My first introduction to big wave boards was a photo on the wall in my Technical Drawing class at school in 1968. It was of Buzzy Trent riding a Rhino Gun at Waimea Bay. I loved that photo because Buzzy was actually cutting a line across the top half of the wave and I could focus on the outline of the board and how it was slotting into the wave face with authority.
Every summer the classic movie ‘Ride the Wild Surf’ would screen on a Saturday afternoon. It featured Greg Noll, Buzzy, Jose Angel and Pat Curren throwing themselves over the Waimea ledge on rhino chasers – legendary big wave bravado.
Then it came time to go ride a few monsters myself. I remember Michael Peterson would make a quiver of red tailed guns and start getting tuned into adjusting to the wider arcs at Dbah in October. The biggest issue was getting enough rocker in the Australian blanks.
When I first went to Hawaii in 1972 it was plainly obvious that their big wave quivers were superior, for good reasons. Back then it was the exclusive realm of big wave matadors. 4-5’ days at Rocky Point and Off the Wall were passed over, a North Shore warrior wouldn’t be seen out there in kiddies corner.
It was full throttle big wave charging at Sunset Beach, Pipeline and Waimea Bay. The warriors would surf hard then recuperate and maybe do some free diving or ocean swimming to keep the mind and body primed for the next big swell to rumble through Jurassic Park.
Nowadays the big wave realm consists of strike missions to Jaws, monster swells at Mavericks, Todos Santos and other spots. However, in the early 70’s surfing big sunset with no leash, jet ski or buoyancy vests was considered pretty gnarly.
Your focus was on sitting deep on the west bowl at Sunset, holding your line and negotiating the impact zone. Equipment was so important and shapers such as Dick Brewer, Barry Kanaiipuni, Tom Parrish, Gerry Lopez, Ben Aipa, Mike Diffendeffer and Reno Abellera were in high demand.
The boards were beautiful. In 1972, an 8’0 Brewer gun was like the Cadillac of big wave surfing. Every facet of the shape was sleek, refined, it slotted into a late, vertical drop in the teeth of the West Peak with smooth majesty, the rocker fitting like a glove under the vertical peak.
The challenges to making boards for Hawaii, back in Australia were many and varied. There was just such little real life experience and it started with the blanks. Unless someone like Terry Fitzgerald was in the shaping bay, there was no actual North Shore experience.
For me and many others it wasn’t until 1980 when Al Byrne refined his deep six channels that entire quivers could be made from scratch in Oz with certain confidence that they would perform under fire. As a testament to Al’s success, North Shore legend Darrick Doerner was riding his deep six channels at Sunset, and he would soon be joined by Gary Kong Elkerton.
Things changed big time with Simon Anderson’s thruster and a better understanding of what curves and rockers fitted into those dramatic drops at Sunset and Pipeline.
Scenarios again changed dramatically when guys started riding shorter boards at Pipe. While there were still some bigger boards out there, people’s idea of a step up continued to get smaller and smaller as surfing progressed. I’ve seen Mick and Joel not only tuning in their Hawaiian quivers, MP style at Dbah. But I’ve also seen them training specifically for Hawaii while at home, something incomprehensible 20 years ago.
While the evolution of surfboard shaping has made it possible to build a full Hawaii quiver in other countries, surfers still continue to look towards local Hawaiian shapers when dialing in their boards for the North Shore and many of Hawaii’s big wave spots.
