Airbrush

The Largest Surfing Encyclopedia

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Airbrush: simple, right? Color sprayed onto a shaped, but still unglassed, surfboard blank. Though the term generally refers to the spraying implement itself or its usage, surfers have bastardized the term to refer to the finished product itself: "Did you check out that hideous airbrush on Barney's board? I mean c'mon, how played out is the whole 'psychedelic seascape' thing?"

The airbrush itself is a sort of mechanical paintbrush that uses air pressure to force paint through a tight nozzle that may be adjusted for narrow lines or sweeping swaths. The process lends itself to subtle color mixtures and layering. Surfboard art tends to come in two flavors: one more geometric where rails are isolated and evenly coated or boards sprayed in full and the other freeform -- naked ladies, eerie skulls or tri-colored flames.

The '50s revolution from wood to foam, besides forever altering the way waves would be ridden, brought an additional canvas for expression. Infinitely white, mass-produced boards are a thing of uniformity, something surfers have forever bucked. Early stabs at airbrushing were of the generic variety (straight lines or basic yellow coats), but in the drug haze of the late '60s/early '70s, the "enlightened" decided to color outside the lines. Guys such as Aussie speed demon Terry Fitzgerald and California cowboy Mike Purpus rode boards intricately painted with interstellar visions and full-chested dream girls and paved the way for the so-called "signature spray," meaning any airbrush linked to a specific surfer. World Champ Tom Carroll would eventually take this to new extremes, always riding boards with a crescent of color descending down the right rail.

In the eyesore '80s, sprays went neon (see "Willy Morris" entry), but by the '90s, white space thankfully returned to favor. A few years ago, surfers discovered paint-filled pens and detailed pictures of cultural icons (Tony the Tiger, Beavis and Butthead, Miss Piggy) started appearing on the decks and bottoms of grommets' surfboards worldwide.

Certain shapers (Al Merrick and Rusty Preisendorfer) have found notoriety, and so have a small handful of airbrushers whose art-on-foam has defined certain eras. Martin Worthington's dolphins on acid for Australia's Hot Buttered in the '70s paved the way for cheesy seascapers such as Christian Lassen and Wyland. John Glomb's totally early '80s new wave stylings for Nectar embodied the era of checkers and skinny ties, while the crew at Mayhem Surfboards (Drew Brophy and others) sprays the state of the art in death, fire and, well, mayhem.

Debate will always rage about the purity of airbrushed boards. But before you side with the detractors (generally old guys living in log cabins with dogs named Sam), realize that if we had never decided to apply paint to foam, surfing would still be in black and white. -- Greg Heller, October 2000