On The Nose
Surfer|September 2017

How an unlikely collaboration between shaper Chris Christenson and an aerospace engineer from Pennsylvania may alter the future of big-wave surfboard design

Zander Morton
On The Nose

For the most part, big-wave guns have looked much the same for the last few decades. Sure, shapers have made incremental changes to volume, fin placement, rocker, bottom contours, etc., but the general shape of a big-wave surfboard looks about the same today as it did 30 years ago. Until now, that is.

Southern California shaper Chris Christenson, who makes boards for Greg Long, Ian Walsh and many more of the world’s best big-wave riders, recently unveiled a unique craft. With a bulbous nose that’s over 9 inches thick (yes, you read that right), shaped from EPS and glassed with carbon fiber, it looks unlike any big-wave board you’ve ever seen.

“This surfboard came about because of an aerospace engineer from Pennsylvania named Roger Birkbeck,” says Christenson. “And the funny thing is that Roger isn’t even a surfer; he’s never surfed a day in his life.”

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة September 2017 من Surfer.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة September 2017 من Surfer.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.

المزيد من القصص من SURFER مشاهدة الكل
60 Years Ahead
Surfer

60 Years Ahead

We had a whole plan for this year. Funny, right? Surfer's 60 year anniversary volume was going to be filled with stories nodding to SURFER’s past, with cover concepts paying homage to the magazine’s most iconic imagery. Our new Page One depicts something that’s never happened in surfing before, let alone on a prior SURFER cover. And our table of contents was completely scrapped and replaced as we reacted to the fizzing, sparking, roiling world around us. In other words, 2020 happened to SURFER, just like it happened to you.

time-read
4 mins  |
Volume 61, Issue 3 / Winter 2020
A Few Things We Got Horribly Wrong
Surfer

A Few Things We Got Horribly Wrong

You don’t make 60 years of magazines without dropping some balls. Here are a few

time-read
7 mins  |
Volume 61, Issue 3 / Winter 2020
THE LGBTQ+ WAVE
Surfer

THE LGBTQ+ WAVE

Surf culture has a long history of marginalizing the LGBTQ+ community, but a new generation of queer surfers is working to change that

time-read
10+ mins  |
Volume 61, Issue 3 / Winter 2020
For Generations to Come
Surfer

For Generations to Come

Rockaway’s Lou Harris is spreading the stoke to Black youth and leading surfers in paddling out for racial justice

time-read
5 mins  |
Volume 61, Issue 3 / Winter 2020
Christina Koch, 41
Surfer

Christina Koch, 41

Texas surfer, NASA astronaut, record holder for the longest continuous spaceflight by a woman

time-read
4 mins  |
Volume 61, Issue 3 / Winter 2020
END TIMES FOR PRO SURFING
Surfer

END TIMES FOR PRO SURFING

By the time the pandemic is done reshaping the world, will the World Tour still have a place in it?

time-read
10+ mins  |
Volume 61, Issue 3 / Winter 2020
CHANGING OF THE GUARD
Surfer

CHANGING OF THE GUARD

After decades of exclusive access to Hollister Ranch, the most coveted stretch of California coast is finally going public

time-read
10+ mins  |
Volume 61, Issue 3 / Winter 2020
What They Don't Tell You
Surfer

What They Don't Tell You

How does becoming a mother affect your surfing life?

time-read
10+ mins  |
Volume 61, Issue 3 / Winter 2020
Surfer

Four Things to Make You Feel A Little Less Shitty About Everything

Helpful reminders for the quarantine era

time-read
10+ mins  |
Volume 61, Issue 2
The Art of Being Seen
Surfer

The Art of Being Seen

How a group of black women are finding creative ways to make diversity in surfing more visible

time-read
4 mins  |
Volume 61, Issue 2