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era of surfing when finding and catching waves and breaks was
all that mattered to a generation of young men for whom jobs,
marriage and mortgages meant little by comparison. As Greg
Noll has said, ‘I’m not sorry for being a fun hog for all of my
life’.
The longboard was the original form for surfboards when they
were first manufactured in the United States in the 1920s.
They evolved from the Polynesian and Hawaiian boards made
of solid wood used in the ancient practice of Hoe he’e nalu, a
kind of stand-up paddle boarding. Construction materials for
longboards evolved from plywood and balsawood through to
fibreglass and polyurethane foam. The longboard or ‘Malibu’,
typically 4 to 6 metres in length, dominated the surf scene up
to the late 1960s and 1970s when short ‘performance’ boards
(made famous by renowned Australian surfer Nat Young)
introduced a revolution in style and board manufacture.
Vintage longboards now attract high prices on the collectors
market and have assumed iconic status in the history of surf
culture.
David Burnett is the Curator of International Art at the
Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art.
Greg Noll (b.1937, active Hermosa Beach, near Los Angeles)
Surfboard
c.1960
Polyurethane foam, fibreglass cloth, polyester resin, wood
LACMA, Gift of Matt Jacobson
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