![]() In 2005, new investors came in, and the former pro surfer and co-creator of Tavarua (as well as the clothing brand) and VP of Reef was brought in as General Manger, something that’s gotta happen when you’re creating something you want to be… big. Nev bought the company, brought the Burger family over to Queensland and, together, they started working together on what was, still then, Nev surfboards. ![]() Too much movement in the machine.Īnd then Nev heard about the Western Australian shaper Bert Burger and his unique process of building boards via his Sunova brand. What Nev struck on his way to creating a process that’d make 100 per cent finished boards possible was the impossibility of doing it with regular polyurethane blanks. His retro-rocket and kick-tail models in the nineties were championed by the best local surfers. Nev shaped boards for every great surfer around, from Andy to Taj to Kelly and more. He wanted to watch a guy at Pipe, adjust his shape accordingly and, a few hours later, the new improved board would be on the sand ready to ride. Because as much as he loved shaping, as much as he got off on those lucrative 15-board-a-day runs in Japan where he’d shape so much his fingers would bleed, he wanted to design. Because he believed in the technology even when it was deeply unpopular to do so. The APS3000 and AKU Shaper machines and Shape 3-D software exist because of Nev. His dream was to shape a board on his laptop, send the details to a machine, and have it finish the board 100 per cent. In the late eighties he was the guy who threw it on the line to not only champion machines that could shape boards from a computer program, but poured money into it. More next week!īut Nev was always a smart cat. Nev Surfboards – who thought that name could fly? This is Nev Hyman, almost 60 but still cute as the proverbial red-tinged button! Those curls refuse to quit! And guess what he’s got up his sleeve! A plan to save the world. When he was 20 he shifted to the Gold Coast and, soon, became one of its most popular shapers. Nev is a 57-year-old surfboard shaper from Perth in Western Australia. It’s worth the circumvent, it’ll give you a handle on the brand, so hang in there. Before I swing into the biz of Kelly Slater and his “70 per cent-plus” stake in Firewire, which is now official and there’ll be a press release from Firewire shortly, let’s talk a little about Nev. Boards, one hundred per cent finished, without me touching ’em.” Nev closed his computer and thought, “I’ve done it. Nev knew they’d be finished, packed, and then sent to Tahiti where, four weeks later, Michel would open up the giant box and see his new improvised sleds. ![]() What man with blood still in his veins doesn’t? But Nev opened up his AKU Shaper software, made the adjustments and emailed ’em to the Firewire factory in Thailand. ![]() Nev, who let’s be honest, was until that point happy swallowing the flaxen-haired gals loping by in their torn denim and bustiers with as much gusto as he was his inhaling his little espressos. On an email, the Tahitian surfer Michel Bourez had written that he needed new boards for Teahupoo. The Firewire founder Nev Hyman knew he’d done it, knew he’d created the game changer he’d been working on for 30 years when he was on a layover at Helsinki airport, Finland. ![]() Firewire founder Nev Hyman and the joy of Kelly Slater taking the wheel of his biz… ![]()
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