From MagicSeaweed by Chris Hunt on
Bob McTavish is one of the industry’s true workhorses. You can’t deny, the man is a legend, whatever your definition and at 71-years-old, he’s still stoked to be in the shaping bay.
During a working holiday to the Basque Country, he constructed 180 boards in two weeks (a few of which you can check out here). Dusty, tired, and shaped out by his own admission – not that he let it show – we caught up with him after his final 12 hour stint in the bay. Where better to start than right at the very start?
How did a career in shaping come about in the first place?
The first board, my father brought a 16ft toothpick, you know the hollow, wooden boards and I tried to surf that and hated it. So immediately I went home and shaped a hollow plywood bodyboard, about the standard size of a bodyboard today. About 40 inches long and about 20 inches wide. I was 12-years-old, so what started me was that I hated the existing equipment and wanted to make something better. The next one I made was when I was 15, in 1959. I got a balsa board for 10 pounds, tore the glass off and reshaped it and it went a lot better.
So I’ve always wanted to make boards go better, that’s been my career all my life – to make surfboards go better and mainly through shaping but sometimes through technology. Yeah that’s what’s motivated me and it still motivates me today, to make boards that go better. Simple.
That’s what’s motivated me and it still motivates me today, to make boards that go better. Simple.
Despite profound influence on shortboard design, your brand sits largely in the realm of alternative wave riding. Is that a reflection of your own wave riding or something else?
It’s partly that. It’s that the shortboard market is so crowded and to my thinking it’s so boring. If it’s a 16th of an inch or an 8th of an inch and that makes a difference, it’s gotten too boring for me. Whereas in the alternative world you can make a huge range of equipment that’s interesting and exciting. For example, in one day I shaped two a-symmetrics, one 5’7″ and one 5’8″. I’ve shaped a 6’8″ bluebird from the ’70s – 3 inches thick and 25 wide and I shaped 9’3″ Noosa ’66 – 3 inches thick with a roll bottom and egg rails – so that’s a fun day.