Designer reinvents the classic surfboard

Designer reinvents the classic surfboard

Janny Hu, Chronicle Staff Writer

Friday, June 19, 2009

The first thing you notice is the shape. It looks like a tadpole. Maybe a duckbill. Yet there's something feminine about its curvy waist and tapered end.

Thomas Meyerhoffer hits a beach in Montara with his lates...Plans offer his modifications from traditional boards, gi...Here is one of Thomas Meyerhoffer's surfboards in action.... View Larger Images

It does not look like a surfboard, which explains the dubious looks Thomas Meyerhoffer gets when he totes his around.

The Swedish designer responsible for Apple's first translucent laptop has gone outside the box again to deliver what he calls his best - and most personal - product to date: a makeover of the classic long board.

Meyerhoffer believes that his reinvention will give surfers a more intimate, versatile ride, as long as they get past that shape.


Thomas Meyerhoffer hits a beach in Montara with his latest creation, a new line of surfboards. (Michael Macor / The Chronicle)


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"Surfers, I would say half of them, are really conservative," Meyerhoffer says on an overcast morning at Montara State Beach, a few blocks from his home and design studio. "You have to get to the ocean, paddle out, get to the right spot, then when you ride your wave, it's like '1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7,' and your wave is done.

"You don't really want to miss a wave, so there's a certain amount of people who are comfortable with what they ride and don't really get to the point where they want to experiment."

But Meyerhoffer rarely plays it safe. The Stockholm-born designer, schooled on multiple continents, isn't interested in improving products as much as revolutionizing them.

He's worked for Bay Area companies Ideo and Apple and developed innovations in both sports and technology, from wraparound ski goggles to windsurfing sails to the eMate, an Apple product that was the first to use a translucent plastic case.

Inspired by the novel and with a growing passion for surfing, he left Apple in 1998 to build his own design studio. He has always been drawn to user connection - the eMate was all about breaking away from the gray computer box, he says - so it was only natural that he began creating a surfboard based on function.

Many designers add. Meyerhoffer took away.

He cut out the sides, creating a distinct waist and hip that extended the contours - and benefits - of a short board.

He tapered the tail to increase speed, but kept its length to balance the weight up front. There, the width remains to make nose-riding possible.

The result is an unexpectedly fast and fun hybrid, according to some of the sport's most-recognized names. It glides like a long board, turns like a short board. It is light and easy to paddle.

"I was pleasantly surprised," said Maverick's surfer Peter Mel. "I didn't know how good it would feel for how odd it looks. It just had a real nice flow to it."

The Meyerhoffer boards, manufactured by Global Surf Industries, celebrated their international release at the Noosa Festival in Australia three months ago. The official U.S. kickoff is scheduled for later this summer, though a limited number of boards are already available in surf shops on both coasts.

Its appearance at the Mel family's Freeline Surf Shop in Santa Cruz, in fact, made for some lighthearted banter. Patriarch and owner John Mel, who has been shaping his own boards for 40 years, immediately took to Meyerhoffer's design. His son, Peter, like many others, took some convincing.

"I'm really impressed that my son tried it, because he was heckling me when I brought it in," John Mel says. "I was walking with it at the beach the other day, and people looked at me like, 'Oh, boy, John, you really blew it on that one.' "

Instead, the board blew Mel away, which is all Meyerhoffer can ask for. He sees his designs in the same spirit of the retro fish board - simply meant to deliver a different surfing experience - and says he'll continue to develop new boards along with his other secret gadgets.

Two are sports-related. Two are technology products. Meyerhoffer can't say what they are because of the competitive nature of his business. But he's guaranteed to have a hand from start to finish, just as he learned to shape boards before he could redefine them.

"I would say this is by far the best product I've ever designed because it gives people the most happiness," Meyerhoffer says. "It gives people more enjoyment than a technology product. What do you do with that? You get on the Internet. This really wants to give people a different experience so that you rediscover the pleasure of surfing.

"Give it a shot," he later adds. "Enough people have tried it and loved it, but it's not about loving it or hating it. It's a process of letting people try it."


Plans offer his modifications from traditional boards, giving the boards an unusual shape. (Nick Allen)


Here is one of Thomas Meyerhoffer's surfboards in action. They have a different shape from the traditional ones. (Meyerhoffer Surfboards)

E-mail Janny Hu at jhu@sfchronicle.com.