HOW BOB McTAVISH, GEORGE GREENOUGH, NAT YOUNG CHANGED SURFING FOREVER
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- Опубліковано 7 лют 2025
- What a point in time. Tell us how it affected you in the comments below!
In 1966, Australia’s Nat Young famously landed in San Diego with his revolutionary 9’4” affectionately dubbed “Magic Sam” in tow. Winning the World Championships, depending on what part of the world you come from and how you view surf history, this was the first shot fired in the Shortboard Revolution as Nat’s performance on the board cracked open a whole new realm of ideas. (Others contend the Shortboard Revolution actually kicked off on Maui with Dick Brewer and his LSD Surfboards…Lahaina Surf Designs…but that’s a story for another day.) Surf history gets a bit fuzzy at times, the point is, Magic Sam was a game changer. Endowed with a George Greenough foiled fin, Young contends that none of this happens without the genius of Greenough:
"George Greenough is the only genius we’ve ever had in the evolution of surfing. We’ve had a lot of really talented, smart people that have contributed a lot, but for me, George was the genius. There’s so many aspects to what George is thinking. From cameras, to boards, to fish, he’s out there.
I would say that from a design point of view, George has contributed more than anyone else in the world. And I would also say, that Bob [McTavish] played with the concepts that George was introducing him to. We had to deal with the fact that we weren’t on kneeboards, so our center of gravity wasn’t low. We were standing up. That was the biggest reality for me.
"George showed me the difference in the type of foils, whether it could be a flat foil or it could be a curved foil, that made a huge difference to the performance of the board."
I had to come to terms with the fact that it was a ridiculous idea that I could surf like George Greenough standing up-not on a kneeboard anyway.
I had copied the outline of the Greenough fin from my time up the coast, but I really didn’t understand how to sand fins properly. I thought I was going in the right direction, but when George showed me the difference in the type of foils, whether it could be a flat foil or it could be a curved foil, that made a huge difference to the performance of the board.
George was fooling around with McTavish up at Alexander Headlands. He wasn’t working for him, he’d been a commercial fisherman out of Santa Barbara for quite awhile at that stage, so when he came to Australia, which I believe was ’64, I think, from memory. He made a real impact on us because we could see that you could store energy in the fin, which was energy in the board, which could drive you forward.
I made Magic Sam at Gordon Woods Surfboards in Sydney and took it up the coast and rode it many places. Then I brought it over to California and a guy called Ted Wilson and John Witzig and I were invited up to George’s family home in Montecito. Then we got to surf the Ranch, Rincon, all those places. That was kind of the testing ground to prove that the board was surfing really well. But as I say, it wouldn’t have been surfing well if it hadn’t been for George grabbing the thing and making a new fin for it.
I knew that I was surfing really different because I wasn’t noseriding. I mean, I was, but our theory about noseriding was that when the curl presented itself you’d either go down and get under the curl or you’d noseride away from it. I could noseride just fine, but I couldn’t do anything about the time on the tip like David Nuuuhiwa. I was super impressed by David’s surfing and his ability to ride the nose. For me, it was just the circumstances, I guess. Because my surfing was a bit different, I won [the 1966 World Championships] on that basis, I suppose." Jake Howard /Surfer Magazine
Sources:
Austraila surfing museum
The Blum brothers
The Witzig brothers
Tim Burstall
Patagonia
The Community Library
Nat Young
Byron Surf Festival
Surfing World Australia
Peter Green
Music:
The Colletctors
Plum Nelly
Accolade
Thanks for posting this Gem of a documentary . With how popular surfing is becoming not many really know how the equipment and approach to surfing evolved. You've done a great job putting up essential and important videos to surf culture. I greatly appreciate it!🤙
Met Bob an got a custom 7’-9 v bottom 1968
Best fun ever. I was 14
In 2016 got a TinklerTail 7'6 Singlefin from the late 60's From a Garage in Imperial Beach San Diego in near pristine condition. I surfed the board at Sunset Cliffs and the flexible tail would twist to my power side creating a big plane on the wave face as i bottom turned into the pocket. One of the funnest surf sessions ever and i quickly put the board away in my storage :) i have a feeling this boards a piece of surf history probably shouldnt have ridden it but i had to try it!
That's all time! Did Mc T shape it?
@@RealSurfStories i assume it was shaped by him in San Diego in the late 60's it says CreamMachine glassed into one of the rails. It doesnt have a signature on it.
Loved George's description of why he had to "stay in the position of power always and ride his kneeboards at full throttle" only
because he would bog out and sink if it started slowing down since they had almost zero flotation.
Long boards could make it through almost any section of the wave since they had so much surface area.
Great video and thank you for the up-load ! George Greenough GOAT !
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Yes George was an Icon at The Wedge too. He had a space capsule-looking thing parked in the Santa Barbara harbor in the 70's. Never saw him ride it but he may have stayed dry??
Thank you for showing me how cutting edge we were as Val's. Bruce Alexander brought home all the latest designs from Overhead and Stanley's. It was unusual for us to arrive late for school at Grant High having commuted to Van Nuys from Ventura County.
I remember a surf shop Ole's greeting us at the mouth of Laguna Beach in about 1964. That place must have birthed some radical designs DUDE!❤
Great doc. I have been on a McTavish 7' 7 for the last 15 years and love it. Its great in the big stuff and still rides a 3 footer like a dream. Best board ever for any kind of wave. PURA VIDA 🤙😎
Dream Board!!
outstanding - -stevie richards aka sticky built a 5' fish in his garage in ocean city nj - summer of 71'- what a blast - cold duck and mex -- to much fun - also the short from the master himself the Cat - meet him years back at a surf expo - corky was there too - to much fun - thanks boys - you changed the surfing world and culture -
Stoked! Thanks.
WONDERFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUL!!!!!!
I work at a restaurant on the wharf, and I love telling the story about the Hawaiian princesses, surfing the river mouth as we have a spectacular view of the surf break.
@jdp7961
ua-cam.com/video/Hd4NT4PfDS0/v-deo.html
Bob I visited some Aussie friends in Sydney in 1979. They had a Holden Ute. Your pop overhauled the auto for us and we hauled a caravan up the coast staying in various beachside caravan parks. It was off season being June through August. The weather was pristine, the parks were clean, uncrowded and cheap back then. Best surf I got was at Scott's Head. It was a good 4' for several days. On our way up to Surfer's Paradise for the day from Byron we passed under your place at Lennox Head. I Byron we stayed at the Suffolk Caravan Park. There was a river running out every day that formed a sand plume. I rode a loaned 9' Michael Cundith board out there everyday and had a blast. I'm 74 now and can remember that trip like it was yesterday but I can't remember what I did yesterday. Good health. BTW. I'm from San Diego but didn't watch much of the contest as the surf everywhere was much less crowded due to the competition.
That was Bob's father in law who built automatics in Sydney. His father never left Qld
Bob McTavish was at rincon in 1969 with greenough and ventura surfshops Bill blinky Hubina and came down to Ventura shaping boards with blinky who was experimenting with shorter boards.he still uses a McTavish v in his boards
Hey Grace, and glide is back!
It sure is!!
Would you have the Surfers Journal on GG ? I think was 1993 . I love that episode.
Thanks for this upload too
In context I would addd Bob Simmons as Greenough"s lead and Dewey Weber at Malibu as the first true hot dogger with aggressive slashing turns.
Dick Brewer, Reno Abellira, Miget Farrelly, Russel Hughes, Jim Foley and way more are on that list but this video focuses on these three.
Nat's that , and that's That..
John Eichert of the IKE label started developing the "v-slot" fin in 1961. There was also the Dewey Weber hatchet fin, and perhaps other fins that enabled better turning, before this 1966 contest. To say that Americans only had boards with big skegs and "had no idea what was going on" is probably a response to seeing only noserider/contest surfers (to say nothing of the fact that Greenough was also American).
They definitely saw more than noseriders and knew damn well Americans were at the forefront before 1966, especially being that George brought that technology to Oz.
Thank You 🙏
👍🍺
Angourie..1974
Miki Dora had been power shredding Malibu on a board Joe Quigg personally made for himself and sold to miki's step dad Gard Chapin for miki's Christmas present in '52, fifteen years before the oceanside contest of '66 or '67, and would have won that contest if he was in it. Nat showed up with an exact copy of a 1958 Joe Quigg board, and the grenough fin had little to do with it. Joe Quigg invented the all fiberglass, glass-on fin in 1946. You Australians were still riding finless, milled straight, 100 pound plank, Duke Kahanamoku boards in 1956, when the Californians came to compete in the Australian lifeguard games, and brought all their Joe Quigg super light all balsa, Malibu boards. Bob copied the Joe Quigg boards and kept trying to hide it, by putting these over exaggerated features to the JQ board, like the super deep-vee in the tail, which he ripped off of the Wally and Georgie Waikiki "Hot Curl"boards. Or the blunt nose and tail. And Nat copied the riding style that Dora invented ten years before, and that very few have come close to, since. And Bob, you didn't invent the total involvement move ment, or the short board. Tha was invented by Joe Quigg and all the surgers riding their Joe Quiggs, like Bobby Patterson at Hobie's, Phil Edwards Mickey Munoz, Mike Doyle, David Nuuhiwa, Donald Takayama, Paul Straugh, Joey Cabell, Butch van Artsdalen, Lance Carson, among others, while you Aussies were still stuck on 100 pound redwood/koa non-functional Duke planks. And greenough on his mush buckets with super oversized fins, was so slow and doggy, that he could barely get out of his own way. A total failure. And those deep vee mctavish boards would roll over and spin out on every hard rail turn. Total non involvement with the wave. You'd spin out and the wave would leave you behind. That fad lasted less than six months. You could have had a clue in 1950, when the first Joe Quigg came to Australia. Peter Lawford famous hollywood actor had just picked up his new all balsa ultra light with a glassed on fin, and took it to australia so he could surf while shooting a movie there. The aussies at the beach tried the board, but didnt like it, said it was too flighty and squirrely, so they put it dow and kep riding their heavy Duke Kahanamoku boards.
Fascinating insight Gordon!
There is in truth no greater story in Australian surfing than the fairy Godfather of Australian surfing than Chris Brock of South Bondi. Thats my true flag forever set.
Fairy?
Aussies wanted to "EXTRACT a lot more from the wave," sounding like true colonists, perhaps inadvertently 😫
History lesson: Britain colonised Australia. These comments reflecting on the late 60's - surfing, no less - have nothing to do with colonists or the British mindset from 1788. What point are you trying to make?