After a strong coffee and packing up the vast amount of stuff I seem to have acquired and headed up the coast. I thought the fact that Queensland was an hour behind New South Wales would compensate for my impromptu lie in, thus meaning that parking wouldn’t be an issue.

I was wrong.

It was a Sunday, the surf was firing, and the fish fry was filling up – fast.

After driving around and getting lost a few times fortune smiled on me and I finally landed a prime spot, right opposite the Fry – and free of charge. Things were picking up!

The annual Alley Fish Fry is a friendly gathering of surfers, shapers and experimenters who realise the aesthetic and performance qualities of the humble fish-shaped surfboard. Its run by a dude called Grant Newby – an Aussie shaper with a full-on fish fetish. He’s rounded up some of the most ambitious – possibly slightly crazy – fish shapers on the planet to bring their finest bum cracks to Australia’s Gold Coast, including his own creation – ‘Quadzilla’, a quad-fin, carbon-fibre fish that comes in a snip under 10 feet long!

Surfers from as far as Japan, California and even the UK were there, viewing and exhibiting. I was amazed at the number of people in attendance; the fish community is much bigger than I first imagined. Unfortunately the English climate seemed to have followed me to the Fry… It pelted it down, which meant numbers were a little bit low, it being an outdoor event and everything.

But the hardcores stayed. Perusing the finest shapes and designs the fishy kingdom has to offer. There were deep tails, square tails, add-on tails, pin tails, quads, tri fins, five fins, small fins, overly big fins, resin tints, spray jobs, wood, epoxy, fibre glass… Basically, every conceivable type of surfboard shape, design and construction you could ever wish for.

It was truly epic, and its success, despite the rain, is down to Grant’s limitless enthusiasm and sheer hard work. Can you imagine trying to organise this many surfers? No easy task.

My two favourite fish were the wooden, old-school design of ‘Generation Gap Surfboards’ and the wooden finned beauties of ‘Flying Soul Surfboards’ – GGS had the style of years gone by, shaped with 60 years’ experience! FSS had the progressive performance shape with the clean-cut style the Japanese have perfected in all areas of design.

Here’s to next year’s Fry!

Check out the Alley Fish Fry blog for more photos…

Organiser Grant Newby says: “The Fish Fry is a non-competitive and non-commercial gathering of board riders and builders of these sweet craft. It’s about you shapers who craft these boards, and those of us who enjoy the ride. Each year we see many new ideas on the original theme, and that’s what is so great about the evolution of the fish.
The day is held in the park across the road from the Currumbin Alley, which means there are waves at the point, the river mouth or the beach break depending on the conditions. So bring lunch, the family and your mates with you to celebrate the fish in its many forms.”

Want to know more? Check out our feature on the 2008 Fish Fry here, or visit the official Alley Fish Fry site.

You’re originally from Florida, where it can’t have been hard to lay your hands on a board – why did you start shaping?
Growing up in Florida, you have one surfboard that you basically ride in whatever conditions the ocean throws at you. When I was about 14, there was a big resurgence in old boards – Channel Islands had just started making their singlefins and people were starting to look back towards fish. I didn’t know anyone who had one, and I couldn’t afford to buy one, so I decided to make them myself. My parents have always been super supportive of everything I’ve done, whether it was sports, or schooling, or surfing. I was really fortunate – they were cool enough to let me take over their back porch and ruin it with resin and paint and track foam dust into the house. When I go back home nowadays it’s cool to see my old workplace all cleaned up and nice.

What about that first board? Did it work well?
My first board was a copy of 5’8 BAT shortboard that I was riding at the time. It turned out alright. Looked sort of symmetrical. I’m not sure how it rode, actually, because I sold it to a friend before it was finished so I could make another. I came home after school in my 9th-grade year and shaped them for hours and hours. Then I convinced my mom to loan me some money to buy tools and fibreglass and stuff. The next summer I worked as a labourer for a friend’s construction company to pay her back.

A few years later you moved to California. Did Florida not offer as many opportunities for a shaper?
California is the epicentre of the surfboard industry. I decided to move here a few months before I graduated high school. Sure, I could have stayed in Florida and shaped boards – my parents would probably been happier with that – but I had an opportunity to go, and a place to stay, and seeing that I had already been out here a couple of times and seen the guys at Moonlight do their thing, it was a no-brainer. So I filled my truck with all my stuff and drove across the country a week after I graduated high school.

Where did you start?
I didn’t have any work for the first month after I moved here; I just surfed and rode around with my roommate learning all the different spots and poking my head in all the different factories. My first job was at Global Glassing – quality control and finishing boards. Shortly after I was working at Moonlight as well, going to Moonlight in the mornings and Global later. It was really cool to be working on boards for some of the biggest names in the world. Everything was new and fresh. The industry was booming and Global was making 100-125 boards a week, so I was very busy. Moonlight has never been about numbers, more about putting out one-of-a-kind beautiful boards.

And then Pavel showed up and invited you to work with him. That’s probably the dream of most young shapers out there…
I went up on the hill here in Encinitas with my roommate Jim from Lokbox fins. He introduced me to Rich and had me bring one of my fish out of the truck to show him. Rich looked at it for few minutes said some nice things and offered for me to hang out a little while and said he’d give me a ride home later. I stayed and absorbed everything I could that day. He spoke about getting together and shaping some boards and told me to give him a call. A couple weeks later we hand-shaped three fish together in his old shaping room at Channin. It was the first time I had ever used a Skil planer. Soon enough he was out of that factory and shaping over at Neptune. There was a KKL machine in one room, me in the next, and then Rich in the last room. Working with him pushed my shaping skills to a level I couldn’t have reached in 15 years shaping on mom’s porch. The number of boards going through my hands, the quality that was expected and the sheer number of designs really fast-forwarded my shaping. I don’t see Rich much anymore but I do give him lots of credit for moulding my shaping into what it is today.

But instead of staying under Pavel’s protection, you started DK Surfboards…
After about a year, Rich was travelling a lot and I was still doing a few boards for him here and there and working at Moonlight a little, but I needed to pay my bills. I had been doing a few boards under my own label and was starting to get more interest so the logical move was to start focusing on DK Surfboards. So I moved into an old shaping room at Moonlight; it was being used as a wetsand room at the time, but a lot of big names shaped in it back in the day.

You started with a line of boards inspired by Pavel, like the double-wing quad or the twin keel, but then you produced new, more performance-oriented designs. Is that just youth speaking, or how you believe boards should be?
Yeah, you know they definitely were Pavel-inspired. They were the same designs I was shaping when I was 14, but now I knew how to shape them properly – where to take the foam off, and how to get certain rail shapes and small intricacies on the bottoms. From the first time I took a planer to a blank I wanted to make the most high-performance board possible, whether it was a fish or a 6’6 round pintail. I tend to steer away from cruisers – if the board doesn’t make lots of people think “wow!” and ride nothing but that design it probably wasn’t done right, or at the very least something needs to be added or changed. No board will work for every surfer – we’re all very different

The Swordfish was the design that catapulted you into the limelight. What were you looking for when you shaped it?
The Swordfish is my most popular seller for sure. A friend of mine and long-time pro-surfer/ripper guy Kasey Curtis came to me and asked me to make him a board similar to Rich’s Speedialers. I convinced him that I could always shape one of those next time (mainly because I was shaping a lot of them) because I had an idea for a more performance fish. I had been riding a board that Daniel Thompson made for me when we were both shaping for Rich, and had begun to believe in the benefits of a wingless tail. I wanted to combine those elements with the feeling KC was getting from his speedialer. He’s had three of them now and is still ripping on his original one thanks the Mohikan’s bullet-proof glassjob!

If you were just looking for performance, wasn’t it easier to just shape shortboards?
Yeah, probably! But a shortboard has limitations just as much as any other design. Your average thruster is made for top to bottom surfing. It wants to stay in the pocket and go off the bottom, and snap off the top. The only other real benefit I find the thruster has over other fin configurations is the ability to step on the brakes and stall to get barrelled. Quads seem to outrun the barrel more than twins; they want to go out on the face and do a psycho cutback or something. But you know, different boards are meant to do different things – some are better in certain areas and lack in others. Getting back to the twins though… I really like the way they come off the top: because there’s no trailer there to slow things down it just pivots right off the fins, right under your back foot. You can really feel the difference. Guys like Akila Aipa and Rasta have figured out how to put that fin configuration on a modern looking shortboard outline and foil and make it work.

Will we ever see a hull or stubbie on the DK label?
Probably not! I enjoy making true singlefins – old-school vee-bottom pintails or even six-channel singlefins – but the whole roundboard, hull belly thing isn’t for me. It’s a type of surfing that I’m not trying to do – there’s a lot of trimming and trying to keep your rail engaged and do a big suicide cutback when you do finally make it to the shoulder. I’m not taking anything away from the guys that are shaping or riding them, it’s just not my style of surfing. That said, I saw Manny of Mandala surfboards zipping around on a modified hull back behind my house the other day and he seemed to be surfing it real well.

Have you taken your designs to the limit, or is there room for improvement?
If that ever becomes the case, and my designs become stagnant and I’m no longer able to improve upon them or come up with new designs I’ll switch to using balsa or agave or something, or build wooden boats. I learn something with each board, whether it’s a new way to use a tool to get a certain something or it’s a new design characteristic I’m adding, there are always changes being made. Things are always evolving.

You’ve been to Portugal twice – how did you like our waves?
Portugal is insane! My mother’s side is Portuguese and my father is Irish. I was actually just up in Idaho visiting my grandfather, who’s a retired Colonel in the US Army – it’s obvious he’s where I get my craftsman gene from. He was one of nine kids; his mother was from Porto and his father from Lisboa. All his brothers were either steel workers or electricians; he’s a phenomenal woodworker, and his sister, who just passed, sang Fado for years. All Portuguese culture is cool, but your coffee and food are particularly good! The coastline is amazing, packed with slab reefs and right points, the people are beautiful, and there’s still lots of Portugal I haven’t seen. I’m pretty sure it’s a place I’ll be coming back to for years whether I have boards to shape there or not.

What did you think of the boards you saw on the European Fish Fry? How did those boards compare to what you see out in California?
I saw resin tints, wooden fins, fish, quads, bonzers, high-quality shortboards… You guys are doing it! I can’t stress how stoked I was when I walked into Board Culture for the first time and saw this state-of-the-art factory with quality glass jobs and a shaping machine and everything. Overall, Portugal’s surfboards appear to be as good as any I see coming from anywhere else. Your surf scene as a whole is still growing, and as that grows so will your boards. I imagine by the time I’m an old man your line-ups will be just as crowded as ours!

You’re still so young, but where do you see yourself in 30 years?
I would like to think I’ll be making surfboards until my hands are so arthritic I can’t hold the tools anymore. Shaping surfboards and surfing is what I have chosen to do with my life; I made a couple of key decisions a few years back and decided to pursue my career instead of going to school and so far that has worked out well for me. In 30 years I hope to have a family that I can support and live comfortably, surf everyday, and still feel the same enjoyment I get from making people custom surfboards.

With the sky heavy with dark grey cloud, I headed over to Harlyn Bay in an effort to find shelter and ferret out some good waves. But an oversight on my part meant that when I arrived, it was a super high tide and the swell I had awaited simply unloaded onto the sand dunes in one long line, stretching across the beach.

Then it struck me (even if there wasn’t much logic to it) – go to St Agnes. I hadn’t been out West for a while, so to the Badlands I headed. Pulling into Trevaunance Cove carpark, the first signs of surf looked good, and peering down from the vantage point I could see the wind and tide had receded and wedging right-handers were peeling across the bay. Due to it being midweek, midday, and outside of the holidays, it was uncrowded. What followed was a session more-than-worthy of a day off. When my last wave closed out, I rode prone towards the beach. Paddling out was none other than the evergreen Tom Curren.

I later learned that Tommy was here on a European promo tour for ‘Realm’, and that this day provided the best waves of the trip. I hung around and watched as Curren provided a masterclass in style, power and all-round mastery of surfing. He drew uncluttered lines all over the waves and dissected each section with manoeuvres performed with surgical precision. Video just doesn’t capture the moment like seeing it for yourself.

You could write several pages – at least – on Tom Curren’s influence on modern surfing, including his tutoring of a young Kelly Slater. But perhaps less is appreciated of his influence on post-modern surfboard design.

In 1993, Tom Curren reappeared at an ASP event in France after a hiatus from competition. With him he brought a 1969 5’4 Rick Twin Fin he had bought second-hand in New Jersey. Matt Hoy, then ranked eighth in the world, drew Curren in the second round, which was held in onshore slop. Curren destroyed Hoy with a combination of blazing speed and powerhouse tail slides on his fish. Curren then accidentally brings the fish back to the attention of the masses, by appearing in the Rip Curl Search film ‘Beyond The Boundaries’ riding various fish. Going on the fish hunt, he rides a Skip Frye fish at J-Bay and the infamous Tommy Peterson shaped 5’7 hybrid Fireball Fish (which had three fins) in giant Indo waves, all around 1994.

He also had a period in the early nineties experimenting with singlefin boards made with the same dimensions as standard thrusters, which he can be seen riding in ‘Litmus’. Incidentally, the back-to-front vee-to-concave bottom shape that Rich Pavel uses on his now famous Speed Dialler is a product of an experimental period Curren and Maurice Cole had in France. Cole was shaping Curren a gun, confused the pintail and the nose and shaped the bottom contours back-to-front, so the board ended up with a vee in the nose and concave in the tail rather than vice versa. Cole had it glassed up anyway, and Curren loved it; Pavel later adopted the design for his own experiments.

Also known for bodysurfing to avoid the crowds and cameras, making music and being reticent to the point of reclusiveness, Curren’s holistic approach to surfing takes in both function and feeling, so it’s no surprise that his eclectic approach kick-started a design revival.

(photo by Alexa Poppe)

DJ, Nasceste na Florida, onde o surf é comum e onde é fácil comprar uma boa prancha de surf. Então o que leva um miúdo de 14 anos a começar a trabalhar com o foam, fazendo pranchas em vez de apenas apanhar umas ondas?
Bem, eu venho de uma família de classe média da região Centro/Norte da Florida, uma viagem de 1 hora até á praia 2 vezes por semana. Crescendo na Florida basicamente tu tens uma única prancha de surf que utilizas em quaisquer que sejam as condições que o mar te oferece. Naquele tempo havia um enorme ressurgimento de velhas pranchas de surf. A Channel Islands tinha acabado de lançar a sua Single Fin e as pessoas começavam a olhar para as Fish. Como eu não era suficientemente rico para ter uma dessas pranchas decidi faze-las eu próprio. Os meus pais sempre me deram muito apoio em tudo o que eu fazia relacionado com desporto, escola ou surf. Fui muito sortudo por ter uns pais tão porreiros que me deixaram utilizar o abrigo das traseiras e destrui-lo com resina e tintas além de encher a casa de pó de foam. Sempre que volto a casa é engraçado ver o meu antigo local de trabalho tão limpo!

Qual a primeira prancha que fizeste? Funcionava bem?
DK: A primeira prancha era basicamente uma cópia de uma bat tail shortboard com a qual eu surfava na altura. Saiu bem, parecia ser simétrica. Não sei se funcionava bem ou não porque vendi-a a um amigo antes de a acabar para poder fazer outra Eu chegava a casa depois das aulas do meu 9 ano e passava horas e mais horas a faze-las até estarem prontas. Depois convenci a minha mãe a emprestar-me dinheiro para comprar algumas ferramentas e fibra de vidro, entre outras coisas. No ano seguinte trabalhei como servente para a empresa de construção civil de uma amigo para pagar de volta á minha mãe.

Alguns anos mais tarde mudaste-te para a Califórnia. Não poderias ser um bom shaper na Florida ou querias mesmo ir para o local onde tudo acontece.
A Califórnia é o epicentro da indústria do surf, para o mundo inteiro. Eu decidi mudar-me para lá uns meses antes de acabar o liceu. Claro que poderia ter ficado na Florida e feito pranchas e os meus Pais teriam adorado isso mas surgiu uma oportunidade para ir e um local onde ficar e como já tinha estado lá algumas vezes e tinha visitado a Moonlight e visto como aqueles tipos trabalhavam, atirei-me de cabeça. Enchi a minha carrinha com todas as minhas coisas e conduzi através do país uma semana após concluir o liceu.

Tinha chegado a hora de começares a trabalhar. Por onde começaste?
Eu mudei-me para lá e não tive trabalho durante um mês. Basicamente surfei e andei de um lado para o outro com o meu colega de quarto aprendendo tudo sobre os diferentes spots e espreitando todas as fábricas. O meu primeiro emprego foi na Global Glassing onde fazia controle de qualidade e acabava algumas pranchas. Pouco depois eu estava também a trabalhar na Moonlight Glassing. Ia á Moonlight durante a manhã e á Global depois. Foi muito bom poder trabalhar em alguns dos maiores nomes ligados ás pranchas. Tudo era novo e excitante. A indústria estava ao rubro naquela altura, a Global fazia 100/125 pranchas por semana. Por isso eu estava sempre muito ocupado. A Moonlight nunca trabalhou pelos números, mais para fazer pranchas realmente únicas.

E então apareceu o Pavel e convidou-te para trabalhares com ele. Conta-nos mais sobre isso. È o sonho da maioria dos jovens shapers.
Basicamente eu apenas subi a colina aqui em Encinitas com o meu colega Jim da Lokbox Fins. Ele apresentou-me ao Rich e fez-me tirar uma das minhas Fish da carrinha e mostra-lhe. O Rich olhou para ela durante alguns minutos, teceu alguns elogios e convidou-me para ficar por ali com ele que me levaria a casa mais tarde. Eu fiquei e absorvi o máximo que consegui naquele dia. Ele disse para ligar-lhe depois para nos juntarmos e fazermos algumas pranchas. Algumas semanas mais tardes isso concretizou-se e fizemos 3 Fish juntos na sua antiga sala de shape em Channin. Foi a primeira vez que usei uma plaina da Skill! Logo depois ele deixava aquela fábrica e mudou-se para Neptune. Era uma máquina KKL numa sala, eu na seguinte e o Rich na última. Trabalhar com o Rich diariamente elevou o meu nível como shaper a um nível onde nunca chegaria em 15 anos a shapear na garagem da minha mãe! O número de pranchas que passava pelas minhas mãos, as exigências de qualidade para cada prancha e os mais variados designs realmente elevaram muito os meus dotes de shaper. Eu não vejo muito o Rich actualmente mas dou-lhe todo o crédito por ter moldado a minha carreira de shaper.

Mas em vez de ficares sob a protecção do Pavel decidiste seguir o teu caminho e criaste a DK Surfboards?
Após quase um ano o Rich viajava muito e eu continuava a fazer algumas pranchas para ele e a trabalhar na Moonlight, mas eu precisava de pagar as contas. Eu já fazia algumas pranchas sob a minha própria marca e estava a receber cada vez mais interessados, por isso o passo lógico seguinte era focar-me na minha própria marca. Mudei-me para uma antiga sala de shape na Moonlight. Estava a ser usada com sala de lixa de água mas já havia sido utilizada por alguns nome grandes do shape.

Começaste com pranchas inspiradas nas Pavel, como a Double Wing Quad ou a Twin Keel, mas passado pouco tempo começámos a ver novos designs, mais virados para a performance. Essa vertente, está relacionada com a tua juventude ou é a forma como vês as pranchas de surf?
Eu sei, realmente era inspiradas nas Pavel. Tal como disse antes, estes eram os designs que eu já fazia aos 14 anos. Agora eu sei como realmente os shapear. Sei onde devo tirar foam e como fazer determinados rails e inserir pequenas subtilezas no bottom. Desde a primeira vez que peguei num blank eu queria fazer as melhores pranchas de performance possíveis, fossem Fish ou uma 6’6 roundpin tail. Eu queria tirar de cada design o máximo de performance possível. Eu tenho tendência em manter-me afastado de pranchas do estilo cruiser. Eu penso que se uma prancha não faz varias pessoas dizer UAU! e quererem surfar apenas com ela, então essa prancha não foi bem feita ou pelo menos haverá nela algo que precisa ser alterado ou adicionado. Nenhuma prancha funciona para todos os surfistas, nós somos todos diferentes. Mas há várias notas que eu retiro do feedback que recebo dos meus clientes sobre o que funciona bem ou mal. Às vezes o melhor feedback é o negativo. Como quando eu fiz a segunda prancha de um mesmo design para um surfista experiente e ele disse-me que não era, nem de perto, tão boa como a primeira. Bem, isso dá-me a oportunidade de comparar ambas as pranchas e tentar perceber o que falta na segunda prancha.

A Swordfish foi a prancha que te catapultou para o “estrelato”. O que esperavas desse design?
Eu não sei acerca do “estrelato” mas sim, a Swordfish é, sem dúvida, o meu modelo mais popular. Basicamente, um amigo meu e surfista profissional, Kasey Curtis, veio ter comigo e pediu-me para fazer-lhe uma prancha semelhante ás Speed Dialer que ele tinha do Rich (Pavel). Eu convenci-o de que eu poderia sempre fazer uma dessas da próxima vez (eu estava a fazer muitas dessas na altura) mas que tinha uma ideia para uma Fish com melhor performance. Eu andava a surfar com uma prancha que o pró- surfer Australiano Daniel Thompson tinha feito para mim quando estávamos os dois a shapear para o Rich e começava a acreditar nos benefícios de um tail sem wings. Então eu queria incorporar algumas coisas dessa prancha com algumas das preferências do Kasey em relação ás Speeddialers. Para resumir uma longa história, acho que tanto eu como o Kasey ficámos muito surpreendidos com o facto dela funcionar tão bem. Ele já tem 3 delas e continua a surfar com a primeira graças á laminação á prova de bala do The Mohikan. Desde a primeira prancha eu coloquei esse design debaixo dos pés de muitos bons surfistas, quer fossem habituais surfistas de Fish ou surfistas de shortboards que odiavam Fish, e o resultado foi geralmente o mesmo. Recebo excelentes resultados de surfistas que trocam de outras performance Fish para a Swordfish. Ela faz um verdadeiro Snap no lip, mais como uma shortboard do que como as Fish

Depois vimos essas incríveis Twin Fins, mais uma vez pranchas de performance. Se andas apenas á procura da melhor performance não era amais fácil fazer shortboards?
Sim, provavelmente. Mas uma shortboard tem limitações tal como qualquer outro design. A thruster comum é feita para um surf top to bottom. Ele quer surfar no pocket e partir do bottom… para mais um snap no lip. O único real beneficio de uma thruster em relação a outras configurações de fins é a facilidade em travar para conseguires entubar. As quads, mais que a Twins têm tendência para ultrapassar os tubos. Eles querem ir mais á frente na parede e fazer um grande cutback ou algo parecido. Eu penso que temos de nos afastar e ver as coisas da perspectiva de que pranchas diferentes são feitas paras coisas diferentes. Algumas são melhores numas áreas e falham em outras e vice-versa. Voltando ás Twins, eu gosto muito da forma como elas voltam do lip. Como não há um trailer fin para as atrasar ela vira rapidamente sobre os fins. Podes facilmente sentir a diferença. Tipos como o Akila Aipa e o Rasta conseguiram colocar essa configuração de fins numa prancha com um outline e foil de shortboard e faz-la funcionar bem.

Será que alguma vez iremos ver uma Hull ou Stubby como a marca DK?
Provavelmente não! Ah ah! Eu gosto de fazer verdadeiras single fins, estilo old school V bottom pintails ou até mesmo single fins com 6 canais. Mas essa coisa das Hull redondas com belly não é para mim! È um estilo de surf que eu não estou a tentar fazer. Muito trimming e tentar manter o rail na água para fazer um cutback suicida quando finalmente chegas á parede. Eu não quero tirar nada a quem as faz ou surfa com elas, apenas não é o meu estilo de surf. Eu quero fazer com que as minhas pranchas façam tudo o que eu quero delas na parte da onda que eu desejo. Ter controlo total sobre a prancha e sobre onde quero ir na onda. Apesar disso no outro dia vi o Manny da Mandala Surfboards numa das suas Hull e parecia surfar muito bem.

Pensas que levaste os teus designs ao limite ou ainda á margem para os melhorares?
Claro que não! Se algum dia se der o caso de os meus designs estagnarem ou não os conseguir melhorar ou criar novos, então eu mudo-me para a Balsa e começo a fazer pranchas ou barcos de madeira. Eu ainda aprendo com cada prancha, seja uma nova forma de usar uma ferramenta ou alguma nova característica do design que estou a introduzir. Há sempre alterações a serem feitas. Está sempre a evoluir.

Estiveste em Portugal duas vezes. Gostaste? E das ondas?
Portugal é muito louco. A família do lado da minha mãe é portuguesa e do lado do mau pai Irlandesa. Eu acabei de visitar o meu avô que é um Coronel reformando do exército Americano que vive no Idaho. È obvio que foi dele que herdei o meu talento. Ele é um de 9 irmãos. A sua mãe era do Porto e o seu pai de Lisboa. Todos os seus irmãos eram metalúrgicos ou electricistas. Ele é um carpinteiro fenomenal e a sua irmã que faleceu recentemente cantou Fado durante anos. A cultura Portuguesa em geral é muito cool. Eu adoro o café e a comida. Entre a fantástica linha de costa que têm, com reefs afiados e points de direita, além da beleza das pessoas, vocês são afortunados! No geral eu diria que é um dos meus lugares preferidos entre os que já visitei e como cresci com uma mãe que é agente de viagens tive a sorte de viajar muito enquanto jovem. A linha costeira é muito bonita e há muito mais em Portugal que eu não visitei. Tenho a certeza que é um local que visitarei muitas vezes, quer tenha pranchas para shapear ou não.

Durante o Euro Fish Fry tiveste a oportunidade de ver muitas pranchas. Estamos muito longe do que vocês fazem na Califórnia?
De modo algum. Eu vi resinas pigmentadas, fins de madeira, Fish, Quads, Bonzers e shortboards de qualidade. Vocês estão lá! Eu fiquei impressionado ao entrar na Board Culture pela primeira vez e ver aquela fábrica de primeira com laminações de qualidade, máquina de shape e tudo o resto! A maior parte das vezes preocupaste se vais shapear numa barraca qualquer sem luzes mas na generalidade as pranchas Portuguesas parecem ser tão boas como as pranchas que vejo em qualquer outro local. A cultura de surf no seu todo ainda está a crescer e com ela irá crescer o mercado de pranchas. Eu imagino que quando eu for um homem velho os vossos lineups terão tanto crowd como os nossos.

Sendo tão novo, penso que não te preocupas muito como o futuro, mas onde te vês daqui a 30 anos? Pensas que ainda estarás a shapear?
Podes apostar nisso! Eu posso morrer antes disso mas tenho esperança que ainda estarei vivo e assim sendo quero pensar que estarei a fazer pranchas de surf até que as minhas mãos tenham tanta artrite que eu já não possa agarrar nas ferramentas. Fazer pranchas de surf e viver do surf é o que escolhi fazer da minha vida. Eu tomei algumas decisões importantes há alguns anos e decidi correr atrás da minha carreira em vez de continuar na escola e até agora tem corrido muito bem! Para responder directamente á tua pergunta, dentro de 30 anos espero ter um a família que eu possa sustentar e viver confortavelmente, surfar todos os dias e sentir a mesma satisfação que sinto hoje ao fazer pranchas por encomenda.

Rui: You started out in the surfboard business packing boards for Christenson. Did that mark the beginning of your interest in shaping, or what it something you had already considered?
Jeff: For sure, from the very beginning, even before Christenson, I wanted to shape. I just didn’t have access to the necessary means. But once I got into Chris’s place it was on; shaping really consumed my life, I lost a lot of sleep thinking about boards. But it’s hard to get the opportunities I had – I was really lucky. So I try to help out people who are into it when I can, trying to share the stoke.

Rui: Was Christenson was a big influence on the kind of surfboards you make now?
Jeff: Yeah, he was a big influence, just because I learned so much from him. I got into his place right when he started the alternative thing, and all I rode was alternative boards so I fitted in well there. I learned a lot from Chris, and that has been a big part of what I create. But when I moved on to do my own thing, my influences began to spread more and more, and are still spreading today.

Rui: You’re from San Diego, home of the fish, yet you only shape ‘alternative’ surfboards. How come you don’t do fish? Just not your thing, or is it that you want to go beyond that?
Jeff: I was into fish for a little bit, and made some I really liked, but once I was over it I never looked back. I guess they aren’t my thing, but that comes from wanting something better. This is partly because being taller (I’m 6’3”), I was riding bigger fish (around 5’10”), but I believe for traditional fish to work as they are designed or how I want them to work they need to be small – like 5’6” and under. That’s where the Quagg came from. I learned how to surf on singlefin eggs, and then transitioned to fish, but felt the parallel rails would gag and not be as fluid. So I went back to the egg – it was gonna be a singlefin but I had been reading about quads and went for it. So I made a 5’10” and the thing was insane. Everyone that rode it wanted one. It wasn’t ever shaped that well, but the idea worked so I knew they would only get better.

Rui: Since you made your first Mini-Simmons it has become a pretty common design. How did you came up with that, and do you think it’s just hype or does the design really work?
Jeff: The first Mini-Simmons was Casper. It was shaped by Joe Bauguess for RK, and they’ll tell you that they each came up with it. But I saw that one and did some research on Bob Simmons and decided to make my idea of the Simmons so I made the second one ever. Casper was painted all-white so I made mine all-black, which fitted well, since I got so much shit for making those boards in the beginning ’cause those guys were claiming it as theirs. When in reality it is a Simmons design that has been resurrected. So mine was the Black Sheep of the Simmons, which I kind of like. I think it’s rad that so many people are making and riding them now, and it’s even better to see the variations people are coming up with. I think the design works really well, but they are the type of board that – to get what you want out of them – you have to commit to them. But they are for real, for sure.

Rui: You say that your New B model is “designed for the ultimate performance while not a shortboard”. Do you think you’ve pushed your designs to the limit?
Jeff: The New B is a relatively new design for me, and in the last year I’ve been refining it to get it there in terms of performance. The deck and rail design allows you to ride a smaller, thinner board than your standard alternative board and still maintain all the paddle. Yet its thinness and progressive rail retains the performance. I was doing it for a long time, but have now refined it – I always knew it worked but now I understand how and why, and how far I can push it without losing anything.

Rui: You’re not only a great shaper but also a great glasser known for the quality and attention for detail. Do you still glass a lot of boards yourself or are you concentrating on shaping right now?
Jeff: Right now I’m concentrating on shaping, but all my boards are glassed under my roof. I have built a small team that shares my passion for the details and are amazingly skilled. But I still enjoy getting in the resin. I’m gonna start a solo series for which I will do every step, from start to finish. I still do 90% of all the resin colour on my boards.

Rui: Shaping or surfing? What comes first? And what board do you usually ride on your daily sessions?
Jeff: It used to be surfing, but in the last few years shaping has become more of a priority. I still check the waves everyday, but I pick my days better. I enjoy the big days the most, so I try to get my work done when it’s small so that when the waves are pumping I can be on it. But this season was really small so I’ve been spending more time freediving and spearfishing.

Rui: What are your expectations about Europe? Do you think the European surfer is much different from the US ones?
Jeff: I expect Europe to be rad – I think the European surfer has a better understanding of what they want and what they appreciate. I’m looking forward to getting some boards over there and getting people stoked.

A couple of weeks after this interview, Jeff was in France at the UWL factory where he shaped some boards and got everybody stoked.

www.mccallumsurfboards.com

- Jeff, começaste a trabalhar na indústria do Surf a embalar pranchas para o Chris Christenson. Foi aí que tudo começou ou já era algo que tinhas em mente?

Claro, desde o início, mesmo antes do Chris queria ser shaper. Eu apenas não tinha acesso aos meios necessários. Mas assim que cheguei ao Chris, estava lançado. O shape consumia todo o meu tempo, a minha vida. Perdi muitas noites a pensar em pranchas de surf. È muito difícil ter as oportunidades que eu tive, fui muito sortudo. Por isso eu tento ajudar aqueles que estão interessados, sempre que tenho oportunidade, partilhando a minha paixão.

- O Christenson foi uma grande influência no tipo de pranchas que fazes agora?

Sim, ele foi uma grande influência, logo pelo facto de que eu aprendi tanto com ele. Eu cheguei quando ele começou a cena alternativa e tudo o que surfava eram shapes alternativos por isso eu encaixava bem aí. Eu aprendi muito com o Chris e isso é visível em grande parte do que criei. Mas quando me mudei para a minha própria marca, as minhas influências alargaram-se e continuam até hoje.

- Tu és de San Diego, origem do design Fish e apenas fazes pranchas alternativas, mas nenhuma Fish. Porquê? Não é a tua linha ou quiseste ir além disso?

Eu estive ligado ás Fish por algum tempo e fiz algumas que gostei bastante, mas assim que segui em frente nunca mais voltei atrás. Não são a minha onda, mas isso vem de eu querer algo melhor. Penso que sendo alto, com 2 m, eu estava a surfar com Fish maiores, á volta de 5’10, mas eu acredito que para uma Fish tradicional funcionar como são desenhadas ou como eu quero que funcionem, têm de ser pequenas, tipo 5’6 ou menos. Foi aí que a Quagg nasceu. Eu aprendi a surfar em Eggs Single Fin e passei para as Fish, mas sentia que os rails paralelos não eram tão fluidos. Então voltei ás Egg e o que seria mais uma single fin acabou por ficar quad pois andava a ler muito sobre isso. Então fiz uma 5’10 que era uma loucura. Todos os que surfaram com ela queriam uma. Nunca foi assim tão boa mas a ideia funcionava e eu sabia que apenas a podia melhorar.

- Desde que fizeste a tua primeira Mini-Simmons, o design tornou-se muito popular. De onde veio a ideia e acreditas que o design funciona mesmo ou é apenas uma moda?

A primeira Mini-Simmons foi a Casper, feita pelo Joe Baguess para o RK e eles vão ambos dizer-te que a ideia foi sua. Eu vi uma e fiz alguma pesquisa acerca do Bob Simmons e daí decidi fazer a minha visão da Simmons e acabei fazendo a segunda Mini-Simmons de sempre. A Casper foi toda pintada de branco por isso eu fiz a minha toda preta, o que fazia sentido, pois eu passei por tanta coisa ao faze-las no inicio porque aqueles tipos reclamavam que era ideia deles. Na realidade é um design do Simmons que foi ressuscitado. Então a minha era a ovelha negra das Mini-Simmons, algo que de certo modo me agradava! Agora tanta gente está a fazê-las e a surfar com elas, o que acho fantástico. È ainda melhor ver as variações que as pessoas têm feito! Eu penso que o design funciona muito bem, mas são um tipo de prancha ao qual tens de te comprometer para conseguires dela o que queres. Mas são mesmo a sério!

- Tu dizes acerca da New B que é “desenhada para a máxima performance sem ser uma shortboard”. Pensas que levaste os teus designs ao limite?

A New B é um design relativamente novo para mim, que tenho vindo a refinar ao longo do último ano, para a levar até aí em termos de performance. O design do deck e rails permite que surfes com uma prancha mais pequena e fina que a tua prancha alternativa normal mas mantendo a facilidade de remada. A pouca espessura e os rails progressivos mantêm a performance. Eu já fazia isso há algum tempo mas agora refinei a coisa. Eu sempre soube que funcionava mas agora percebo como e porquê e até onde posso levar o design sem perder nada.

- Não és apenas um grande shaper, mas também um excelente laminador conhecido pela qualidade e atenção aos detalhes. Ainda laminas muitas pranchas ou preferes concentrar-te no shape agora?

Agora eu estou mais concentrado no shape mas todas as minhas pranchas são laminadas debaixo do meu tecto. Eu criei uma pequena equipa que partilha a minha paixão pelos detalhes e que é incrivelmente talentosa. Mas eu ainda gosto de mexer na resina. Eu vou iniciar uma Solo Series na qual irei fazer tudo sozinho do princípio ao fim. Eu ainda faço 90% dos pigmentos coloridos nas minhas pranchas.

- Shape ou Surfar? O que vem primeiro? E com que pranchas surfas habitualmente?

Costumava ser surf mas nos últimos anos o shape tem-se tornado mais uma prioridade. Eu ainda verifico as ondas todos os dias mas escolho os meus dias melhor. Eu gosto mais dos dias maiores por isso tento fazer o meu trabalho quando o mar está pequeno para que quando as ondas estão boas eu possa ir. Esta época foi realmente pequena por isso tenho passado mais tempo a fazer mergulho ou caça submarina.

-Quais são as tuas expectativas acerca da Europa? Pensas que os surfistas europeus são muito diferentes dos americanos?

Eu espero que a Europa seja incrível. Penso que os surfistas Europeus têm um melhor entendimento do que eles querem e do que eles apreciam. Estou desejoso de fazer ter algumas pranchas aí e apaixonar as pessoas.

Algumas semanas depois desta entrevista, o Jeff esteve em França, na UWL, onde fez algumas pranchas e muito sucesso.

www.mccallumsurfboards.com

magic-quiver.blogspot.com

Whether its holidaying families bellyboarding in the shallows, weekend warriors eager to cram every available wave in to their 48 hour break, or locals who’ve done their winter penance for a taste of warm water and sunshine, everyone on the beach is here for one thing – to enjoy the water and soak up the rays. The scent of Ambre Solaire and Hawaiian Tropic hangs heavy in the air, a chemical juxtaposition matched only by the whited-out noses and cheeks of the cautious few.

My own lackadaisical attitude has left me typing this with skin that’s more than a little painful to touch but with reddened cheeks has come a curiosity about sun tan lotion that needs sating. Sure it has a positive effect on our skin, staving off the burn and protecting us from the threat of skin cancer, but what about its effect on the environment?

In the UK, £146 million is spent on sun cream each year and with over half a million surfers in the UK – not to mention the millions of other beach goers splashing about in the shallows – that’s a hell of a lot of the white stuff washing off in our waves. And it’s taking its toll. A study in California, where bare-skinned surfers populate the ocean day in day out, found that two thirds of male turbot and sole off the coast of Huntingdon Beach were growing ovary tissue in their testes. The only culprit The University of California scientists could ‘exclusively identify’ was oxybenzone, a chemical used to protect the skin from the ultraviolet component of sunlight. That’s right folks; the stuff we apply liberally before paddling out can have gender bending effects on fish.

What’s more, recent Swiss research shows that other ingredients found in sunscreen and lip balm – octocrylene and 4-methylbenzylidene camphor – build up alarmingly in fish and could have similar sex changing effects. On top of that a new study commissioned by the European Commission found that seven of the 20 compounds which act as UV filters in sunscreen have negative effects on coral, bleaching and destroying the organism, in fact in some parts of the world, wearing the chemical loaded lotion is banned altogether.

However, with 100,000 new cases of skin cancer diagnosed in Britain each year and the risk of burning so much higher if you’re hanging out in the water for hours on end, giving sun tan lotion a miss for the sake of the fish is certainly not an option.

Luckily, there’s a solution. Seven years ago scientists at the Plymouth Marine Laboratory started working on a project with Boots Company PLC looking at a potential natural sources of sun protection, from tiny floating plants, or phytoplankton. Other companies started looking into using natural mineral titanium dioxide and since then a whole range of natural sunscreens have come onto the market which don’t allow damage to the environment, or your skin.

To help you decide which product is best for The Environmental Working Group has developed a database where you can see the effect that your brand of choice has on your skin and surroundings.

Sitting here weighing up the pleasure of a prospective after work wave against the red raw pain of my feet I’ve certainly learned my lesson, but seeing as  I don’t want a  slew of transgender sole on my conscience it’s all natural all the way for me, from now on. Bring on the algae…