Bob McTavish

Bob McTavish helped move Australian surfboard design from longboards toward shorter shapes in the late 1960s. The National Film and Sound Archive's account places his experimentation alongside George Greenough and Nat Young, describing Greenough's influence on his fin thinking and McTavish's pursuit of more vertical surfing through shorter boards. The McTavish brand's history dates the Plastic Machine to 1967 at Keyo in Sydney. Its vee-bottom design became an important part of this period of rapid change. The same chronology records his work with Morey-Pope in California in 1968, when the Tracker series developed the Plastic Machine's vee-bottom character. His contribution is best understood through this exchange of ideas and successive designs, rather than a single invention detached from the surfers and shapers around him.