Quiver |
 The Largest Surfing EncyclopediaA-Z: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Advertisement
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Like two holes in golf, no two waves are the same. You have your 80-yard par-three's, your 500-yard par-five's, and quite a bit in between. To be a well-rounded surfer -- one capable of dealing with anything the ocean delivers -- you need a wide range of vehicles. Thus, the quiver was born.
Today's surfing jet-set are expected to perform in all conditions. And whereas in the past you'd ride your trusty Old Betsy at Waikiki as well as Sunset, subtle advancements in surfboard technology have given us many options. Combinations of various lengths, templates, rockers, and bottom contours create boards suited to varying types of surf. With all the choices on the market, you rarely find a surfer these days with only one stick. By reproducing various ancient Hawaiian olo boards in the 1920s, Tom Blake became the first modern surfer to establish a quiver. In the '30s, Hot Curl developers John Kelly, Wally Froiseth and Fran Heath took a quantum leap from those replicas by hacking off the sides of their square-tailed planks to create a board suited specifically for larger surf. No surfer was more influential in the development of the modern quiver than Froiseth's nephew, George Downing. During the 1940s and '50s, Downing's travels and extensive study of surfboard dynamics resulted in concepts no big-wave surfer could do without. Combined with an ever-shrinking globe thanks to air travel and the relative ease of board construction with polyurethane foam, quivers became a way of life for any traveling surfer. Nowadays, the term "surfboard" can apply to any number of vessels -- shortboards, longboards, funboards or towboards. In the category of shortboards alone, serious professional surfers carry as many as a dozen boards at a time, not to mention the other thirty at home in their garage. Of course, not everyone gets their boards for free, and we can't all afford an endless quiver. In that case, let's hope Old Betsy is a good all-arounder. -- Jason Borte
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