In the late sixties, surfboard design underwent a massive shift where it seemed shapers were carving down boards by almost a foot of foam a week in the board design race. Many design innovations were achieved, dismissed, or moved past so quickly to the next concept that countless ideas were left in the foam dust. Surfing Life grabbed legendary shaper Murray “Muzz” Bourton, and together, we hunted down five of these early designs: To take a long look at them. To dream. To reimagine. We used these old, often-underrated plan shapes and added modern design principles to achieve something quite distinctive. When it came to selecting a surfer, the choice was easy.
Luke “Louie” Hynd surfs with such style and flare it was hard to go past him. He’s the nephew of Derek Hynd, a freethinker and former pro surfer, who brought the fish shape back in vogue when featured in the nineties cult classic movie Litmus. Louie’s adept skill on the face of the wave and in the air would taunt any grom or grown-up to try and hold back the howl of the adrenaline rush. The Gold Coast goofy has been performing this brand of surfing on an eclectic array of boards for years. We knew Louie would be up to this experimental challenge.
RETRO EGG 5.6
The Egg (or double-ended) plan shape has been in and out of fashion in shortboards
