On Saturday afternoon we caught up with Ryan Burch, as he stood beer in hand, chatting with the local groms and watching the skating in the bowl. We asked Burch, who Joel Tudor would later call ‘the most well rounded surfer on earth’, about the unique appeal of a gatherings like this for board builders, the cyclical nature of board design and the development of style.
Loads of you guys are here riding your own shapes, how important is it to gather together at events like this for your board building? Is it where the seed of new ideas come from?
Oh yea, for sure, you see things at these events that you don’t forget, you incorporate it into your knowledge of surfboard design for ever. To be here and be able to check out other people’s boards is priceless. It’s one of the only times that everybody comes together, and sometimes the wave isn’t one that you’d expect to see everyone surfing, but everyone makes a board that’s going to give them the best chance to win the money.
Weirdly, it’s almost like formula one, where everyone’s tuning their craft as much as their working on their performance…
For sure, the guys who have travelled here before are drawing off their knowledge and just trying to build the best board for the wave and then you’ve got these young guys coming up who are bringing a board that works exceptionally well at their home wave, so you kind of see their background and their influence. Everyone’s bringing their story with what they’re riding, you almost don’t even need to talk to them about it, you just have a good look at it and you see the influences.
http://features.wavelengthmag.com/1067954
