one now though.
Farken good shot eyeing off a pigdog blitzaaaa
Fuck yeah cunt, finger that double nugs bumhole!
Xox
I need to go get a 7’0″ from Webby.
Got a 6’6″ and 7’6″ DS.