Smorgasboarder_16_March-2013

GEAR: INTERVIEW
“IT WAS THE ‘MORNING OF
THE EARTH’ YEARS, AND THE NORTH
COAST AND BEYOND BECKONED.”
“I convinced Kingsley to build the
fi rst Modern Mal there around
’76 and I built the first snowboard
there circa ’77-‘78. After the fi rst
initial rush to Bali had settled, we
opted for a few extended trips up
there from ’79. And again around
’83, with our two little ones (son
Chas & daughter Hayley) in tow,
we went up with Jeff Doig’s crew
to set up the first board factory.
Our last stay in NZ, before the big
move to warmer waters again in
Tonga, was ‘85.
“I’m a big Tolkien fan. Chrissie
and I did a trip back to NZ earlier
in 2012 and visited the Hobbiton
set at Matamata and Weta Cave
in Wellington - great! I always
pictured NZ as Middle Earth! We
also caught up with Bob, Taff,
Rollie & Pete and all the old surf
shop crew who were still chillin’
out at Whanga.”
Shane formally trained as a
screenprinter and while on the
Northern beaches was involved in
the production of iconic logos and
surfboard decals including ones for
McCoy, Goodtime, Oke, Michael
Peterson and more.
“I did a few years at a display
company in Brookvale, screen
printing and colour mixing
with Manly surfer Ian “Goody”
Goodacre,” he tells us. “All good
experience but from Narrabeen, I
started doing extended trips up the
coast, supported by selling handdrawn
decals to the local board
builders. It was a simple idea which
added individuality to boards.
“All I needed was an ink pen, a
6-pack of coloured pencils, a stock
of rice paper and a flat surface
(usually the picnic bench closest to
a surfbreak). Basically, less space
than a spare pair of boardies.
“It was Geoff McCoy who fi rst
asked me to draw one up to be
printed. ‘Jim the Printer’ was
producing the board decals at
Brookvale and while the arty,
multi-coloured designs were in
vogue through the 70’s, he’d hook
me up to do them all.
“Most of the decals were either
designed and or colour-separated
by me. Some manufacturers had
their own ideas, but I still did all
the separations. This involved
doing separate, overlapping greyscale
drawings for each colour.
“No computers, and camera
separations were way more
expensive than what I could do
them for back then. Never saw the
designs in colour ‘till they came back
from the printer, so it was always
fun to see how they came up!
“Some guys like Alan Oke (Oke
Surfboards) and Brian “Fury”
Austin (Goodtime) already had
recognisable logos but asked me
to embellish on it. In this case his
‘Oke’ tree became stranded on
a tiny island with perfect waves
peeling around either side.
“I designed a couple for Michael
Peterson based on right hand
barrels & tropical fruit. He couldn’t
decide though what name he
wanted to call his boards so he had
me draw up a bunch of different
names on a separate sheet to cut
out and place over the coloured
decal as the whim took him.
“My personal favourite is the
design I did for Wilson Surfboards
at Raglan. The view out to
Indicators was just so picturesque -
I went all Art Nouveau.
“Turns out I’ve gone the full cycle
and reverted back to screen
printing my own art on t-shirts &
sarongs. I started doing rock and
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SMORGASBOARDER | MAR/APR 2013