A Paipo Interview with Michael Drury

A Paipo Interview with Michael Drury
2016 and 2023 - Santa Barbara, California (USA)
eMail Interview by Bob Green
Photos courtesy of Michael Drury unless
otherwise noted.

Michael Drury has spent many years surfing the Santa Barbara area, an area rich in waves, talented surfers and shapers, as well as rich in surfing history. He has experimented with a diverse range of boards, and is especially influenced by John Bradbury and his view that what worked on a stand-up board would work on a bellyboard. To the non-surfing world, he is better known as a well-respected plein air painter (see Additional Information).

Michael Drury and One of His Early Bellyboards

1. How did you get into bellyboards?

I rode standing up goofy foot from 1958 until 1964, surfing Hammonds and Rincon. I got into body surfing in high school as well, the real stuff, not straight off Adolf. Went to France, sold my boards, came home, met Pete Howorth, an amazing waterman, who was bodysurfing Rincon and riding plywood paipos.

(Left) Pete Howorth Demonstrates His Winning Form on His Bellyboard (Right) Howorth Planes on His Left Arm While Body Surfing

Author Unknown. (1964, November). Salt Creek: Body Surfing and Bellyboard Contest. Petersen’s Surfing Magazine, 1(8), 35.

Were Pete's boards finned or finless? What impressed you about these plywood paipos?

Pete put an inch-thick unfoiled plywood fin on the tail. One day I was treading water, floating near Renny Yater up toward second point and he said "why don't you ask [George] Greenough to build you a board?" I said, “I didn't know George.” Renny said he did and for me to come by the shop. And so it began. Those flat paipos went really fast but didn't turn worth a hoot.

Pete Howorth Lifts His Swim Fins Clear of Water in Order to Gain More Speed

Author Unknown. (1965). Offbeat Surfing: You name away - somebody's already tried it. Bellyboarding. Petersen’s Surfing Yearbook Number Two, 190-195.

2. I've seen photos of your first boards. How long did you ride this style of board?

From 1965 through 1967, when John Bradbury² started building round pins for me. Number One is 3'6". Number Two is 4' and Number Three is 4'6". I let one get away. They are all about 19 to 20 inches wide.

Michael and His Early Greenough Influenced Boards, Left to Right Boards #3, #1 and #2

The deck looks scooped out?

The dish on all my boards since GG runs from the tail to about 6 inches up from the wide point (the wide point is 3 to 4 inches above the midpoint depending on the curve) and is no more than an inch deep. The scoop deck is essential and all my boards have it, to varying degrees.

Board #2 Featuring Yater's Santa Barbara Surf Shop Surfboards Logo

Just enough dish to give the hipbone something to roll up against when carving about and getting blasted! My GGs were rolled V-bottoms; subsequent boards have more or less V and single and double concaves depending on the shaper as much as anything. John Bradbury's idea and a liberating one it is, is that if it works for stand-up surfing it will work for any wave riding craft.

Board #2 Showing Deck Scoop, Bottom Contours and Center Fin

Wider boards are harder to arm paddle, especially if there isn't a lot of foam under the chest. Do you kick or paddle your boards?

I kick into waves with my trusty Voit Duck Feet. I hold the board out in front of me and slide onto it as the wave picks me up. All this was learned from GG [George Greenough]. Those yellow boards were shaped by either George Greenough, Reynolds Yater or John Eichert. Who knows? I always assumed it was George. I don't really care. The damage you see are the repaired dings from Rincon, Hammond's and El Capitan.

Board #3 Illustrates the Deck Scoop

3. How different were John Eichert's boards to ride compared to the Greenough-style boards?

Can you hear the rusty gears clanking around in my head? So many memories! And I don't know the answers really to your questions. GGs boards worked really well, but were not built for barrels, while the pulled in pintails worked well in hollow waves. So, it was a bit of a tradeoff, in that you could swoop around on the hulls and kinda get barreled or go less vertical and go into tubing sections at speed and make them. Different ways! Rincon was for years the battleground between two competing ideas of surfing. Hulls versus hard edge boards, pins and round pins. It's way more complex than that of course and Bradbury was a Dick Brewer guy after 1969 when he went to Maui and saw those Brewer mini guns, beautiful templates, rockers, rails, all of which John Bradbury was doing already, but Dick Brewer helped him pull it all together.

Bradbury Pintail and Creative Freedom Logo by Michael Drury

Wider boards are harder to arm paddle, especially if there isn't a lot of foam under the chest. Do you kick or paddle your boards?

John Bradbury (JB) and I were acquaintances, then friends, then really good friends. He was one of my mates. He and I surfed together a lot, and he knew what I needed. I owe him for years of big fun in the ocean, days big and small, too many extraordinary go-outs to count. I miss daily.

Bradbury was a well-known and well-respected shaper in the industry, a Santa Barbara local, who was taught to shape by Reynolds Yater. He learned from the ground up so to speak, progressing from shop rat, to ding repair, sanding, glassing, fin lay-ups, glossing, and finally shaping. He started his own company, Creative Freedom, with his partner Alan Hazard in 1967, and began shaping pocket rockets for a small crew of young hot rats. Rincon was the testing track. Longboards were over instantly, it seems. I worked up the street from his shop in Goleta and went over there after work to hang out, and that's where John posed the famous question, "Why do knee boards and bellyboards have to be so blorty?" So, the yellow pintail was born: 4 feet, 6 inches long, 18-1/2 inches wide, a totally different outline from the Greenough boards. And it worked! He knew that a dish was necessary to keep the rider, prone or kneeling, from sliding off. Bradbury and Greenough were great and longtime friends, lots of mutual respect and surf time together. Man, oh man, were those days fun! Greenough and Michael Cundith³ had the stubbies and John Bradbury had the blades. Lots of Rincon and points north. Seething experimentation, fueled somewhat by herbal remedies and psychoactive embellishments. Serious fun!

4. Of all the surfs you shared with John Bradbury are there any particular sessions or waves that still stand out?

Well, we surfed Rincon, the Ranch, points in between, Malibu a couple of times each summer, Santa Cruz …. surfs with John, too many to count ... days at Government Point with no one around, 5 ft., hard offshore wind, just the 2 of us. Perfect Rincon, big and small. A predawn run to Malibu in March, really good second point Malibu, no one there until 8 a.m. Big perfect Cojo, and on and on. He was a well-respected surfer, a great athlete, with an unmistakable style. Nobody else surfed like he did. Six foot one, fit, confident, cocky, ladies loved JB, and he loved them back. Man, he was fun to hang out with. I miss him every day.

Flyin' Along, Banking with One Arm Free. First Wave on New Creative Freedom Board, ca.1976.

5. Where you surfed over the years, were there any other bellyboard riders or were you the only one riding a bellyboard?

I saw kneeboarders in the 1960s, and entered kneeboard contests. I never saw anyone else belly boarding. I got to surf Steamer Lane in Santa Cruz on really good early south swells, and placed second each time, because I was the only prone rider, as the judges privately explained to me. I didn't care–riding 4-to-6-foot waves with four people out? Heck yeah!

Another Great Day

Long Lines at North Goleta

6. You mentioned the boards were fast. Does the speed come from basic planning speed or is it drive from turns?

Speed comes from the wave and the drive, both. I want boards that have a gas pedal (the back third or so with a bottom contour and hard edges) and the ability to feel a "5th gear" as needed, i.e., the ability to pump out of a turn and let the rail go downhill so to speak.

Do you basically draw the same lines as stand-up surfers or have a different approach? What technique is involved in riding your boards, turning and gaining speed? You mentioned the dish allowed hip pressure/movement?

I try to draw the same lines as a stand-up surfer, bottom turns for drive and speed, pumping down the line, etc. All my boards are built with the idea of covering as much water down the line as possible. Pressing with my knees, pulling the rail with my off hand, etc.

After you started riding the Yater boards, did you ever try stand-up again? What has been the attraction of prone surfing?

I never rode standing up after December of 1965. I loved body surfing too and to find these little pieces of plywood that Peter Howorth made for me that went so fast and could turn so well after riding stand-up on 9-foot plus surfboards was pretty revelatory. I rode a combo of both, sort of, until George Greenough made me those hulls the next fall. Also, the feeling of the speed and immersion in the liquid, everything being so close is really cool.

7. How did John Bradbury's boards for you evolve over time?

John Bradbury's early templates were influenced by Reynolds Yater. He constantly refined his curves to eliminate any bumps, preferring an accelerated curve with the wide point up from center, and the tail pulled in. Over time the back half got fuller and pintails became more rounded. John met Dick Brewer on Maui through a mutual friend who was riding Brewers, and Brewer's ideas and templates fit in John's shaping philosophy perfectly. Speed and turns: creative freedom! This is right at the great change, 1966-1970, a time of massive shift and wild experimentation in surfboard design. Bradbury's idea was to shape me boards that looked and worked like stand-up boards: proper rockers, no dead spots, V- bottoms, continuous rail curve, etc. Matt Moore was heavily influenced by John Bradbury, as was Al Merrick, who John taught to shape. So, all my boards since Greenough's have been predicated on JB's idea. Oh yes, they work. I ride single fins, thrusters, and quads. I think that the quad is the best design for me all around, especially when paired with a swallow or bat tail. Matt Moore still shapes my boards, and also my nephew, Aaron Abernathy, with Wayne Rich on tap as well. John died in 1999. His legacy is intact.

How do your recent boards reflect John Bradbury's legacy?

All my boards are modern. So, the rail curves, rocker curves, bottom contours are all predicated on speed and maneuverability. Less complex bottom contours for single fin boards, really just proper rocker and a vee. Concave bottoms on the other fin setups. All of it in keeping with John's ideas.

Matt Moore Quad Made Three Years Ago—Michael's Bigger Wave Board (5'3" x 18 3/4" x 2")

Bat Tail Made in 2015 by Aaron Abernathy (Malpais Surfboards): Going Through Hollow Sections It Feels Like I’ve Got Two Fins and the Inside Pin in The Wave—Really Fast (5' x 18 3/4 x 1 ¾”)

A Little Thicker Than Usual—Matt Moore Newly Made Single-Fin (2016) (5' x 19 1/4" x 2 3/8")

8. Since 2016, have your boards and approach to surfing changed much?

I’m still riding the 5’ bat-tail quad, used a lot less since the pandemic began. The crowds became out of control plus a heart attack two years ago, from which I’ve recovered. But a new Wayne Rich 4’10” single-fin, 19” wide, really thin, has me re-stoked. Got some west Goleta sneak attacks in at the end of spring, beginning of summer.

Another Fast Lane Flyer!!

Notes:

Note 1. Blorty is a slang term for thick, fat and wide.

Note 2. John Bradbury was a talented surfer and shaper from the Santa Barbara area. At age 16, he was one of the founding members of the Santa Barbara County Surf Club, which was established in 1960. Membership allowed access to the quality waves found on the stretch of coast known as Hollister Ranch, or the “Ranch.” John worked for Renny Yater in the early 1960s, and Bruce Fowler has reported that Renny Yater once said of John, "My best glasser ever." John began shaping under his own label, Creative Freedom, in the late 1960s, operating out of his backyard. For many years he was known as an underground shaper to local surfers. Matt George has recounted how that changed when John shaped a light, four-pound epoxy board for future world champion Martin Potter. Although many friends have described John as a soul surfer, Matt George's account depicts a dedicated and disciplined shaper who took a scientific approach to perfecting his craft. Other pro surfers would soon come knocking at his door. John was also reported to be a huge fan of baseball.

John died of leukemia in 1999. While he is well-known for his sleek guns—what his friends continue to report is missing his company.

Sources include: George, Matt. (1992, Fall). Matt Georges's Innerviews. The Surfers Journal, 1(3), 80-85.

Note 3. Michael Cundith, originally from California, began surfing at the age of 12, cutting a long board in half and surfing on the front half, before going on to build surfboards for all his friends. In 1967, he created Wilderness Surfboards in Santa Barbara, California, surfing constantly with the likes of George Greenough and perfecting his designs. He moved to Australia in 1971. Once here he worked with Coopers Surfboards in Coffs Harbour, then San Juan Surfboards with Nat Young in 1971, and then with Sky Surfboards. Initially owned by Geoff Hears, Michael started at Sky Surfboards as one of the first surfboard shapers alongside Nat Young's brother, Chris Young. Sky Surfboards went on to become one of the biggest names in the surf industry, employing many renowned shapers including Bob McTavish, George Greenough, Greg Melhuish, Gary Timperley, Chris Brock, Daryl Bulger, Dana Woolfe, Chris Young, Neil Cormack and Andrew McKinnon. Michael eventually took over the business, which became MC Surfboards.

Source: C222morrow. (2015, September 2). Legendary Byron surfboard shaper Michael Cundith retires. The Daily Telegraph. Link is here.

Addition Information of Interest: Michael Drury's Painting

The following website features Michael's paintings:

https://www.santabarbarafineart.com/michael-drury

Also check Michael's Facebook site at this link.

John Comer who is a contemporary of Michael, describes Michael's influence on him:

Painting is a lot like taking off on a wave…lots of visualization and then relying on your senses to guide you while paying total attention. My biggest influences other than all of the historical paintings I have studied are my contemporaries Ray Strong, Michael Drury and Hank Pitcher—connections which actually came through my surfing community.

I met Michael through John Bradbury at creative Freedom Surfboards in 1968. We knew each other for years before we realized we were both painters. Michael and I have painted a lot outside together and his direct no-nonsense grasp of a composition and initial attack helped me to paint faster and flow through constant choices. I also learned from Michael’s accelerated sense of color…..

Ray, Michael, Hank, and I painted outside together in all kinds of weather, often leaving in the dark, dawn patrol. We were basically trying to get the expanse and immensity of nature down in paint, chasing the light, getting the shadows down first. Sometimes dealing with large canvases in the wind, rain, and heat as well as the inherent challenges of painting outside. It takes full attention if you are really looking and not just making a picture from what you think you already know. In the quietude of painting, wild animals will often stand by curiously watching.

Source: See The Surfers Journal link.

An article on Michael Drury appears in The Surfers Journal. See:
Hamer, Michael. (1997, Summer). The Bones of the Country. The Surfers Journal, 7(2), 28-33.

Photo courtesy of The Surfers Journal.