Seaglass Project
The Seaglass Project: taking the alaia style of surfing to the world. Photo Dane Peterson: Christian Wach smoothly carves on an alaia.
The alaia movement has been enormously successful and totally changed the face and history of surfing. But, most have only observed it from a distance. Most surfers could not actually catch a wave and stand on a wood alaia. It is hard in pleasant warm conditions and the difficutly is doubled with a cold water wetsuit. The Seaglass project is about using modern materials to copy the feel of surfing an alaia but make the whole journey a whole lot easier.
I really think the Seaglass board is the best overall shortboard for small waves. There are many more manoeuvres possible on the Seaglass than a finned board and you get your speed by working in with the waves’ power. Modern trifin surfing is largely about generating speed pushing off the fins. Seaglass surfing is about carefully setting the board in the power points of the wave and going with the flow.
The Seaglass project is still in its infancy. The boards are just making it to surf shops around the world now. I hope kids will get on them and start inventing their own style of surfing complete with their own names and moves. The older crew can do the same, but the learning curve is always shorter for kids.
The evolution of the Seaglass has been thoroughly documented. I always felt a sense of urgency with this project because this may be a big part of the next generation of small wave surfing. Maybe finless boards will be made better next year but they will be measured by the Seaglass. 10,000 Seaglass have been made and they are going around the world now. A few years ago the Simon Anderson thruster set up was the common thread of all surfboard shapes. I believe it is the alaia now. In a few years surfers may want to know where this board came from so I have a bit over the top with videos.
Videos:
This video was shot by Crumpy with GSI. It is actually the last video of the Seaglass evolution. There may be some confusion because I used to call the boards Tunas but the name for the GSI foam boards has evolved to Seaglass boards.
The next video shows the first of the foam pre-Seaglass shapes. They worked great finless in very small waves, but without the flex of the alaia they would slide out in steeper head high surf. I was very influenced by my brother Jon in California. He was already making great “Bluegills” and we were both experementing with going from wood alaias to foam. To get around sliding sideways, he put small keel fins on his boards. Sage Joske would be doing the same with his Vectors soon. I was inspired to make a finless board that would hold into a wave without fins, just like an alaia. In this video Matt Williams is riding the first of three that we made from surfboard foam with wood going around the rails. We had just come back from Europe where we shaped a lot of alaias and had an amazing summer. We saw alaias all over Europe and many small time surfboard shapers experimenting with heaps of new shapes. It was clear that there was a new direction in surfing. November, 2009.
JON WEGENERS FOAM ALAIA PROTOTYPE CALLED THE BLUEGILL from matt williams on Vimeo.
The next video is about the first sessions with the Tuna shape evolving into the Seaglass project. I had asked GSI for some of their super advanced EPS blanks to make the boards. Wood and regular surfboard foam were not cutting it. The surfer is Isaac Blyth who is an incredible surfer and body boarder. He was up in Noosa from Tasmania for a few months. The two boards in the video are the first two with the future Seaglass shape. The first one has a 4 ounce epoxy glass job and the second one is just EPS foam with stringers glued in (I broke it a few days earlier and Isaac is making fun of my lame ass repair). The red one became famous because it found its way under Dane Reynold’s feet at J-Bay and several people commented that it was the fastest board on the point. The two boards are 5’3”. February 2010.
Although Isaac could surf the tunas well, I still could not. I still spent too much time sliding sideways. I finally made a more flexible tuna from EPS foam with a plywood deck and just painted epoxy rails. I could finally ride the board the way I could an alaia. I made probably 15 versions of short foam tunas to tune in the shape. The first board in the video is Tuna number one made in June, 2008. It has paulownia rails and plywood top and bottom. Although it looks scary, it is really fun to ride and started off the trip to the Seaglass project. May 3, 2010.
http://youtu.be/QP2n2LERPJ4
The next video was a test to make sure we are on the right track. We just got the first two GSI made Seaglass from the Cobra factory and I wanted to test them against the two best tunas that I had made. One is a 7’6” swallow tail that surfs ok in small clean surf and the other is one of my hollow paulownia and wood tunas. The wood rides good, but they are extremely hard to make. Isaac once again is ripping and Matt Williams with the dreadlocks is not far behind. I am ok. This is a fun day at Tea Tree. June 16 2010.
I made some alterations to the first two sample batches of Seaglass boards from the Cobra Factory. The third batch seemed just right. The artwork had been finalized but I still had to hand paint these boards. I could surf them and they seemed to be the easiest ones to ride yet. I went on a road trip with Isaac to give them a solid testing. We got some nice empty waves and Isaac had the time and freedom to do his thing. September 22, 2010.
That is the developement of the EPS Seaglass story so far. I put a solid year refining the short tuna with wood, surfboard foam, and EPS foam and designed a great board that could be efficiently replicated. Isaac Blyth surfs really good and I was very lucky to have him around when the experimenting was hot. Once the Seaglass boards were finalized there was another 6-9 months before they started making it out to the world marketplace. Isaac’s surfing I think is spectacular and he was only riding the boards with me for about 9 months. He is now surfing them in Tazmania.
One big reason I have changed the website to a blog format is to post footage of people riding the boards. If you get some ripping footage of the Seaglass, please let me know and I will post it up!!! Be sure there will be boards delivered for the best stuff!
For further information here are three more video links. The first is by GSI and is my surfing journey in a nutshell. The second is a 2009 video where I have been experimenting with the longer wood tuna shapes that eventually led to the Seaglass project. Third is a 2009 video of Ryan Birch and Rob Machado first experimenting with the Lord Boards. They had been riding alaias but like myself, had found them to be too hard to paddle on a regular basis. They went to EPS blanks. Cyrus Sutton called me frothing on what was happening. I was turned on to the safety and speed of these boards. They were doing with EPS what I was trying to do with wood. These are the factors that drove me to the Seaglass Project.
Tom’s History
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxYrSUaJXKk&feature=related
Early Wood Tunas
Ryan Birch and Rob Machado early EPS Lord Board
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0_yM1EKl9M
Here’s an Article published in Pacific Longboarder in the Seaglass Project.
Pacific Longboarder Magazine Article- The History of the Seaglass
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