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BOARDS: KELLY SLATER
Checking out the nine-time world champ's current selection of Magic Carpets
Counter to what mainstream media might have us believe, surfers are a pretty conservative bunch. Especially when it comes to surfboards. This is often more out of necessity than close-mindedness, 'cause much as we'd like to spend all day experimenting with cool new shit, hardly any of us have the TIME to spend wasting perfect waves while we figure out an alaia, say. Most of us have like a two-hour-a-day window (if that!) to try to eke out some kind of surfing stoke before we go back to work or school or whatnot. So if the waves are there, we go with the same stock-standard thruster that's gotten us through a thousand dawn patrols over the years. Board experimentation is a luxury for dudes who have more time (and waves!) on their hands than you or me.
Kelly Slater is one such dude. And since last October, he's been famously experimenting not only with new designs, but also with shaping his own boards. Sometimes, like at last year's Pipeline Masters, the experiments worked amazingly. Sometimes, like on the Aussie leg of the '09 ASP World Tour, they seemed not quite as amazing. Either way, 'Kelly's weird boards' have been the topic of much discussion and debate amongst surfers all over the world. And 12 months into it, he's been a little surprised by how conservative surfers actually are.
"To be free to experiment is great," he tells us after we spend a couple hours taking photos and talking about his surfboards last weekend. "But it's real quick for people to put down something you're doing. It's a human nature thing, but that's been surprising."
In other words: no shortage of fairly closed minds out there in surfboard-design land. But only up to the water's edge. Kelly continues: "Funny thing is, when people actually ride some of these boards, they have so much fun on 'em they wouldn't say anything but good things."
After a year of experimentation, does the nine-time world champ have any other advice? "The best thing anybody can do is go and shape your own boards," he smiles. "It's nice to learn, after 30 years of surfing, what it takes to make a good board: it's not easy! And it definitely gives you a respect for people who make your boards."
What follows is the nine-time champ's candid take on surfboard design -- and a look at eight boards in his current quiver.
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September 17, 2009
