JC: Can you just pick up any board on the beach and say that is a decent shape?
SW: Mainly yes! They did a thing in the Surf magazine test in Cape Town where they wanted to test the shapers. They put five white boards out that they had ridden and we had to look at them and tell them how they ride. With a bit of experience you should be able to call it spot on. Luckily I was mostly correct although there are always a couple of surprises and you can’t call it exactly right every time. That experience over so many years helps to shorten the r and d process. Even when you design a new board like the Stubby, it is not that the first board is the one but your experience helps speed up the way you eventually reach the end result, so even by the second model you are already pretty close instead of doing huge detours with ideas that won’t ever work. There are certain factors that work together and you know how they affect each other.
“ The Stubby is especially interesting for me because I have to admit I was very sceptical, but when we tried the first prototype I was really surprised ”