The vee-bottom contour was a pivotal characteristic for the extra turn-oriented fashion of browsing that emerged within the mid-sixties. Consisting initially of two angled panels that met within the centre and ran longitudinally via the rear third of the board, the design prompted the creation of a surfboard mannequin of the identical identify by Australian surfer-shaper Bob McTavish. After aiding world champion Nat Younger in designing Magic Sam, McTavish probed even additional into the efficiency of his pal and fellow boardmaker, Californian kneeboarder George Greenough. In March 1967, he carried out the vee-shaped backside design on his first Plastic Machine – a 9’ x 23” mannequin that showcased an unprecedented vary of manoeuvrability and, later being refined to shorter lengths, kindled the shortboard revolution.
The Historic Context
The wildcat “complete involvement” motion of the 60s prompted surfer-cum-shapers to department away from nose-riding, sparking a frenzy of experimentation within the shaping bay. It was in 1964, in Australia, that this course searching for started to seek out its True North. After sojourning in New South Wales, Californian kneeboarder George Greenough, who had been carving up and down the wave face on a 4’10” low-volume kneeboard, fed native visionaries Bob McTavish and Nat Younger with an eidetic instance of what might be completed when it comes to wave-riding, while additionally emphasizing the constraints of their over-9-footers. Impressed by the encounter, the Aussies resolved to seek out methods to breed Greenough’s efficiency while stand-up browsing. This ultimately culminated in Nat Younger’s 1966 world title run when, utilizing his model new board, “Magic” Sam, he demonstrated the kind of radical browsing aspired to in “complete involvement”. This instance, in flip, offered the empirical push for board designers to decide to shorter, lighter, and extra versatile tools.
Aiming to dig his foot even deeper into the newfound micro cosmos of manoeuvrability, and making the most of his place as a shaper at Keyo Surfboards, McTavish developed the unique vee-bottom surfboard in March of 1967, nicknaming it the Plastic Machine. He put a 9’0” big-wave model of the brand new design to the take a look at later that yr in Hawaii; although the board didn’t carry out effectively in massive surf, a six- to eight-foot session at Honolua Bay (captured in Paul Witzig’s 1968 The Scorching Technology), revealed the potential behind his design and disseminated curiosity throughout the browsing public at giant. This collection of occasions cleared the trail for the transition from longboarding to shortboarding, coalescing within the shortboard revolution. McTavish put out a number of vee-bottoms over the approaching months, steadily making them lighter and smaller. The Plastic Machine remained the go-to surfboard mannequin via 1968 alongside Dick Brewer’s mini-gun, in a sort of design limbo that lasted till 1969, when boardmakers throughout the globe started experimenting with design options at will and creating new fashions altogether, thus pushing vee-bottoms to the background.
Why Was This Growth Essential?
Together with Magic Sam and the Fish, the vee-bottom surfboard was a purposeful transfer away from nose-riding as the first measure of excessive efficiency, and a by-product of the “complete involvement” method to browsing – a motion which primarily aimed to place manoeuvrability because the prima idea of high-performance. Revolutionary surfers needed to eschew straight-line browsing and have extra management over the board’s course so they may select their very own monitor, discover the entire wave’s face, and take advantage of energy pockets. However so far as boardmakers may fathom, the dichotomy between nose-riding and radical manoeuvring was an either-or state of affairs: you selected one on the expense of the opposite. Translating to board design, the heftiness of common surfboards (which had been round 9’6” lengthy and weighed greater than 20 kilos) introduced an obstacle towards the responsiveness sought by surfers. And although the basic motifs for his or her inception had been shared, McTavish’s vee-bottom addressed one thing neither Lis’ Fish nor Younger’s Magic Sam had explored completely: foot positioning. By specializing in the rail-to-rail transition, surfers needn’t stroll all the way in which to the tail to facilitate an abrupt change in course, and will now flip extra simply and sharply, while recovering from turns extra rapidly by reaching energy positions that keep away from lack of pace.
Who Was Concerned?
As soon as hailed by Browsing Life journal because the “Most Influential Shaper of All Time,” Australian Bob McTavish (b. 1944) constantly drew on his enthusiastic character and dynamic, all-encompassing browsing fashion to push wave-riding and surfboard design to the following stage. Raised in Queensland, McTavish rode his first waves on hole plywood paddleboards at age 12. He dropped out of highschool at 15 and, transferring to Sydney at 17, started shaping underneath the wings of famend board makers equivalent to Joe Larkin of Larkin Surfboards and Danny Keyo of Keyo Surfboards. By the mid-60s, McTavish joined forces with fellow-countryman Nat Younger and Californian George Greenough to create the “complete involvement” college of browsing – a motion which knowledgeable most of his work within the years to return, together with the delivery of the vee-bottom surfboard.
Regardless of having three Queensland state titles (1964 to 1966) and two outstanding performances on the Australian Nationwide Titles (3rd in 1965 and a couple ofnd in 1966) underneath his belt, McTavish, alongside together with his nine-foot Keyo Plastic Machine, slid underneath the worldwide highlight through the 1967 Duke Kahanamoku Invitational. After a mediocre efficiency within the competitors at Sundown Seashore, he took his vee-bottom out to Honolulu Bay, browsing classes whose footage appeared within the iconic surf movie The Scorching Technology spreading the attention of high-performance browsing potential throughout world surf media.
McTavish all however vanished from the business when he moved to the north coast of New South Wales together with his household in 1970, and solely reappeared in 1977 writing a collection of surf journal articles championing longboarding at a time when shortboards dominated. In 1989 he took a shot at reproducing boards utilized by high skilled surfers in molded epoxy building (Professional Circuit Boards), a way that ultimately caught on within the late nineties as Surftech’s Tuflite. Towards the flip of the millennium McTavish developed a spread of longboards that may be licensed by manufacturing giants World Surf Industries and SurfTech.
