Making a great surfboard is an art, and there’s a mystique to it. If I take my favorite board, send it to a computerized shaping machine, and have it mastered down to the millimeter—doesn’t work. It’s not the same. I might try 10 boards and not like any of them. And then I’ll get one that’s just magic.
1. CROSSING STANDUP PADDLE BOARD
Length: 16 feet
Weight: 28 pounds
Used for: paddling 500 miles across the Hawaiian Islands
In May 2006, I made a 270-mile, 2-day London-to-Paris crossing, paddling the English Channel after riding a bike from London to Dover, and then from the French coast to the Arc de Triomphe. That was a longtime goal, and I used the journey as a chance to raise awareness and money for autism. In October, Dave Kalama and I decided to create an even bigger challenge for ourselves: to paddle from the Big Island of Hawaii to Maui, Lanai, Molokai, Oahu, and finally Kauai, riding bikes over the land portion of the trip. Between these two crossings, we raised over $100,000 for the cause (see page 167).
One thing that’s unusual about this board is its foot rudders. Their purpose is to counteract the prevailing winds, which in Hawaii generally come from the northeast. In the open ocean, you need to be able to paddle on both sides of your body, so it’s important to be able to steer with the feet—especially if the board is this long. I designed it using solo canoes and ocean kayaks as a reference. It has its own custom travel case, but, needless to say, flying around with a 16-foot board isn’t easy.
2. PE’AHI STANDUP GUN
Length: 13 feet
Weight: 38 pounds
Used for: standup surfing at Pe’ahi, the wave on Maui that’s also known as Jaws.
I have two identical boards like this, shaped by Ron House. They’re unique because they’re 13-foot guns—an enlarged version of what we lay on at Waimea years ago, before we started towing. So they’re retro in that sense, but they’re also very forward because they’re used for standup paddling. These boards are tippy because of their outline, but the weight gives them some stability.
Length: 12 feet
Weight: 28 pounds
Used for: paddling across the English Channel
This is Surftech’s production standup board. It’s wide and stable—really an oversize traditional longboard. I think of this as the board that made standup paddling possible. It was modeled from one of the original prototypes that I worked with shapers to design. Throughout the evolution of standup paddling, Bill Hamilton, Gerry Lopez, Ron House, Dick Pearson, and Dick Brewer all created boards. They’re the most talented shapers in the world. I’ve worked with all of them throughout my life.
I used this particular board to paddle across the English Channel (see page 45), which took 7 hours. A lot of standup boards have decking on them, so you don’t need to use wax, but I grew up with wax, and I like the feel of it. This is a great board for anyone who wants to get into standup. You have to weigh more than 300 pounds for it not to work for you.
4. TEAHUPOO TOW BOARD
Length: 6 feet 10 inches
Weight: 16 pounds
Used for: riding waves too massive to paddle into
This board was made by my dad, Bill Hamilton. Over the years he’s made many of my boards. He’s a master. I used this board when I first surfed big Teahupoo in 2000. People always ask what it’s like to surf a wave that intense, but it’s impossible to describe in words. It’d be like trying to describe, say, the color purple. The moment demands so much focus that you can’t think of anything else. Time stops. Before I rode this board in Tahiti, I rode it at Jaws. It has a three-fin configuration, and the fins are glassed on, which seems prehistoric now. These days our fins are made of metal so they can be thinner and shorter with no loss of performance. They’re virtually cavitation free at any speed now.
Length: 6 feet 2 inches
Weight: approximately 25 pounds
Used for: Time will tell!
There are endless variables in making a great tow board. It’s a complex combination of construction, wood, blank, and glassing, combined with outline, thickness, flow, rocker, weight-to-volume ratio, and fin configuration. My tow boards are relatively light because of my body mass. You need a solid amount of weight to make it down the face of an 80-foot wave, but at the same time, you want the least possible amount of surface area to minimize friction. If the board’s too light, you’ll be sucked back up the face. This board was shaped by Dick Brewer, who’s like the genius of all shapers. He’s taught everybody. He taught my dad; he taught Gerry Lopez.
The foot straps were a key part of our evolution. They give you leverage. Normally, when you stand on a board, you can press with your heels and press with your toes. When you add foot straps, you can press with your heels and lift with your toes. That gives you double the amount of edge pressure. Some surfers don’t use heel straps, but I do. I like them because they give you more intimacy with the board. And they give you something extra to push against. But the downside is if you fall, it’s harder to get out.
6. HYDROFOIL BOARD [CENTER]
Length: 4 feet
Weight: 42 pounds—which is nothing
Used for: extrarough conditions, long rolling swells (see page 213)
The foilboard is a hybrid, invented by tinkering around in the garage. Hybrids are nice because you’re taking existing technology and products and combining them to create a new way of doing something. To ride this board, we use snowboard boots. Obviously we don’t need them to be as bulky as they are because we’re not in cold environments. But companies have spent millions of dollars designing these boots. They’re buoyant, and they have a quick-release system. Best of all, they already exist. You’re not waiting for a prototype to come, and then you break it the next day and it takes 4 months to get another one. It’s like, why reinvent the wheel?
With this board you can go to places that aren’t even surf spots—and as the water gets more crowded, that’s appealing. If you wanted to, you could ride a wave for 10 miles. Foiling is like flying without the consequences of crashing.
DROPPING IN
ROB MACHADO
Now that I’m not surfing competitively anymore [after 15 years on the pro tour], it’s really freed my mind to search out the art side of surfing. All the different things that people are doing on surfboards—it’s as though they’re different artists. That’s surfing to me; it’s riding anything and everything that’s out there. It all comes back to being in the ocean, being in the water—the pure joy I get out of feeling that energy. People ask me if I’m retired, but what they don’t realize is that I’m going to be surfing my entire life. Whether I’m boogie boarding a wave when I’m 90 years old, bodysurfing, whatever it is, I’ll be in the ocean enjoying it somewhere, somehow.
