Featured Surfboard Shapers

Murray Bourton

The Beginnings

Murray started shaping in 1970.
Many well known top shapers like Darren Handley (DHD), Jason Stephenson (JS) and his son Skye Bourton (On Fire), owe their starts to Murray Bourton.

Murray developed a great reputation for being able to create great semi-guns and now brings out a series of boards called THE LEDGE TAMER ..."may interest some of those maniacs who relish the drop".

However he has also some incredible short board designs honed on the famous snappy Gold Coast beach breaks and points.

Being very easy to talk to and willing to discuss the merits of certain designs - the outcome of a custom order is so consistent. You can take a board in or just bring it up on his laptop and discuss the things that go well and areas that don't and he can make suggestions and adjust it.
Once you get one special board it is tempting to get another for slightly different conditions - so beware this can get addictive.

Innovative Computerised Design

Murray has embraced the improvements that technology can bring to surfboard designs - you can see your board change shape as he adds rocker and changes rail shapes right in front of you.

Check the BourtonShapes.com website Surfboards Gold Coast where you can contact Murray directly and he will email or phone you back if need be.

Customer Review The Snub Feeder

When you are accustomed to updating your boards once or twice a year you tend to be in the 'state of the art' zone. However, when circumstances dictate keeping the same board for four and a half years it means that when that much sought after new board finally finds itself staring back at you then a whole lot of change is coming your way. This was my situation. The epoxy 'Fanger' I got off Muzz way back in 2013 lived an amazing life and brought much joy but I couldn't do another Gold Coast spring with it, I had to have something new.

A lengthy examination of Murray's website told me I was way out of touch and that I needed to discuss my order in detail. Thirty-five years of surfing Pipedreams and Bourton Shapes allows Muzz to draw on a vast reservoir of our shared history and his knowledge of where I surf (South Straddie) and my preferred options (the word quad cannot be mentioned and all boards must have a swallow tail) meant conversations were not going to be brief.

To this end we had a great discussion about what a middle-aged chap may relate to given today's ultra-scientific approach to contemporary boards. Murray's hard drive somehow unearthed the Fanger's file and we kept that in the back of our minds whilst discussing options. One new model, the 'snub feeder' seemed to keep entering into the conversation, the dice had been rolled and it was time to apply the numbers. The Fanger was a 6'0 and 30 litres, coincidentally the new snub, a 6'0 x 20 x 2 7/16 came out at 30 litres. Sounded good, time to order.

A few weeks later I got the call. As is always the case, Muzz produced a beautifully crafted surfboard, but holy crap, did it feel different. I was stoked because I wanted change and I got it in buckets. Now to ride it.

First surfs on a new board should always be memorable, offshore, perfect un-crowded waves, you know the fantasy, so four foot angry Straddie with too much east in the swell and low tide was going to be 'interesting' to say the least. Five surfs later I still did not know how the thing went. The surf varied from too sucky and closing out to too small and dribbling onto the beach. This board was cursed, or so I thought.

I had no idea how it felt out on the face, where to put my feet or how to turn the thing. I needed a break. It came, of all places, at Point Cartwright on the Sunny Coast. I found myself all alone surfing small inside Carties on a weekday and confronted by waist high, clean, peeling waves. I started to smile. A lot.

The snub could and did accelerate with ease, all by itself actually, the hull let me relax and wind my way along the fun little rights without excess squiggling to build up speed. When I ran out in front I could lean back into it and it would whip around in a flash. Too fast on a few occasions so I had a look underwater a few times and checked out the rocks. But that was the surf where it clicked and I finally felt as if I was getting my head around the board.

Over the next few weeks Straddie had its moments and the snub just kept on surprising me. It still required thinking but I could now start to put it into places where I wanted it to go. Backhand seemed to be an even quicker success story as it comes off the bottom on lefts feeling very tight and controlled and releases out of the top turn with lightning speed. Forehand it was not until I scored a super fun two to four foot 'softer' day at Straddie that I felt as if I understood how the snub worked and it was a great feeling. The board absolutely generates its own speed on a clean face and slowing it down to get tubed took some adjustments but well worth the adventure. It still throws me the odd curve ball, but all that means is that I am learning and that equates to wanting more waves. If your board can provide you with plenty of rewards and the odd challenge then riding it will never get dull.
Thanks Muzz, the snub is cool, I am as keen to surf as ever and hopefully, I wont have to wait four years to meet whatever it evolves into.

Cheers Greg Kenafake.

Other Legendary Shapers

Geoff McCoy Byron Bay