Rusty

The surfboard demo at T-Street with Republik of Kalifornia was a great success and a lot of fun. Needless to say their were a lot of R dots in the lineup that day. Everyone who showed up got to try out Rusty's new models which included the Dozer, Jokerr, Stump and ride some of the classic shapes like the Dwart, Slayer, GTR, RI, and Hustler.

Stoked grom smashing a mushy T-Street lip on the new Dozer model.

For those San Clemente locals out there that day, Republik of Kalifornia is your one stop shop for all skate and surf needs. They also have plenty Rusty boards to fill that missing gap in your quiver.

For any questions or to place an order, contact Republik of Kalifornia at 1-949-218-9012 or just stop by the shop located at 219 S. El Camino Real #A, San Clemente, CA, 92672. To see more action from the Rusty Surfboard Demo with Republik of Kalifornia you can check out the photo gallery here: View Photo Gallery.

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Check out these surfboards through our surfboard tab or contact surfboards:
(858) 578-0414 or service@rustysurfboards.com for details.

When the North Shore gets big and windy Kalani Chapman knows his favorite board to grab...his Rusty 9'0" Gun. Chapman cashes in on a few pre-Thanksgiving bombs and the cameras love it.

"I basically wanted to catch as many waves as possible. The waves were big and it was pretty windy. I just felt really comfortable on it. Throughout all the years of surfing Pipe you gotta learn what works and what doesn't, and I've learned that bigger boards work. So that's what I went for and it worked out. That board is sick. I wouldn't change anything about it. Hopefully some more big swells come so I can do that again."

-Kalani Chapman

Photography by: Tyler Cuddy

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Photo: Aaron Chang. Text: Mark Anders

For Surfline's last review, they took a look at a very cool (and free!) surfboard shaping software called BoardCAD. You can even download your virtual board design to a computerized shaping machine which will cut it for you, allowing the average guy with zero shaping experience to design his own boards.

While the software is intuitive and relatively easy to use, designing a surfboard that'll surf worth a crap is still a challenge.  I've spent some time monkeying around with BoardCAD until I ended up with a 6'4" small-wave board that he thought looked pretty dang fun.

But I've been warned that what you see on the computer screen and what pops out the other end of a shaping machine are often not the same thing. So before we waste a perfectly good blank cutting my board, we asked shaping legend Rusty Preisendorfer to proofread my design and grade my shape.

Now I realize just how lucky I am to be given this opportunity -- I mean, having Rusty grade your surfboard design is akin to having Tiger Woods rate your swing, or Kelly judge your frontside hack. But it's also very stressful. As soon as I hit send, and my design was hurtling toward Rusty's inbox in SoCal, I was nerve-wracked.

A couple days later, my report card arrived, and here's what Professor Preisendorfer had to say:

Outline: B-
"Overall looks good. The little Toad/Rocket wing on the tail is cool. But usually I will do the subtle features like that by hand until I really settle into a design. Don't get too caught up in detail, especially in the tail."

Deck: B
"The deck is a pretty benign thing, really. But I think you might want to take some of the dome out of the deck, and go with a little less volume."

Cross Sections: B
"Cross sections are like taking AP classes, so you did a pretty good job. Overall the deck looks a little crowned to me but that's a personal preference thing."

Bottom: C-
"You missed the mark here pretty hard. You didn't do enough homework there. Rocker is a pretty subjective thing, but you'll want to flatten it out a little bit--2.86 inches is quite a bit of tail rocker. For a 6'8" Pipeline board I might use 2.7 inches or a little more. For a 6'4" hotdog board I would drop it to 2.15 to 2.35 inches max."

Overall: B-
"Pretty impressed with your first design."

Teacher's Comments:
"Remember, you can always subtract foam but you can't add it back. Leave yourself a little extra foam, especially on the ends of the board. For the middle 60 to 70 percent of the board, let the machine do a lot of the magic, but err on the thick side especially on the last 30 percent on the nose and tail. Keep in mind that you can shape in detail: fine-tune tail outline, rail thickness, tip thickness, concave. So leave yourself a little wiggle room on early designs until you get a feel for how the design on the screen translates into a cut."

So my homework assignment is to try to fix the problems that Rusty pointed out on my 6'4". Then, I'll send it over to a computer cutting service and get my blank mowed. While you obviously won't have the luxury of Rusty proofing your own designs, he says most guys who operate computer cutting services are experienced folks who would be happy to help look over your design before it's cut. Some will charge you for their time, others may do it gratis because they just want you to have a good experience and come back to cut more boards at their shop. Either way, "be respectful of his time, and be humble," recommends Rusty.

Humble, that's the easy part. I've found that designing a surfboard -- either virtually or by hand -- is an inherently humbling experience that's bound to make any surfer better appreciate the time and skill that goes into creating a truly great surfboard.

For the full archive of Surfline's Surf Gear Reviews, click here.

Click on "Surfboards" > "2010 Models" > "Dozer"

Rusty Surfboards latest model, the Dozer, has been creating quite the hype in the water. The board is fast, aggressive, and dominates in day to day surf...

Rusty Boardhouse manager, Garret Scurr, puts his Dozer on a rail...

RBH grom, Tristin, takes to the air on his Dozer...

The Rusty Board House team harbors some of the best young up and coming surfers in the La Jolla region and these groms were foaming at the mouth at the opportunity to surf Trestles. The RBH Team put on an impressive display at the world renowned cobble stone break and put a plethora of Rusty Surfboard models to the test. Check out the images below to see what ensued:

The wrong side of the tracks

Owen, fish out of water

RBH Groms frothing

Lucas throwing shuv-its on his SCREAMER

Blow tail by Jacob on the GTR Squash

Fano was doing these all day on his Redline Squash

Tristen lets loose on his all new Dozer

Will on rail riding the Redline Round

Owen gouging on his GTR Round

RBH Team Manager, Ryan Schnell, shows the groms how it's done on his new Hustler

RBH Shop Manager, Garret Scurr, won't let the groms have all the fun. Scurr on the Dozer.

Text and Photos: Brody

The last few blogs I've covered Bob Simmon's influences on modern design, and an overview on rocker. A natural segue would be a little history and discourse on bottoms.

Here's a short list of some bottom contours that have been utilized over the last 40 years: Vee bottom. Spiral vee. Hulls. Tri-Hulls. Tri-plane Hulls. Bonzers. Venturis. Double-barrel vee. Clinker bottoms. Channel bottom. Six-deep channels. Four-deep channels. Belly channels. Curved-belly channels. Phazer bottoms. Micro Grooves. Triple con. Double concave. Reverse vee. Step tails. Hydro hulls. Hydrofoil. Jet bottom. Slot bottom. Double-deep concave.

And...the single concave. Why single concave?

A little background: Concaves in surfboard bottoms have been around since Bob Simmons introduced them in approximately 1946. Some big-wave guns from the late '50s and early '60s have concave in the bottoms, all the way through the tails.

But for the most part, surfboards up until the late '60s had convex bottoms. Sure, there were plenty of nose concave designs for noseriding, but concave in the back half of the board was more the exception than the rule. In 1966, 1967, longboards started to shorten up a little and vee bottoms were introduced. The panels on either side of the stringer were relatively flat.

Bob McTavish circa 1968; pretty futuristic looking board: double concave entry feeding into a vee bottom.

Vee helped these still relatively high-volume, wide boards, to tip over, and carve a shorter arc on rail. The problem was, in more powerful surf, when turning these deep vee bottom boards, they had a propensity to tip over, run on one rail, and lift or climb right out of the water. They would spin out.

Bottom turn or spinning out? '70s SURFER cover.

As the boards evolved over the next couple of years, they got shorter, and eventually narrower, and the deep vees became passé. The late '60s shortboards still had some genetic residue from the longboard era: slightly rolled noses with a lifted rail up front, but the rails were firming up in the middle, laterally a little flatter, and the tails were down railed with shallow vees. Hulls still enjoy a strong and loyal following with the folks who frequent lined-up pointbreaks with almond-shaped pockets

Classic '70s single-fin bottom. Photo: Brody

By '70 and '71, rails are down all the way; nose-to-tail, bottoms are much flatter, and the vees are starting to get dished out into something called "spiral vees." The elevated spine of the vee still helped to initiate turns and provided drive and direction. By dishing out or hollowing out the vee panels towards the rail, more bite, or hold, was created. Water was routed through the troughs and spiraled out through the tail. These types of bottoms were the norm for a few years. There was lots of experimentation with wings, stings, and other types of template breaks in conjunction with smaller, secondary concaves exiting through the outline breaks.

Aussie shaping legend Terry Fitzgerald was a major proponent of these "Flyers".

Fitzy explains: "The jump came in the winter of '72. My Hawaiian influenced boards just didn't have enough tail area to skate over the flat spots at Narrabeen. So, I ADDED wings (or what we called flyers). The idea was that by adding the wing to the rail it would add more planing area, but you'd still have a narrow tail for in the pocket and bigger waves. The 'wing/flyer' had to be pinched to allow the rail to stay in the wave and run you higher as well (á la Bunker's idea). But, the wing also gave you a break point for snapping out of the lip. So, three pure benefits: More planing area to get across the flats; pinched wing to stick in the face and ride high on; a break point in the rail to snap off the lip on. [Tested in Hawaii that year and then launched in December '72, January '73 in Australia.]

Fitzy's ad from Tracks magazine.

Fitzy continues: "Wings were not something you created by cutting a piece out of the tail of your board. They were ADDED to the rail line/foil and planshape, and pinched to have minimum effect of rail-line entry but maximum effect on planning area when flat -- plus, the increased ability to run high and hold a high line.

"I've always been a concave addict (right back to an 8'9" that had a concave from nose to tail that I had custom built in 1967), so when the pinwings I was riding started to get stuck in the lip, I went back to an old trick off putting a concave in the pin behind the fin. You still had rail line, but a vacuum when flat (almost a swallowtail effect) so going rail-to-rail was a damn sight easier. The vees were always spiraled (rolled and curved), so changing the panels back to concave was an easy feed."

Before the shift to multiple fins, some of the best single-fin surfing was being done on channel bottoms. Six deep channels. And during the '70s, there was a lot of tinkering with bottoms, trying to gain speed and traction. Short, wide boards were loose but required longer, deeper fins to keep them in the water. The longer fins had a lot of frontal drag -- they slowed the board down. Narrower boards were quicker and required less fin but were somewhat impractical for most average surfers in average conditions. So, unless you were a very light surfer, or riding good, hollow waves all the time, the narrower boards were liking owning a Ferrari but being stuck in city streets most of the time.

The early '80s saw fairly short, wide boards with bottoms that still had remnant features from twin-fins and single-fins. Fairly flat under the front foot with vee running through the back third of the board.

Late 70's Canyon double wing, double barrel twinnie

With the advent of the three-fin surfboard, the search for increased traction and drive, while minimizing drag, was put on the back burner. Bottoms started to change. Check back next week for part two...

"I may never retire, but at least I've been semi-retired my whole life." Paul Elder is one of the elite few who has made a life out of doing what he loves. And what Paul loves is art. Paul is an exceptional painter and free hand artist that is inspired by the life that surrounds him: surfing, traveling, and fishing - his passion for these activities is undeniable in his work. You have probably seen Paul's work several times and have never even realized it. If you are a fan of Rusty Surfboards you have definitely seen his work as Paul designed several of our board icons over the years including the Piranha, the Desert Island, the Predator, the Toad, the Cat Fish, and the Slayer.

The Ballast Point Brewery artwork is also the brain child of Elder, everything from beer bottle labels to tap handles, he free handed them all. Some other notable clients of Elder's includes: Bloody Decks, Bulky Boy, H&M Landing, and a handful of other small local businesses...

Paul has a secluded art studio where he does a lot of his work and the quaint retreat is riddled with colorful masterpieces. Upon entering Paul's studio it quickly becomes apparent that he loves what he does. In addition to the stunning finished products gracing the walls, there are other works in progress and tid bits of inspiration scattered about. Photos from an old Baja camping trip are tacked to the wall. Concept sketches are lying here and there. Dried paint in a plethora of colors line the edge of his easel. Everywhere you look there is art.

Do not be fooled though. Paul is not just an artist playing the role of the fly on the wall and portraying what he sees, he is a very active participant in the arenas that inspire his artwork the most. As an avid surfer, fisherman, and a long time traveler, Paul has built his life around his lifestyle. Paul has spent time in Indonesia, El Salvador, and Mexico and Thailand, where he spent his formative years in elementary and middle school. The nature of being an artist allows him to create his own schedule, leaving plenty of room for fishing and surfing trips. Also, being the hands on kind of guy that he his, he will often dabble in the construction process of his gear. For example, he made his very impressive spear fishing gun from scratch - not an easy feat to accomplish. Once again, to prove that he is not just an artist and a craftsman, Paul graciously opened his freezer to share a plentiful helping of fresh white sea bass that he caught himself the day prior.

What a life? Travel, surf, fish... and then paint it. Perhaps he should be a teacher too, because we should all be taking notes.

Text and Photos: Brody

Ryan Bingham is pretty much the Josh Kerr of country music... With youth, enthusiasm, a bit of craziness (as a former bull rider), and a whole heap of talent Bingham has catapulted himself into the lime light of the music and, as of recent, Hollywood scene.  Bingham has been having quite the impressive winning streak with a Golden Globe and now an Oscar to his name for Best Original Song, "The Weary Kind (Theme frome Crazy Heart)".  The modest musician stopped by the Rusty Surfboards Factory last week for a one on one shaping lesson with Rusty and he took to shaping quite naturally. He is obviously of the artistic breed and understands how to create something custom to fit a certain situation, much like how he collaborated with Crazy Heart Producer and Co-writer, T Bone Burnett, to design the perfect song to fit the mood and vision of the film...

Bingham arrived at the Rusty Surfboards Factory, said his hellos, and wasted no time hopping into the shaping bay for some hands on training with Rusty.  Not even five minutes had passed when Rusty exclaimed, covered by shaping dust and muffled by his mask, "You've gotta check this out! He's taking over in here!"  The singer was quick to exchange his guitar for a planer and was elbow deep in foam, making swift passes across the blank with the confidence of a veteran.  As an appreciator of the good old days Bingham decided to shape his board the old fashioned way, using templates and a hand saw to cut the blank.  Laid back tunes from Rusty's iPod echoed through the shaping bay, but were occasionally drowned out by the sound of the planer. Step by step Bingham crafted his dream board under the guidance of Rusty.  When it was all said and done a beautiful custom round tail shortboard lay in the racks and both Rusty and Ryan sat back, masks around their necks, and eye balled their work, grinning from ear to ear.  I couldn't tell who was more stoked, Rusty or Ryan.

Text and Photos: Brody