At its best, custom making boards involves a perfect synergy between the surfer and the shaper. The shaper must interpret the vision laid out by the customer and then marry that with his own knowledge of design. If the surfer is eventually happy with the board then the partnership is deemed a success. Witnessing someone who is happy with the board you made them is one of the true joys of shaping, however constantly shaping to someone else’s brief can also mean suppressing the creative urges that got shapers involved in board design to begin with.
Although Cronulla shaping icon, Stuart Paterson, has an extensive stable of happy surfers, he recently took the time to shape a series of eleven boards for an exhibition where the focus was the creative process rather than the customer.
The aim was to begin each hand-shaped board with a rough idea of what he was striving for and then allow creative instincts to take over. Unlike shaping to a rigidly defined set of pre-determined dimensions this was more of a stream of consciousness approach, where the shaper’s vision and the board’s design destiny evolved with every moment.
Although some of the boards were inspired by past shapes – like the Mini Simmons and the McTavish Fantastic Plastic Machine – they are all definitely interpretations rather than recreations.
Stuart suggests he was conscious of making the exhibition as far removed as possible from the banal supermarket feel that rows and rows of regular boards on the rack can create.
Flicking through the exhibition’s online catalogue is a little like looking at art works on a wall. You feel compelled to stop and ponder the designs, read the descriptions and then “boom!” one of them jumps out and makes an instant appeal to your creative sensibilities.
The All By Hand experiment is not a Luddite’s rage against the shaping machine but rather a reminder that there are other ways of doing things and that when you embrace them the results can be very interesting. To check out more of the boards from Stuart’s All By Hand gallery go to http://pccboards.com.au
Photos by: Matty Cook, Stuart Patterson and Stroey
