The month of June 2009 was a huge moment in my designing career. It was the penny drop moment when the whole Parallel outline planing hull mini board concept gelled in my mind.
My Hydrofoil range was moving through the second faze of refinement, i was starting to apply some more technical angular tails and vector concaves to the boards and a little 5'2" rounded nose Raptor was exciting me on the prospect of going even smaller and straighter in the foils.
Sacred Craft San Diego was just around the corner and i definitely wanted to make an impact there, so i got in the shaping room and started re-designing my templates.
the Second Mph board i made was the Nano ( from the Rocky Point Reverse clip), designed to be the my vision for the ultimate modern 'Mini Simmons' board i could conceptualise. A 5'2”x 17 1/2" x 2" square tail with rounded corners. i was originally going to make it a dual fin true to Simmons philosophy but i decided a tri fin would provide better control for such a micro board.
The following day i created the first Vector Quad design. 5'4" x 18 1/4 x 2 1/4"
a little bit more conservative volume but more radical in the design, multi concave, multi bat tail designed with the idea of controlling a wide tail with a ton of concave.
Later in the week, i was running erands on the Gold Coast and i spoted a wake board shop near where i was buying some materials. i stoped in and eyed some of these minimalistic volume 4'6" parallel hulls. I thought, why the F*ck wouldn’t that work insane??? i could apply this kind of outline, Scale and aspect ratio to a surfboard design!!
Back to the shaping room the next day: i measured out a 4'11 x 17" on my blank and drew out a square plank-like outline using a reverse of my tail template of the Hydrofoil curve for the nose. I came up with the Transition tail on that board and chose to go the full wake-board (twin-tip) theory and double end the nose, through in a complex bottom contours and a segment of a modern shortboard rocker and rail profile. The MPH had formula solidified in my mind, traditional volume measurements had become irrelevant and the Ultra high performance board sport cross over was born in my Garage of my rental property in Lennox Head.
I called my dad my Dad and told him of the breakthrough and informed him of my feelings of how this design may well revolutionise modern high performance surfing. After first view the ‘Death Star’, he agreed to my theory in principle but wanted to see me ride it first. The next day I created the a 4’7 x17 ½” x 2 ¼” Diamond nose Diamond tail to complement the Death Star, a little more softer features and a new bottom contour that was floating in my mind, The centralised double inside single concave running from tip of the nose to tip of the tail. The quiver was complete.
Skip forward a few weeks, I glass the 2 mini boards in carbon fibre and prepare to pack them for my trip to the U.S . The assemble quiver looked gnarly!!
Were the wake inspired board to much to soon I wondered ?? will the California market grasp the full concept as I have ?? after much deliberation I decided to pull the Next Gen boards from the show quiver and stick them in my closet for my return from overseas.
2009 September. Sacred Craft expo Del Mar.
I have huge turnout at my booth and end up bagging the best of show award for the round nose Mph Nano Richter tail 5’3 or Carbon Vector Quad. They said: “ They are all radical !! you choose your best one”
This was my biggest achievement in my surfing/shaping career and I was over the moon. And I thought to myself it was a good decision that I left the trump cards at home in the closet, they will see the light on another day…….
2 years down the track……
Many modern shapers (big brands and backyards) are following down the planning hull theory formula for shrinking board sizes and apply some of my low drag angular tail concepts (or similar) to their work. Modern short boards are finally starting to evolve after 20 years of stagnation. The global surf consciousness is hungry for change. It was time to pull the secret weapons from the closet paint the up with a groovy modern stripe art and release them on the World at the 2011 Del Mar Surfboard Show. The rest is history…………
Daniel.
Insert pics: 1 & 2:The shaped quiver inside my home in Australia June 2009. 3. the Death Star 3. Best in show booth at Sacred Creft September 2009 minus the Next Gen Models.
