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Tyler
Hatzikian
Tyler Hatzikian-Photo by Ken Pagliaro
By Bob Visty
El Porto parking lot, South end… 8 a.m. the dawn
patrol has already been out and is now headed for work,
school, elsewhere. Parking spaces are opening up. Cars
and trucks face the line-up, their decaled ass-ends
stake claim to surf turf... 'O'Neil', 'Heal the Bay',
a 'Tyler' decal on one, two, three, trucks in a row.
Skip one, empty spot, another Tyler decal.
Welcome to El Porto's “Longboard Land,”
'Classic' longboard land, Tyler-land. Surfer, shaper,
Tyler is walking up the beach, interrupting a session,
to talk to elporto.com about how and why he makes the
most coveted longboards in the South Bay….
Why longboards…?
Tyler's Surfshop • 305 Richmond
St. • El Segundo, CA 310.322.6861
• I was a shortborder all through junior high
and built shortboards for ten years before getting into
longboards. Everyone here in El Porto was on the same
short equipment. I just wanted a challenge and I wanted
to be different than the rest of the guys. Longboards
were clunky in the early sixties. They became more finely
tuned toward the mid-sixties, more finely tuned fins,
the rails were tuned and the surfing was really tuned.
• To be a complete surfer and complete board builder
I needed to know something about the history of surfing.
That's when I started going back into early longboard
design and educate myself about the craftsmen that built
boards during the early 60's.
Today Tyler's taking a break from traditional longboards,
riding a 9' diamond tail with high aspect 'Marino' style
fin which he explains is going backwards to what an
early short board of the late 60s like what Brewer and
Mctavish were making in 67 would be like… a bit
Aussie influenced. Stats: 9', nose 18 _”, width
23”, tail 16”, the diamond - about 8”.
* McTavish invented and competed on the Vee bottom in
North Shore Hawaii in 1967 fueling the board design
revolution.
* Machinist turned surfer/shaper, Dick Brewer influenced
virtually every shaper of the late 60's and 70's with
his transition from longboard master-shaper to short
board design innovator.
Tyler, fully committed - photo by
pacificsurfimages.com
• Back is 1966, Nat [Young] showed up and won
the world championships on his short 9-4 which was unheard
of for that period. After that point people started
chopping their boards down and things got shorter and
shorter and that was where the longboard just stopped.
The modern longboard today is not related to the longboard
of the 60's. It's related to the shortboard.
* Young's board was nick-named “Magic Sam,”
a thinner, lighter, shorter 9'4” squaretail longboard
with a swept-back fin made by Greenough.
* In the mid-60's, Australians Bob McTavish and Nat
Young along with Californian kneeboarder George Greenough
launched the “involvement” school of surfing
by more actively riding “in and around the curl”
spawning more maneuverable, shorter, sub 9' boards and
the “shortboard revolution.”
• I felt I could get my surfing and board building
skills to the level they had achieved in about 1966,
before the shortboard revolution. I could possibly take
my surfing and long board shaping into a area that had
not yet been explored… pick up in the late sixties
without the shortboard influence. That drives me to
this day, a chance to blaze my own path in surfing.
Bottom line, what makes a Tyler board different from
any other longboard is its design is not a compromise
between a shortboard and a longboard of the past. Take
a look at the way his team riders surf. (Brian Kari
and Aaron Holloway - El Segundo, Eric Vallely - Costa
Mesa, Chris Hatzikian - Westchester) They maneuver,
work a face, shift speed, everything you'd expect to
see on a shortboard because Tyler's aren't just classic
knock-offs. The type of rails and foil he builds into
his boards, in his own words makes them, “an uncompromising
design from the past without modern shortboard advances
and current surfing styles built in.”
Tyler's approach to longboard design…
Busy creating in the shaping room-photo
by Ken Pagliaro
•The rail type is a 50/50 style, a bit of a soft
egg-shaped rail without a “down rail” in
the tail. When you turn, you drive off of the rail rather
than surfing off of the bottom like on a shortboard.
A modern shortboard gets the speed off the flat of the
bottom and from the hard edge rails which help release
the water from underneath. A 50/50 is a displacement
rail, so you sink that rail and it's the length of the
rail (length of the board) that sets the board's line
to actually drive the board. It results in a more of
a powerful turn, more banking, rather than flat-bottom
shortboard turning.
For you 'porto shortboard fiends that have never ridden
a longboard, Tyler explained that it would be a bit
of an adjustment to cope with the single fin longboard
drive. Longboard drive requires a more down the line
timing were each advance maneuver is setup in the middle
of the previous one. El Porto's dumpy conditions can
make this even more challenging.
Local Knowledge
Tyler putting his money where his mouth
is - photo by sbsurfpics.com
Tyler grew up surfing South Bay, specifically El Porto.
Assumption number one… does local knowledge give
a shaper a design edge?
• I've found that surfing here as much as I do
that tail rocker is pretty important. Because here we
have such short walls, short faces, my boards have a
good bit of tail rocker; length gives them enough push
to get you onto the face and the rocker helps you rotate
to maximize your turns on a wave over short distance.
So you have that first initial turn and by then you've
gained your speed so you can decide to section it or
float it. The key is tail rocker for the initial bottom
turn.
OLD STYLE…
photo by Ken Pagliaro
Tyler does all of the traditional shortboard shaping
with help from Michael Gibe a long time bro he relies
on for his “classic” experience and years
of expertise.
• Michael's a good friend and has been shaping
for about thirty-something years and used to work for
Weber in the 70's. He was influenced by Dan Benson who
was one of the premiere shapers in California and used
to shape the Nuuhiwa Noseriders. Mike mainly surfs Manhattan
pier, he's well known out there.
• Hang ten artist and World Champion David Nuuiwa
signature Noseriders by Bing Surfboards were the best
selling surfboards of 1966.
A few moments of conversation with Tyler leaves the
impression of his thoroughness. In answer to questions,
he explains what you need to know, and expects you to
listen. He's proud of his own craftsmanship and how
he came to it. He's critical of shapers who take a look
at an older board and ride it and take design elements
from it without understanding how they came to be in
that configuration. He has gone out of his way to befriend
the craftsmen who designed the early great longboards.
• I'm real close friends with Hap Jacob and Dale
Velzy I suck it in from all angles. I try and learn
what I can about design and the sport and the history.
• Dudley 'Hap” Jacobs… premiere board
shaper from Hermosa Beach started shaping in 1953, partnered
for a time with Dale Velzy putting out 125 boards a
week to meet the demands of the first mega-expansion
of the surfing craze.
• Dale Velzy started shaping balsa/redwood longboards
in '36 and later invented the highly maneuverable “pig”
board, with its wide spot further back toward the tail
that helped change how waves were ridden.
5 day week
Tyler's boards tend to become a permanent addition to
any quiver. He admits that from a profit perspective,
the durability of his boards is a problem.
• There are lots of guys with ten year old Tyler
boards. The craftsmanship holds up. People can by two
of another shaper's boards but they go through a few
of them and then figure out that they should have just
stepped up and bought something that is gong to last.
Tyler only builds five boards a week. The waiting list
is a dozen weeks out, so there are 60 guys ahead of
you right now. Since we're talking custom boards here,
know that Tyler expects each one to be made with a specific
customer in mind.
• We don't make five boards a week because we're
lazy, but because we found that that's the number that
gives us a quality product and the time to spend with
the customer. We give them something other shops can't
give them. We spend time talking design and its like
a custom car and old coach work, it's just special.
I never wanted to be a board builder that had fifty
boards in the water, I wanted to be the builder that
gets recognized when one guy walks across the beach
to check out a board and realizes, “Wow, that's
a Tyler.”
Used Tyler's are hard to come by and aren't necessarily
a bargain. Resale value stays high, even if you can
find one someone wants to part with one.
• I like to think of myself as a complete board
builder, foam to glass. Others just shape and don't
learn the other materials, the glass, the resins.
• It makes a surfer feel good when a board he
carries has an aura with it. You see a guy on a Tyler
in another area, you talk to him. It's like an elite
club.
PORTO… Changes
photo by Ken Pagliaro
• El Porto used to be exclusively a shortboard
spot… I remember the first time I paddled out
on a longboard people looked at me like, “What
the hell are you doing here?” That kind of inspired
me. Gave me push away from the norm.
• The sand bars don't come around as much as they
used to…. I don't think that's as much the jetty
as the long periods of droughts. If we get some long
periods of rain, combined with swell and tide and those
sand bars will come back.
• Attitude has changed, but I think that's just
a reflection of society and people bringing their aggression
from land into the water. It doesn't have anything to
do with the vibe in the water or the crowds. The crowds
have always been there.
• There may be some tension between equipment…
you know, long and short, but riding different equipment
has become more acceptable. Hard core shortboarders
will always think longboards are an “old guy”
scene. Really, using the right equipment in the right
conditions, that's the key. There is an art to picking
the right board out of your quiver. If you show that
kind of versatility [a surfer] will be shown respect…
long or short.
“GUNDO…”
Tyler's boards are noticeably more costly than others.
At one time he successfully expanded from the South
Bay and then surprisingly closed down shops in San Diego
and Newport. Now the only place to discuss a custom
board with Tyler is in his El Segundo shop. He explained
that in order to control craftsmanship and make sure
the buyer understood what they were paying for he couldn't
retail out of more than one shop.
The shop is kind of a throw back shop. Pretty homey,
managed by his wife Katheryn, not a lot of window dressing
and not a lot of stickers. It has an industrial feel;
a reflection of El Segundo's surroundings, its industrial
roots, Tyler explains. “You're not gonna get an
attitude like, your not cool enough to be in our shop.”
Beside boards, there's a selection of surf apparel,
wetsuits and skate selection to service the new skate
park that opened up in town.
“Tyler - DAY ONE”
• My dad used to hang out in Playa Del Rey watching
Bob Milner shape and glass. Dad built my first board
for Christmas when I was nine. It was a 6' diamond-tail
single fin with a lightening bolt. I built my first
board from scratch when I was twelve, in 84. It was
supposed to be a 6' double wing, swallow that was supposed
to be quad but I turned it into a single fin.
The Future of shaping…
• Ten years from now… the material might
not be the same but there will always be a place for
hand crafted boards. Pop out boards made in China…?
there's a place for that, it gets people into the sport
and then once they advance to a certain level they are
going to need a hand crafted board, to advance their
surfing.
If you ask Tyler if shaping is an 'art' he won't say
it straight out, his passion leaves you certain that
he's sculpting a board not just shaping it. Bottom line…
Tyler wants to get surfers on equipment that will stoke
them with performance, provide noteworthy craftsmanship
based on some substantial surfing design history creds,
and he won't deny it, there's the visual appreciation
that surfers and non-surfers both recognize as “classic.”
More info at tylersurfboards.com tel: 310.322.6861
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