It all started with the fish when the innovative shapers and board builders out there decided to revisit the past for some inspiration. In doing so they brought back some lost skills such as resin tints and hand foiled fins.The Fish Fry has been a place for these fine craftsmen to showcase their skills. We have seen some amazing boards as shapers have pushed the boundaries over the last few years. As this new look at the fish has evolved to its many forms, it has influenced other shapes and designs along the way.This has spawned a renewed interest in other board forms by this same group and a wider following.Notably the Mini Simmons, Hulls, old school Logs and Pigs. It is pleasing to note that there are an increasing number of people building their own boards as well.All of this is to be applauded and celebrated as a positive for surfing.So it is only natural that these shapers and board builders continue to share their skills with us and include these other shapes at the Fish Fry.It has truly become a melting pot of ideas for like minded people.
Sean Mattison as you know is a well known Fish Man from Oceanside California and Fish Fry supporter. He has just forwarded these shots of himself and PT enjoying their first session on one of his new designs the Moon fish that he made up for PT under Sean's new label Von Sol. PT brought down a board of his that he wanted Sean to ride that he had shaped in 1974.
" He told me that this board that he made maybe the first fish in OZ.He was doing the G&S label in OZ at the time when he made it.He was inspired to shape it after he was in California watching Skip Frye shape a few Keel fin fishes. I will send you some classic photos of PT and this board following this e-mail."
" As for the Moon Fish....He loved it! Super Stoked ! Sean "
PT and Sean wax up. PT with the Moon Fish. His 1974 shaped board in the middle. Sean giving PT's 1974 shape a real good work out. PT's not past giving the Moon Fish a good shake down as well. Some nice action shots care of Lance Smith.
At this year Fish Fry we had John Smart and Morgan Maassen here filming Tyler Warren on a variety of boards throughout the day. Moran was never dry from what I could see and Tyler was up and down the beach all day trying different boards. Moran did a lot of water time and John had all the other angles covered. Great day all day. Tyler was off to give one of Tom Wegener's hollow Paulownia Tuna's a run. Tyler chilling with the Paul and Dain from Sea surfboards. In the foreground a couple of boards by Josh Hall and Manny that tyler brought with him. Looking forward to the release of the film. Check out his blog for further updates. www.thetylerwarrenexperiment.blogspot.com
“Shaper’s Night at the Museum” went off with great success on Wednesday the 9th of September. Surfing icon Bob McTavish was the keynote speaker for the not-for-profit event which was held at the recently opened Gold Coast Surf World Museum in Currumbin.
Shaper’s that were there included DHD, Al Byrne, Passion8, Bourton, Full Force, DMS, Dorrington, D’Arcy, Chris Garrett, Grown , Hellfish, FIREWIRE, Diverse, Astro Surfboards, Joe Larkin, Tony Dempsey, Dale Chapman and of course Bob McTavish.
Local muso Dan Hannaford entertained the crowd as they had a few beers to warm up
Al Byrne, a great shaper , innovator and a funny bugger to boot. Kiwi as well.
Bob explaining his new quad fin setup, where the width of the back fins are set at the same length of your foot , so as to give you the most control and power.
Bob McTavish captivated the audience as he showed off his new fin placement system and explained the logic behind using your foot size to customise fin placement on surfboards. It wasn’t all technical, as Bob took us all back in time to uncrowded perfection of Noosa, sleeping in surf clubs and surviving on a shilling a day.
Al Byrne and John Milne were also guest speakers and gave the crowd some different bottom design ideas which included channel bottoms and 1 and a 1/2 inch thick concaves.
Nice turnout of interested folk.
John Milne from Hellfish then pulled out a show stopper. His “fish” surfboard with a vibrant lifelike fishy artwork has to be seen to be really believed. The “fish” is trippy and looks like a giant lure.
Shaper’s were all invited to bring along a board to showcase, a crowd favourite was Full Force’s hand shaped gun featuring a spray of rock goddess P!NK and her husband Carey Hart. Dan MacDonald (DMS) also provided a good looking twinnie, which also proved to be very popular with the crew.
The night really was something special.
“The Gold Coast Surf World museum is totally reliant upon community support. Volunteers make up the entire staff roster, we are always on the lookout for people willing to help out”, said Bob Pankhurst, one of the museum committee members.
‘Shaper’s Night at the Museum’ was an initiative of three volunteers, Nikki Jackson, Werner Kotze and Gus Goozee. They are hoping that following this project they can source unpaid work experience in various areas of the surfing industry.
The event was proudly supported by Southern Cross University and Australia’s Surfing Life Magazine.
Sean Mattison, just sent me this little gem to give me the heads up on Fish Fry 5 ... the day after the ASR trade show in San Diego. As he said "where we left off " After all a Fish Fry is a Fish Fry not anything else. Just a Fish Fry. Good on you mate to get back to where it all started.
A friend sent me these pics of Derek Hynd with one of his fin less creations. He was riding it at 8ft plus Bells Beach . Some interesting things to ponder none the less. Let a lone a glasser and sanders nightmare.
The legendary Bob McTavish will be amongst the line up of guest speakers at Surf World Gold Coast’s “Shaper’s Night at the Museum” that will be attended by the who’s who of Gold Coast surfboard shapers on Wednesday, 9 September 2009 from 6.00 pm.
The event will give shapers the chance to come together for a relaxed night at Surf World where shapers and the general public will get the chance to interact in what could be the first of an annual event for the recently opened museum.
When asked to be one of the guest speakers, McTavish replied: “I’d be stoked and honoured to speak about shaping at the museum. I’m keen to support your museum. It’s really cool.”
Bob McTavish started surfing when he was 12 and began shaping at the age of 17 and was the inventor of the vee-bottom surfboard. He was Queensland state champion in 1964, 1965 and 1966, and was runner up in the Australian National Titles in 1966. Bob has appeared in about 10 surf films. Australia’s Surfing Life magazine selected Bob as the “Most Influential Shaper of All Time” in 1992. In 1996 he was inducted into the Australian Surfing Hall of Fame.
The night is being held as a non profit event and all proceeds will go towards Surf World Gold Coast. Guests will get the opportunity to hear first hand how shaping and surfing evolved over the years and where the industry is heading and will take a tour through the museum’s big surfboard exhibition.
It promises to be a night not to miss. The public are urged to book their tickets quickly as numbers are limited and should sell out quick. Tickets can be booked by sending an e-mail to shapersnight@hotmail.com. Tickets are on sale for $10 each and will include snacks and refreshments.
The event is supported by Southern Cross University through their Diploma of Sport Management (Surfing Studies) course.
Dave Foulds from Christchurch in New Zealand was over last week to the Gold Coast to pick up his Dick Van Straalen Rocket Fish. He's home and hit the 8 degree water for a rubbered up sesh.
Ruy Nepomuceno Neto from Rio de Janeiro , Brazil, sent me these pics of his new board shaped for him by Filipe Hage. He had it made for his girlfriend and one fin represents him surfing a short board and the other his girlfriend surfing her longboard. Nice touch. Thanks for sharing.
Yes I have the word from Sean Mattison that the Fish Fry is back on the agenda. Not AB3 or something else but a Fish Fry - just FISH . Like it was when I was there for Fish Fry 4 in 2006 at Oceanside. The fish isn't dead guys . So it is Sunday September 13th. More details when they come to hand. We had some 35 + shapers at the Alley Fish Fry and the Japanese one was a huge success . The fish is influencing a lot of the shapes that are out there now. Too soon to pull the plug guys.
New Zealand has some great waves and some great artists. Daryn Mcbride just happens to be a former pro longboarder that captures the beauty of his homeland and the sea in a magical way.
Check him out at : www.freedomartstudio.blogspot.com
Here is some fine wood work for sure . Five or six mixed woods all chambered and shaped . Beautiful gloss finish . Click on the image for a bigger view of the detail. As you can see it has become one of Rogers regular rides. So it is no show pony , but a great performing board. Roger is a little rugged up for the New Zealand winter .
After nearly a decade of FISH boards getting us long boarders back on shorter equipment, there is a new solution on the horizon… The BOBSLED!
Fishes are fine if you surf them flat, and are happy to move your back foot around between manouvres, so you can get power into those fins right out on the rail. But if you wanna jam more VERTICAL, the fish doesn’t really wanna go there. The BOBSLED solves this problem by pulling the tail width in, and closing up the fin-spread, allowing you to snap from rail-to-rail instantly without moving your foot to find a point to dominate your fins. In other words, the Bobsled surfs like a regular board, but with paddle power supplied by a wider mid and nose template, like a fish.
But how do you make a wider board roll fast onto it’s rail so it can go vertical? The answer there is the classic McTavish bottom shape: Concave down the centre for LIFT, then BEVELS along the underside rails to soften it’s feel… instead of a cranky flat or full rail-to-rail concave, the bevels make the board feel NARROWER, and allow easy banking onto the rail into the turn.
The RAILS are boxy, carrying more paddling VOLUME out to the edges where thay can displace some water. No point in having a board measure 3.5 inches thick in the centre if the deck is heavily rolled, shedding all the volume and creating an uncomfortable rolled feel underfoot.
The fin set-up is pure QUAD, the fastest, best feeling combo on the planet! (But only if you get the fin-spread right, as we do. We’ve tested our quad spread on our team, from young short-board shredders all the way to us older vast experienced surf designers.)
LENGTHS are ranging from 5’5 (like the one I made for Slater) all the way up to the mid sevens. It’s that VERSATILE.
The BOBSLED… The new bankable, fast reactive high-speed shorter-board from the McTavish Team.
The Alley Fish Fry has been a great experience in the park opposite the beach at Currumbin, but unfortunately it has run it's course. I will put my energies into supporting others who would like to follow this successful theme elsewhere. Thanks for the ride.
It was a non competitive and non commercial gathering of board riders and builders of these sweet craft.
It was about the shapers who craft these boards and those of us who enjoy the ride. Each year we saw many new ideas expanding on the the original designs and that's what is great about where surfing is at today.
If you have pics of boards you are building please feel free to e - mail me and I will post them here. grantnewby@bigpond.com
The Alley
The first Fish Fry in Australia came about after checking out the one in Oceanside California in 2006. I thought it looked like fun and something we should have down here for ourselves.
And so the first Alley Fish Fry was held Sunday 4th March 2007 on the Gold Coast Queensland Australia.
The second event was probably twice the size of the 1st with shapers and surfers from all over. A great vibe with everyone embracing the spirit behind the day.
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 day. So bring lunch , the family and your mates with you to celebrate this fun little board - The Fish. A great day to meet shapers and swap ideas and boards. The Quiksilver Pro is on down the road at Snapper and the Noosa Longboard Festival starts a week later so there are plenty of surfers on the coast. Come along , make yourself known and I look forward to meeting you.
The links below are of people who have supported the Fish Fry and Fish related sites. Let me know if you want to be added.
Early morning at The Alley looking North to Surfers Paradise
Sean Mattison as you know is a well known Fish Man from Oceanside California and Fish Fry supporter. He has just forwarded these shots of himself and PT enjoying their first session on one of his new designs the Moon fish that he made up for PT under Sean's new label Von Sol. PT brought down a board of his that he wanted Sean to ride that he had shaped in 1974.
PT and Sean wax up. PT with the Moon Fish. His 1974 shaped board in the middle.
Sean giving PT's 1974 shape a real good work out.
PT's not past giving the Moon Fish a good shake down as well.
Some nice action shots care of Lance Smith.
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