Monday, November 26, 2007

SimFish, Tim Elsner New Stick

This is a very Cool looking stick.
Shaped by Joe Bauguess at Mike Eaton's
Shop for Tim Elsner.
This is a Spin off of Bob Simmon's
Early Dual Fin Surfboard.



Excerpt from ALL ABOUT SURF Interview with
Richard Kenvin (RK to his friends) regarding
Bob Simmons and Steve Lis Design Influences.


RK - What is holding my interest the most right now is investigating this legacy of design that formed here in the San Diego area? Of course, a lot came from elsewhere. But I'm particularly fascinated by certain elements of designs that came into being in this area. So I have been tracing a lot of lineages and seeing how it has blossomed and spread throughout the world. A lot of it has become tribal lore, at least in my experience. I had always heard of it. Bob Simmons surfing the Windansea area and riding dual finned boards. I had always heard that stuff as a kid when growing up surfing Simmons Reef. There was always a consciousness about that sort of thing. That's basically where I'm at as far as inspiration.
For me there is "a Board," the Steve Lis Fish, which, thru either conscious or unconscious and intuitive decisions by Stevie, happens to fulfill a series of design innovations that originated, the first time around, in the mind of Bob Simmons over half a century ago. Simmons's boards are loosely connected to the fish through Ekstrom, and also the Mirandon brothers and their Twin Pin boards. For whatever reasons and circumstances these seeds of revolutionary and functional surfboard design sprouted, grew, and spread round the world from their source here in San Diego. So in my mind these designs that have been looked upon historically as an interesting yet insignificant side show, i.e. the Simmons Dual fin and the Lis fish, are really more like one of the main deals when you consider this thing we call "shortboarding". And of course George Greenough's contributions are extraordinary on all levels.

When I think of a sort of holy trinity of shortboarding, meaning people who showed us the boards of the future and how to ride them, the names that come to mind are Bob Simmons, George Greenough, and Steve Lis, two brilliant kneeriders and a mad scientist. Of course all forms of surfing are valid and wonderful, and surfers from different disciplines, like single fin enthusiasts or traditional longboarders might mention different names... but for me its those guys. A longer list would include Pat Curren, Diffenderfer, Mike Hynson, Dick Brewer and others...

Excerpt From: ALL ABOUT SURF
http://www.allaboutsurf.com/articles/hydrodynamica?pg=1

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