A Sit and Yarn With… Andy Fielding

Firstly, what made you get into shaping boards back in the day?

“Well, I’ve only ever had one ‘off the rack’ surfboard in my entire life and whole time I’ve been surfing, which is probably more than 35 years. I’m originally a carpenter by trade and so I was taught at a very young age how to use hand tools.

Originally, I would get my boards made by Jools of Gulfstream in Woolacombe,North Devon. I was always fascinated by how they worked. It went on for quite a few years, getting boards made by those guys and ending up on a few trips with them.

I was then introduced to Adrian Phillips of Fluid Juice. He started making me a few boards. He’s really good at showing what he’s doing and why he’s doing it. From him, I got to grips with what makes boards work or not! He ended up making my boards for years.

Then around 13 years ago or so, I was really struggling on thrusters… I wasn’t surfing as much because my kids were young. Adrian suggested I tried one of his 7’6 hulls. I was a bit hesitant to be honest! I didn’t think hulls were my kinda board, but he persuaded me!

I was in Cornwall… It was at one of those decent south coast winter haunts. I took the 7’6 in, paddled out and the first wave I got a left-hand barrel… I was like ‘Oh my god!!!’. This was what I had been waiting for! To be honest, I never looked back from there. The way it paddled, the way it rode, it just blew me away!

I wanted to understand how these kinda boards worked and so I actively started shaping a few with him and it just went from there with my shaping journey as such.”

Oh, wow! That’s so cool that he’s been so forthcoming with his knowledge! I’d like to think that’s quite common in the shaper world with people eager to learn, but is it?

“I think if you are genuinely interested and they are genuinely proper craftsmen, they ultimately want to show you a few techniques. They’re trying to give the best experience to you; the best you can ride. They enable you to understand how long it takes to create something that allows you to experience the ocean in that way. He continues to show me new things to this day.”

It sounds like you guys have remained good friends.

“Yeah absolutely. I’ve been very respectful of the things he’s done. He was obviously very much into performance surfboards initially and then his journey progressed as a started to revisit mid-length boards. We are all constantly learning. He would say that he’s constantly learning too. It’s what I think you need to continually enjoy your surfing experience. So, Fantasy Surfcraft built off that, really.

You know, I started making a few boards without logos, figuring out what sort of boards I liked… Once you have a few, you dig a bit deeper into it… Then this whole rabbit hole, sorry, rabbit warren, opens up with all these new possibilities for surfing. It’s great!”

You’re clearly a massive hull enthusiast. We’ve had loads of chats about hulls in the past and this obsession has now been going on for you for years. But how did all that lead into your connections with guys like Paul Gross? Did you literally just reach out to them?

“Well, I guess the people that know me well know that I’m inquisitive and want shaping to be done properly rather than hope that things will be just end up a certain way. You know, things in the surf industry over the years seem to have just ‘happened by accident’, but many of the best developments in the surf industry happened in the 60s and 70s and these hulls that we talk about go way back to that era. Of course there are still developments to be made, but I’m so influenced by the guys of this time like George Greenough and Paul Gross, who is good friend of George’s.  When I say influenced, I include the way that George lives his life, the genius of him, the mystery. Another guy I really admire is Marc Andreini, who I am lucky enough to now call a friend. I reached out to him several years ago just to say how inspired I was by what he did… he shared his knowledge and passion with me!”

It’s incredible that you’ve managed to build these friendships through sharing knowledge and passion! Tell me a bit about Marc Andreini; you had an interview with him once, didn’t you?

“I did! A few years ago, for Real Surfing Magazine. At that time, I reached out to him to do a lifestyle interview with him, to really dig into his design theories and to try to understand what goes into boards and fins. It turned into an amazing article, where he describes things way better than I ever could! You know, he’s probably done about ten thousand boards in his time and displacement hulls are his thing. He loves to hang out and surf with Kirk Putnam, the owner of Liddle Surfboards. Those guys have been best friends since they worked at Channel Islands all those years ago. Marc has been a massive fan of George his entire life. He used to watch him surf at The Ranch, in California, an area of private land north of Santa Barbara. It’s a unique area and is home to many classic surf spots which can only be accessed by knowing someone. Unless you have a boat! It’s where all these amazing waves are! Ya know, some of the scenes from Big Wednesday were shot there, it wasn’t Malibu, it was The Ranch. Marc spent a decent amount of time surfing up there, kinda seeing Greenough from a distance and then later in life got to become a very good friend of his through being interested in his design theories!… Through knowing Marc, I got to be introduced to George… Who I’d actually tried to contact many many years ago but was impossible!

Randomly, he phoned me out of the blue on a Sunday night when I was about to go to bed – he apparently had been trying to phone me for ages but had the wrong number!! We chatted for a bit, and he agreed to do an interview which built trust and our friendship which is quite unbelievable!”

That’s amazing! Everyone who enjoys the sea on some sort of craft will know who or what George Greenough is all about…even if they don’t know the history or heritage of the designs, Greenough is a known name to most people.

Once I had the article together in a roughed-out state I approached Steve Halpin, owner of Fringe Surf Shop, Newquay. Steve is a classic guy and is editor in chief of Real Surfing Magazine. We agreed to put that hefty interview in the magazine. As you can imagine, it was a great selling issue. That magazine went all around the world! It felt so great to be part of it.” It’s been a real honour to work with Steve and be able to contribute some really fun content into his real core publication.

So, you’ve now moved into showing George Greenough’s film works, is that right? Tell me about The Innermost Limits of Pure Fun?

“Yeah, I speak to George most weeks and chat about ‘all things life’, not just surfing. So, the film thing came about when he was having ‘Echoes’ remastered. Echoes is the final section of Crystal Voyager where George takes the viewer inside of a barreling wave for the first time.  Crystal Voyager is a film about George, filmed and directed by Albert Falzon and David Elfick. Echoes was filmed by George and Pink Floyd went on to provide him with the soundtrack. That’s his film and is a whole story in itself. George really wanted to get his film shown in the UK again and asked if he thought I could show it. It had been 50 years since Crystal Voyager was originally shown to sell out crowds in London back in 1974. Even though I warned him I wasn’t in the movie industry, he persuaded me saying ‘nothing ventured, nothing gained’ and so here I am! Two weeks later, got the movie and a local venue sorted! We’ve shown it all over the UK and in quite a few places in France, Spain and Portugal now. I’m now known unofficially as George Greenough’s Film Distributer!! I’m not sure I even have a name anymore! [laughs]”

  The Innermost Limits of Pure Fun ‘is George’s first film that he made way back in the late 60’s. It documents his time surfing and discovering the amazing surf playgrounds of Australia and California with his crew. Most of them are still around and surfing to this very day. The film basically documents the shortboard revolution and showed how surfboards were being developed at a grass roots level and tested in great waves on a daily basis. The end section of the film is called ‘Coming of the Dawn’. This was the predecessor for Echoes. George created the first water housings to take the viewer within a barrelling wave. Surfing from the night into the dawn. Truly next level to this very day. Hope everyone gets to see this newly remastered version. It truly is incredible.

When I came up to your British Surfing Museum (in Braunton) showing of the movie with some of the Zuma Jay crew, it was really noticeable how low-key you’d made it all, kinda like how George would want it to be. It’s pretty cool that it all seemed stripped of ego and just through and through surfing, none of the flash stuff that’s not necessary.

“Yeah absolutely! Have you ever read a book call Neverland?  Rusty Miller [former US Surf Champion, 1965]and legend of the classic surf exploration film ‘Morning of the Earth’ lives in Byron Bay, he’s in his 80s and is still teaching people to surf. Rusty’s wife, Tricia Shantz is an author and has just written this book about life and the characters who found themselves in the Byron area during the late 60’s. The book documents when guys like George, Bob McTavish, Rusty , Chris Brock, John Witzig etc lived there at the start of it all, during that ‘country soul’ period of all living together really simply. It’s incredible and was super low-key. It’s how surfing should be.” This is where the shortboard revolution developed from.

We’re super excited about bringing the film to Bude and showing it at ‘The Workshop’! We’d love to bring that heritage and historical surf culture element to Bude…

“Yeah! That’s totally possible! Ya know, it’s not a financial thing at all. George gifted the profits from the first few Australian showings of Echoes to the homeless kitchens in Ballina and Byron. On the rare occasions when George is asked to shape one of his ‘boundary pushing’ edge design surfboards these days he donates the proceeds to the West Pac Helicopter Service. He likes to give back to the people who are providing great services”.

So, where’s next for The Innermost Limits of Pure Fun?

“That’s starting off next month. First show is at a cool place called the Depot in Lewes, then down to Newquay. Then we’ll be kicking off up the east coast in September and we’ll fill in from there.

When you see this film, honestly, your mind is going to be blown! You’ll see Bob McTavish from a young age absolutely ripping it up at Lennox on a big V-Bottom surfboard. The quality is immense. You would think it was filmed last year! Hopefully George will get some award from Kodak or something for the way it’s been restored because it just shows how well it was all filmed 54 years ago!”

We’re so excited!!! Bringing these kinda things into Bude is what it’s all about. I think even those who don’t surf will have a connection to it because of what it stands for, the simplicity of life and as you put it ‘country soul’. We really believe in connecting people back to the true essence of life, adventure, surfing, simplicity.

“I totally agree. I’ve had so many ‘thank you’s’ from people for bringing this film to them. Watching their faces as they watch the film is priceless… It touches everyone in some way. It’s absolutely worth the hour and a half of your time, it really is!!” All we want is for people to leave the theatre with a big smile on their face.