Musing Hot Buttered Surfboard Design

Musing Hot Buttered Surfboard Design

Pages

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Nick Carroll | Bobby Owens | Classic Area Pin Tail |



Nick Carrol testing his new Hot Buttered Area Pin Tail 1980 at Newport,
and, the same board hacking Narrabeen 30 years later, above.

During the summer of 80 / 81 Terry shaped Nick Carroll a custom 6'5" pin tail single fin.
Nicks idea was that it'd be like a 6'9" wing pin, but sans wings, so it came back to 6'5" as a pure pin.

Lucky for me Nick gave me a bit of advice on how to surf this old girl.

"I used to shift the fin around a bit I think? Ride it on a big day and use that straight rocker to drive a long turn into the pocket or barrel. That's when it always felt best to me. Bigger waves the better"

So there you go. Bigger waves the Better. Hence the dash to Bells Beach. The swell forecast for Sept 27 looked as good as i had seen it, and what a weapon i had at my disposal to surf.

But, believe it or not, the story gets better. During the epic World Tour event at Bells in 81 a similar swell ( bigger and better) hit the Torquay Surf Coast. Making the 81 Bells event one of the most memorable in history, because of the waves, and of course, the turning point of Simon winning the event on one of the first Thrusters.

Before Simon made the final and eventually winning, he had to start his charge against Bobby Owens surfing Nicks board. Bobby was under gunned at the event like most of the surfers there at the time, so Nicks board was his alternative. The heat went down and is regarded as one of the best heats surfed by Bobby and Simon, and, the first man on man heat the world tour judges had to judge - Single Fin V Thruster .

Bobby was never going to beat Simon on that day , Simon was on Fire. But Bobby did go on to win the Trials and was regarded as one of the best surfers at the event, powering on Nicks 6'5 Pin Tail.

So here we are , similar swell and the same classic board 29 years later.
I gotta say, i was trying my best to channel the energy of Bobby, i could of used a few ounces of his Hawaiian prowess.



Trimming a few high lines on the big Bells wall


Scooting past Nick in the carpark. "WHat ! THats My Board"