Bob McTavish

Born in 1944 in Queensland, Australia, Bob McTavish started surfing at age 12 on a 16-foot plywood paddle board. Best known as a surfboard shaper, he started working with Sydney’s biggest board builders at age 17, then became a major player in the shortboard revolution. He worked closely with George Greenough and Nat Young, helping Young design “Magic Sam,” the thinner, lighter, shorter longboard that would win Young the 1966 World Championships in San Diego, California. In 1967, McTavish produced the first vee bottom, nicknamed the “Plastic Machine.” Shortly thereafter, he and Young were seen tearing it up at Honolua Bay in Paul Witzig’s The Hot Generation. In the late ’70s, McTavish wrote several essays for surf magazines talking up the long- and mid-range boards he was shaping. In 2009, Bob penned Stoked!, his memoir. Now in his eighties, a father of five and a grandfather, McTavish is still actively shaping and surfing.

In this episode of Soundings, McTavish sits down with Jamie Brisick inside his factory to talk about his prolific shaping career, stowing away to Oahu, Magic Sam, The Hot Generation, Dick Brewer, and his most memorable moments in the water.