Bourton Shapes "Hybrid Small Wave" Designs |
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Introduction
As
far as surfboard design goes this is for sure the fun part.
To be clear the description of hybrid, in the context of surfboards,
it literally means something that for one is not connected
to an era but more or less is a compilation of many periods
which are moulded together with a modern overview.
There has
been so much functional stuff through the last 40
years that it would be a crime to see it not reused in some
form or another.
Why Only Small Wave Designs?
Perhaps the main reason "Hybrids"
are mainly concentrated in the shorter boards, is that they
seem to target the less serious, fun side of the market.
This is open to those even of lesser ability, so you can be
sure the fun element for the less experienced is not going
to be realized out at Banzaii Pipeline. Add to that the hybrid
is drawing from the past which has basically
been preoccupied with very short boards almost 75 percent
of the whole time. Lastly for me at least, I feel for those
who are older but do not want to go near a Malibu
but want paddle in a shorter board in which case width, thickness,wider
nose and flatter rockers are their only alternative.
Choice
Now we have established what a hybrid is, its purpose in
the market, and indeed in the water, it now begs the question...
where does it all start and finish? In fact your choice is
almost infinite and is only restricted by the willingness
and creativity of your shaper. To me this is an exciting
facet to my design field as anything goes and is
not restricted by customer fashion but more by practical function;
the product has gotta work but also keeping in mind that almost
everything works within reason for different people.
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At this point I have only scratched the surface by targeting
as I mentioned the small wave market playing with flatter
smart rockers, wider noses, concave decks and new fin configurations. The fun fish series will be on going and I will be adding
new models as I get more feedback on what’s working
and what’s not. In our factory at Base
I have many test pilots who love to have something weird to
ride and the best thing is they are typical Jo average surfers
so their feed back is more than apt.
Current Sucesses
Click on the models below to find out more information about
each design:
Since there are no rules with these designs it is perhaps
best to describe each of my current designs, how
they evolved and where the inspiration came from. Being
involved with board design for so long I have a huge library
of designs to draw from so these little babies are gonna keep
coming!
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Page | To talk to Murray Bourton about your new Bourton
shape click here to send him an email.
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