Sharpen the Arrows – Harrison’s DIY Quiver: Part 4/4

The fourth and final board in Harrison’s 2018 quiver, well, you could say it was the board we’d been waiting for… Or perhaps I should say it was what we expected, finally, a tiny one!

There was a conspiracy of us sat idling around the Temple shaping bay watching as Harrison took one of Rich Pavel’s 4’11” ‘Speed Dialler’ templates and used it to draw the nose on a blank. He then took up one of Forrest Minchinton’s templates and blended the Rich’s nose curves with Forrest’s for the tail. The result, a 5’2”, 90’s style, bastardised fish, and we couldn’t wait to see in the water.

This was the skateboard of the quiver: light and little, with two MR style fins. This board was for chop-hopping and hot-dogging.

It’s a little-known fact that Harrison loves to ride shortboards and attempt airs. He also loves, after a few beers, to remind everyone that he was the Queensland Under 18 shortboard champion… we put up with his decade-old claim only because of the humour with which he refers to it.

We’re are not trying to be nasty when we say ‘attempt airs’ rather than say ‘do airs’, that’s actually his take on it, and we reckon that that’s purely because of a low strike rate.

All of us though will admit, he’s fun to watch on a shorty.

There is spontaneity in Harrisons surfing, which we are putting down to him riding so many different styles of boards, that is a tremendously enjoyable aspect of his surfing. When we asked him how it rode we half expected this board to being his favourite of the quiver, it turned out he liked it the least favourite. He’s like that, the mongrel!

We’re of the impression that with so many boards and so little time to ride all of them up to this point, he didn’t in fact, give the 5’2“ the time it deserved. And we’re also blaming it on Deni Pirdaus! Judging by the images we received from the boys trip up north, Deni must have ridden that little board in just about every session!

Images by Giang Gaw, Damea Dorsey & Andre Cricket