Through a series of experiments in his quest to design faster surfboards, eccentric Californian surfer-cum-engineer, Bob Simmons, incorporated the naval architecture principles of planing hulls to board-building,. He was the first to pioneer the application of concave bottom-contour, rocker, foil, rail profiles and dual-fin systems. These innovations came together on his 1949 ‘Spoon’ model – a 10’x24” balsa construction coated in fibreglass and polyester resin. A much more hydrodynamic craft, the Spoon was decades ahead of it’s time, but ultimately cleared the path for later, more formulaic explorations in surfboard design, making it a foundation stone in the art of wave riding and, consequently, the development of the emerging culture.
The Historical Context
Both surf culture and surfboard design picked up momentum after World War II. The sport disseminated across the globe; it began to display traces of an industry, with a more definite image of “the surfer” mirroring Southern California trends. Surfboards throughout the first half of the 1940s were primarily made using either balsa or pine and redwood, some utilised keel-shaped fins, and were constructed either as planks or hollow boards – both of which featured flat decks and chunky rails, with only a slight longitudinal curvature along the bottom due to the accentuated thickness in the midpoint. Such models had sufficed surfers’ needs hitherto. Yet with the stimulus rendered by postwar technologies (namely the commercial availability of fibreglass and polyester resin), and the mastering of green or unbroken wave riding techniques, shapers began to look for ways to optimise speed and control.
The first step in this new phase of surfboard evolution occurred in 1947. After absorbing the concepts from an MIT-led study that was undertaken in Hawaii on planing hulls (intended to improve the speed and manoeuvrability of military boats) and filtering it through his newly formed knowledge of wave science, Californian Bob Simmons began to tamper with the usual design features of the time. With a bull’s-eye on increasing speed, he successfully introduced principles such as rocker, foil and fine-tuned rails, inadvertently creating the functional and good-looking crafts the new generation of surfers aspired to and altering the archetypal blueprint of surfboards forever. To a large extent, Simmons’ innovations laid the foundations upon which surfers in the following decade built upon to give shape to the modern longboard.
Why Was This Development Necessary?
Before WWII, surfboards were rather rudimentary when it came to aesthetics and finishing, and except for the Hot Curl design rolled out by Hawaiians, presented performance limitations when riding across the open face of the wave. Plank boards, around 10ft in length and up to 60lb in weight, featured a pointed outline and flat profile and proved unresponsive. Hollow boards (aka cigar-boxes), though lighter, could measure up to 14ft and were known to tip easily.
Whilst the collective motivation for design innovations concerned making use of new technologies (in particular addressing the issue of equipment durability which was compromised by the crack-prone varnish finish), the most significant developments sprouted from Bob Simmons’ obsession for longer, faster rides. To have it glide faster and more responsively, not only did the profile of a surfboard need to be reconsidered but the mechanisms of the wave had to be taken into account, for though manoeuvres weren’t yet on the menu, surfers needed to turn in order to place themselves on the optimal line on the wave and gain more speed.
