During the 60’s and 70’s Ron Wade headed a highly successful surfboard manufacturing and retail business in Mona Vale, on the Northern Beaches of Sydney. Within a short time he also set-up a surfboard manufacturing and retail shop on the Queensland Gold Coast. He sponsored a very competitive surf team and further enhanced his performance driven surfboard designs. After a hiatus from the surf industry during the 80’s and 90’s Ron is back and proud to present a new range of shortboard, funboards, longboards and mini mals, designed to suit everyone from beginners through to experienced surfers.
BH: Hey mate, how are you?
RW: Hi Bradley I am great, thanks for asking.
BH: What board are you riding?
RW: I am riding a 9’0” x 22 ¼” x 2 7/8” “The Bull” our longboard model. This board is great for me as I can nose ride it. And I love the speed and manoeuvrability it has.
BH: You were a pioneer in the shaping industry in the 60’s and 70’s – what do you think of the way board design has evolved?
RW: The shapes of boards have changed dramatically since the early to mid 60’s as most of boards made at that time were between 8’6” to around 9’8”. As we got into the mid to late 60’s our factory started to shape smaller boards by demand, I think this was due to our surf team experimenting with new shapes. In those early days we had some of the best riders representing us at all surf contests around the country. I remember around 1968-69 we had experimented with some very small boards (5’8”). It was during the early 70’s we got into making swallow tails and then came the swallow tail with flyers, sizes were between 6’10” to around 7’9” or so. Hence our “Wildfire” model was created. Of course we were also making mini guns for surfers who wanted to ride the larger winter swells here in Oz and the surfers heading off overseas to Bali. Other shapes we designed that were very popular included the egg shape, which I might add, is still popular with some today even though much smaller: 6’4”-6’6”.
BH: Where is your favourite wave?
RW: My favourite wave is the nice right hander at the Basin at Mona Vale when it’s on.
BH: Love the look of your F1-11 model – what was the inspiration behind it and have you had a good response?
RW: The F1-11 that is available today has been finely tuned from the originally created in the mid 70’s. It was to be a short board that was highly manoeuvrable , fast and could get you through tight sections. It really is a great little board and if the conditions are right you’ll love it.
BH: What’s your ultimate surf session and who is out in the line-up with you?
RW: There has been may times I have been out surfing with some of the hottest surfers in the world but one particular time comes to mind a while ago is when Glenn Ritchie (shaper) myself (shaper), Russell (sponsored surfer), Kevin Platt (shaper) and Robert Kenneally(surf shop owner) were surfing Scott’s Head up on the North Coast of NSW. It was about 4.30 am when we arrived and as soon as we could see the sun coming up all of us went out. It was about 6’ to 10’ glassy walls and these guys were just ripping it apart. It was great to see those surfers in action. In those days surfers were usually more courteous and everyone got heaps of waves with no obnoxious attitudes.
BH: Looks like a set is coming… left or right?
RW: As a natural, I do like a really nice right hander….
Find out more at the Ron Wade Surfboards website.
