Greetings, Shredderz! Here’s a handful of recent videos related to vintage surfboards and/or alternative surf craft that I enjoyed. Hope they bring you some stoke, too.
Of all the cult surfboard shapers in the world, is there anyone more notable than Greg Liddle? The video above, which was produced by Daydream Surf Shop as part of their excellent “Case Study” series, goes deep on Liddle history with displacement hull OG Kirk Putnam. For example, did you know that Liddle often handed out board templates alongside any custom board orders? Before watching this video it had never occurred to me that you could be jealous of another person’s garage, but Putnam’s man cave, which has more surf history per square foot than any other structure on the planet, is a doozy. The video also some great vintage footage of folks riding older Liddle hulls, which is always a treat.
“Camel Finds Water” is a really enjoyable video. It doesn’t actually have a ton of surfing, but more importantly, it manages to fit a bunch of great stuff — adventure, friendship, hard work, and uncrowded spots — in its modest run time. As an admittedly well below average surfer, it’s hard to relate to a lot of modern surf videos. At their worst, surf videos can have an unhealthy preoccupation with “high performance”, focusing strictly on technical (and admittedly impressive maneuvers), while stripping out all the intangible things that I love most about surfing. “Camel Finds Water”, presented by Santa Barbara surfer Trevor Gordon, is a mini adventure featuring some remote waves, smooth surfing, and some cool-looking Ryan Lovelace-shaped sticks.
I wrote up the first entry of Mollusk’s “Craft Connection” series in the last Clipz post, and here’s more of the same goodness. Talented surfer / shapers don’t grow on trees, but Tyler Warren is definitely one of them. Video by Jack Coleman.