Smorgasboarder_16_March-2013

GEAR: INTERVIEW
the waves crispy sharp, wrapping
endless point breaks and inhabited
by surfing elves. The whole vision
was so 70’s - “searching for empty
perfection”!
“My work was mostly inspired by
the literary world created by Tolkien
(The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings
which I carried around like a stack of
bibles) & Robert E Howard (Conan)
and the artwork of Frank Frazetta,
Dali, Rick Griffin and Bill Ogden.”
And speaking of Tolkien, one of
Shane’s works has a particularly
special place for us – the
Smaugasboard! He explains…
“The Hobbit obsession led me
to airbrush this board for myself
around 1975. I designed the board
with retro - already back then -
influences and had Keith Paull
shape it. The airbrush is of Smaug
the dragon, in his treasure cave
conversing with Bilbo the Hobbit,
supposedly invisible at the time.
“I called it ‘Smaugasboard’, after
the dragon, with a pun on the
spread of food. It was one of a
continuous string of retro-inspired
designs including a mini Plastic
Machine (circa ‘74) and the first
of the Modern Mals we built at
Whangamata.”
Art-wise, airbrushing is insanely
difficult to master – a fact that
few would understand today,
since the advent of Photoshop and
digital art. So for those who don’t
understand exactly how it works,
we asked Shane to give us a quick
explanation of the process to
produce an airbrushed image.
“While the airbrush has its
limitations, for what it can do, it’s
the perfect medium - especially for
skies and water, where there are
mostly soft edges, fades and colour
blends. There was no airbrush
academy, or book of instructions
- I just had to work things out as I
went along.
“Martin Worthington was doing
his own thing at Hot Buttered in
Sydney, and there was no peer
group to compare notes. There was
no specific paint for the airbrush.
This took a lot of experimentation
as well - especially for painting on
the foam and being glassed over.
There was fading, de-laminating,
bleeding, clotting and spattering
to overcome and different stencil
materials to test.
“I would sketch the layout in the
lighter colours and add layers
of darker colours - all the while
the images becoming more in
focus and dimensional. Knowing
just when to stop was often
determined by the swell conditions.
The fibreglass layer over the top
enriched the effect and became
almost jewel-like.
“It was a beautiful era really.
Surfing was an art and so was
the board building process. There
wasn’t much money involved - we
just did it for the love of surfing.
In comparison, I think today the
surfboard has the status more
befitting a tennis racquet.
And with regard to today, what
about how the digital world has
changed what art is, and how it’s
produced?
“Well, you know... I used to have
thick calluses on my fingers from
the airbrush, and you had to swing
your arm around quite a bit, with
big swooping movements. I just
don’t know how that action would
translate to a mouse.
“While I’m amazed at where
the digital world has taken us,
it is kinda sad to see the virtual
disappearance of art as we knew
it. But hey, after Dali, Frank Frazetta
(of Conan art) and Surf Airbrush,
there’s not much that hasn’t
been done. As a result, stuff just
gets wackier in an attempt to be
different - and that’s okay, but not
quite the same.
“With Photoshop and digital
reproductions, you can have
anything printed on anything, and
that has dispelled a lot of the
magic. Commercialism also hasn’t
helped individuality.
“I believe that movies are where
art is presently at its best, but
this requires a makeover. The
technology is there for us to make
beautiful audio-visuals, but our
minds are in the gutter. There are
a lot of great stories out there,
so no excuse. I’m a big fan of
3D. Some people have a problem
with it but it works for my eyes.
Can you imagine what would
be going through Walt Disney’s
head, watching today’s 3D digital
animation?
Shane tells us how he’s always
really thrived on the creative
process of art and functional
design. Thesedays, with a small
beach resort to run, and the art
mostly about designing for their
shop, he says he still just enjoys
being creative and treading
new ground - from building his
home, resort accommodation
and landscaping the surrounds to
writing and surfboard design in
particular, for which he still has a
unique taste for.
“I’ve always had a couple of boards
including a state-of-the-art and one
of my retro-fusion designs - which
has been a parallel evolution on
the Plastic Machine-theme. I’m
finally content with where the
design has come to. and now it’s
my main board.
“ The waves here are really fast
and hollow and it works perfect
- crazy! It has lots of different
features, like re-designed, cropped
fins... But the most obvious are the
cropped nose and tail - effectively
reducing the board length by a foot.
No more points for me!
“I’M FINALLY CONTENT WITH WHERE THE DESIGN HAS COME TO.”
Shane’s cropped compact design,
shaped by the boys from Oke Surfboards.
Check out the 2007 Musica Surfica
DVD
extras for a segment on it.
126
SMORGASBOARDER | MAR/APR 2013