2012

2012 sees us manufacturing boards in Australia and our production centred on the Gold Coast with glassing out of BoardPlay Currumbin.
We have new full time manufacturing partners in the US, through Mike Baron and Quiksilver Surfboards operating from Oceanside.
France is going strong out of Surf Odyssey and also Euroglass, both factories in Soorts out the back of Hossegor.
Brazil we manufacture through Luciano Leao of Surface, factory based in Cambria on the coast 2 hours drive from Sao Paulo.

 I am designing boards on the APS 3000 software and we are all working worldwide to produce boards of integrity that you can believe in. This is not an easy assignment but we endeavour to live up to it. My method is not unique but with the quality of pre shapes available through a well maintained APS 3000 system, or the AKU and CSD machines for that matter, it is possible to work to a very high level of consistency to produce boards of many different shapes and sizes that will work well for most surfers. At least the boards are a great representation of what I believe in and the elements or qualities I like to see and feel while surfing in my personal boards. These qualities are blended into any of the Simon boards you will see on the racks around the world. This means you can expect the Simon boards to have good hold, good speed, a level of friskiness with a blend of solid feel and good contact with the water through turns in the critical part of the wave.
This is all nice but we also need to provide a good balance of weight to strength ratio you can be happy with. This is key to good glassing and board making. The people we are partners with have this in common, the high level of experience and ability to have a chance at fulfilling the sacred mission.

My Quiver  - Simon 6'3” - 100 kg

DSC -  6'10 20 2 ¾ Roundtail, Nose at 12" up 11 7/8, Tail at 12" up 14 ½, single to double concave thru a slight vee in the back ¼ or so of the board. The rail is low soft but a touch more volume than normal plus a little lower than usual. This is a magic board and feels solid of the bottom drawing long lines if needed and still cuts a tight arc off the top. Is suited to 5 to 6 feet waves (Sydney beach break wave sizing).

                                                                  DSC at North Narrabeen

                                                                                       DSC

Fusion -  6'5  20 ⅝  2 ¾ Rounded Square, Nose 12  7/16, Tail 15 ¼,  36.60 liters, deep single with more a single than double thru the fin area, normal low soft rail but just a touch more volume. Great all round Sydney small wave board,  best in 2 to 4 feet. This is a step down board in line with the trend on the World Tour shorter, wider style. Even though this type of model has been around for years, this is my current version and can be a good option in a 2 board quiver covering 1 to 5 feet. You could then supplement this with a step up board like my 6'10 DSC. More boards to follow.

                                                                                     Fusion

Distributors Outside Australia –
USA:
Michael Baron, Quiksilver Surfboards 3205 Production Ave. Suite J,Oceanside, CA 92058. USA
P: 760.433.1000
F: 760.721.1098
Email: quiksilversurfboards@gmail.com


Brazil:
Luciano Leao,
DR. Arberto Seabra 1213, Sao Paulo, SP 05452-001, Brazil.
Phone: (11)30213611
Email: surface@surface.com.br
Website: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qguh2fhi6IY

France:

Xavier Barjou at Surf Odyssey,
Surf Odyssey SARL, 5 rue Pitey, 40130 CAPBRETON
Tel: 05 58 72 16 99
Email: xavier@surf-odyssey.com

Website: http://www.surf-odyssey.com/

I'm also part of the Quiksilver Board program, for info go to the website; http://surfboards.quiksilver-europe.com/

http://www.quiksilver-surfboards.com/shaper.php

or contact;
Euroglass Surfboards 529 Avenue de Pascouaou, 40150 Soorts-Hossegor, France
Phone: +33 5584 34185 

Email: info@euroglass90.com

REPLICA BOARD

I've been working on various replica shapes from the original ‘81 quiver, primarily the 6'6 big Bells board but also the 7'6 Pipe winning board and also the Coke board a 6'2  20 1/8  2 ¾ single flyer rounded square tail.

 I've been developing these boards on the APS 3000 machine and software. This has been enjoyable for me and really is a great exercise to develop your skills as a designer on this type of program. The latest board is the Coke board.

The difference with this one is it is being sprayed by Martyn Worthington probably the most famous practitioner of spray art in the history of the Australian board making industry. In this case he is basically copying the original boards’ panel spray, pretty simple for Martyn. It is then to be finished by Steve Zoeller, glassed and sanded. Steve is the original sander of the first Thrusters in the old Energy factory founded in 1976.

 This board is a charity board to be auctioned on 3rd June, Saturday night, see accompanying photos. The thing about this board is it came out pretty good and close to the original, you can never get it exact. I like the deep vee bottom and the outline shape is pretty spot on. The rails are the element I like the most. The original board has pretty horrid rails, a flat deck going to low rails that don’t feel that good in the hand. This replica board has very similar rails to the original, not quite as chunky but just fit the hand in a nice way and feel more functional.

                            6'2 Single Flyer Rounded Square tail, Filler Coated ready to be sanded.

Original Thruster fin templates from the 80's.

 I'm inspired by this board to look at producing another run 810 model series of boards with a similar rail and plan shape but more modern rockering with concave bottom contours mixed in with the vee.

                              Steve Zoeller and the charity 6'2 at the Mona Vale Energy factory.

FUSION MODEL

We have been tweaking the Fusion ever so slightly to get it as balanced as possible. The area being worked on is the volume throughout, with minor changes to the forward and tail thickness and then the plan shape specifically the nose and tail. Just pushing the area out up to 1/8" so that's only 1/16" per side to add a touch more surface area and volume giving increased flat line speed.

The feedback is good from the team, Shyama Buttonshaw says he is able to surf the Fusion in similar fashion to the XFC but he has more control doing aerials, a little more launching speed and good cushioning feel on the landing, increasing attempt and complete percentages which is nice. Personally I'm finding I love the extra speed and therefore looseness in waves 2 to 4 feet. I'm surfing Fusion 1" shorter than my normal 6'6 20 ¼ to 20 ½ wide XFC and 1/8" to 3/8" wider.

So shorter wider at 6'5 x 20 5/8 wide and 2 ¾ thick has given a slight fish-like performance boost. Also I'm using PC7 (4 ¾" deep) or Simon upgrade S25 (4 11/16" deep) side fins combined with an PC3 (at 4 3/8" deep) smaller back fin in smaller 1 to 3 feet waves. This bigger small fin combo provides a little more spark in the smaller range of surf, optimizing performance.

 I'm 100 plus kilos, if you are smaller 88kg down to 65kg your combo for small waves would be PC5 side fins (4 9/16" deep) and back fin a PC2 (at 4 ¼" deep) for example, keep in mind upgrade fins will give you better performance in most conditions and when the waves are good go back to a uniform set of the same size fins.

                                         Shyama at Winki with the Fusion.

Shyama Buttonshaw not looking like he is going to land softly on the Fusion's slightly wider nose and tail.

The Fusion is similar and replaces some old models like the Interceptor and EQ. This is an important model because a lot of the surf we get week in week out is suited to this style of board.

HAMSTRING

Most of you know I tore the hamstring off the bone same as Mick Fanning. Although I don't expect to come back and win 2 World Titles like Mick, I do expect to get back into surfing hopefully in as good condition as before.

The day before the hamstring injury, surfing in the legends heat at the Quiksilver Pro Snapper Rocks.

   

Boarding the flight home from Gold Coast to Sydney.                            Waiting in hospital.

David Wood was the surgeon from the Mater Hospital in North Sydney who performed the operation which is I guess pretty complex but done in 1 day, in in the morning and back home later in the day. The recovery however is slow, taking 6 months before you can expect to be back in the water.
I'm 10 weeks out from the operation progressing well I guess and working on rehab, physio, some swimming, a bit of walking, chiropractic and will be still water stand up paddling soon. I have been designing some rehabilitation boards and am looking forward to making them and starting to surf again.