SHAPER DIRECTORY

Rip Curl-Tokoro

Legend has it that while Claw was out the back shaping the first Rip Curl surfboard, Brian was in the street twisting someone’s arm to buy it.

Claw’s battered old van was a common sight around the beaches in the late ’60s and early ’70s, with Brian the perennial salesman and Claw the mysterious guru shaper, dealing directly with surfers at the water’s edge.

Over the years – and especially around Easter time – the Curl played host to many a professional surfer who needed a new board or to fix a damaged one. Many travelling surfer/shapers from around the world called into Torquay looking for some work to pay for their lifestyle.

Rip Curl always encouraged and accommodated these surf gypsies, and the guest list over the years includes such notable shapers as Eddy Angulo, Randy Rarick, Gerry Lopez, Bill Stewart and Maurice Cole. Mike “Zel” Crouteau was a larger than life Hawaiian shaper who made a big impact in the shaping room, surf and any party in town. Other names were Kingsley “Knackers” Kernouske, Phil Grace, Bob McTavish and Ted Spencer.

A small group of elite shapers have kept Rip Curl Surfboards under the feet of the world’s best surfers. In the late ’70s Wayne Lynch and Rip Curl teamed to put their boards deep in the tube and to the forefront of performance surfing.

In the ’80s, local shaper Doug Rogers created innovative shapes eagerly sought by the hottest surfers. But it’s been the regular guys doing their daily work in the shaping bays that has kept Rip Curl Surfboards among the best available. From the early days, local shapers such as Daryl “Rooster” Dell, Russell Francis, Donny Allcroft and later on Ross Slaven, gave local surfers the best boards in the area.

In the ’70s Rip Curl led the way in early experimentation. The pace was frenetic and at times the designs were “out there”. Today, experimentation is more subtle, reflecting the universal refinement of boards the world over.

Rip Curl’s main shaper for the past 12 years is Michael “Titch” Anthony, whose finely tuned boards have been used around the globe by some of the world’s best, among them Gary Green, Frankie Oberholzer and Tom Curren.

The aim in making surfboards – especially handcrafted custom boards – is as it always was: to fit the board to the surfer and where he or she wants to go on a wave, from Claw’s radical free thought shaping of the ’60s to Michael Anthony’s advanced creations of today.

Rip Curl continues to make this happen 28 years after it all started...