“I’m still alive, still cranking. In certain areas, I’ve never felt so relevant.” - Maurice Cole for The Surfer’s Journal
Maurice Cole bought his first surfboard in the mid 60s for $36 and went on to become a multiple Victorian state champion through the 1970s and finished in 6th place in the 1980 World Surfing Championships.
“Maurice dragged that thing to the surf and back until one side of the tail wore off, then he flipped it over and wore off the other side. He reckons this was the first pintail he shaped.”
60 years on, Cole is still surfing and his name is one of the most well-known surfboard brands in the industry.
History
Maurice started shaping surfboards in 1974 and quickly grew a reputation for his designs. In 1978 Cole became a partner in Watercooled Surfboards in Victoria. Two years on he sold his interest and launched a second shaping business in Hossegor, France, where he made boards under his own name before the business started to fail. “Design and building—that's always come easy to me," Cole later said. "But on the business side of things, I'm pretty hopeless. Too much ego, too much arrogance."
Cole’s rise to shaping fame was catapulted by Tom Curren’s world title win in 1990. Tom Curren went from trials to world champion on a quiver of boards ranging from 6’ - 8’3”, all shaped by Maurice Cole from a container of incorrectly packed blanks. The foam had been loaded badly, resulting in a load of blanks with more curve in than expected.
“In trying to take the Vee out between the fins I actually (a happy accident?) shaped the Vee under the front foot and nothing between the fins. This was the exact opposite of what the theory had been to date; ’Big Vee between the fins allows you to roll side to side.’ The Reverse V disproved the old ‘V’ between the fins, and the result was the EEV, a much faster surfboard that when put on rail would carve at higher speeds.”
Widely accepted as a shaping breakthrough, Tom Curren went on to win in Hawaii on the “now famous logo-less, yellow railed board, made immortal in the famous Tom Servais cutback shot at Backdoor.”
In recognition and celebration, Curren and Cole launched a line of Reverse Vs, available as fish, shortboards, hybrids and guns. Many of his most recent V models come with fluted flyers, which act as wings, giving curve to the board near the fins and shortening to rail length, letting the board turn on a tighter radius.
Cole on the EEV: ”Reverse V does a couple real cool things. First it takes some of the curve out of the rail line towards the front of the board and keeps the stringer line straighter, so when you bury the rail you get a nice jolt of speed. Secondly, the V causes drag which pulls the nose of the board up the face of the wave (where the power is) in steep sections. The extra tail rocker helps here to help the board release properly. These boards have a well defined sweet spot and require surf with some power. Also these are really good boards for late or steep bumpy takeoffs.”
In 1995 Cole headed to Western Australia and started MC Surfboards, and went on to shape for Taj Burrow, Shane Dorian, Rob Machado, and Kelly Slater, plus making big-wave and tow boards for hell-men Ross Clarke-Jones and Mark Mathews.
Another design feature recently championed by MC Surfboards is the beaked nose. First popular in the 70s, Cole is pushing the beak into a comeback. This design element makes it easier to catch waves by adding volume to a board without changing thickness or length.
“It actually adds litres to your surfboard without changing thickness with length! For example in a 6‘0“ surfboard you actually can comfortably put in a litre plus. In a 7’0” hybrid it’s about 3 or 4L. In a 9 foot gum it’s about 6 or 7L, which all makes catching waves easier.”
“This is the future,” says Maurice Cole, talking about his experiments into super-deep concaves. Famous for his design and shaping innovation, Cole’s concaves are deep, allowing for extra drive and squirt when pressure is applied to the tail. The deeper the concave, the freer flowing the water is to hit the fins, and with nothing impeding this water movement MC boards go really fast. “We’re keen to go deeper and deeper with the concave in the future,” explained Cole.
Now
Over his lifetime Cole has traveled extensively, surfed hard, worked hard, hit rock bottom and rose back to the top. Nowadays you’ll find him enjoying the surf, at home or away, with his family.
“If someone had told me when I was 20 that I was going to get the biggest barrel of my life at 53, I would’ve said they were tripping. But I did. It was a 20-foot wave—smooth and clean and massive. It was so smooth and clean and fucking massive. If I hadn’t come out I would’ve died. I had that much adrenaline. I did the best fucking hack I ever did, and then I jumped off. I didn’t need another wave that day.”
With Cole shaping less at home in Australia now, and demand for his designs from around the world as high as its ever been, he’s passed on his designs and knowledge to a select few shapers covering different regions. We are proud to produce MC shapes at our factory on the cliffs in Wheal Kitty, where Cole has passed on his knowledge and skills in person over the years. We are the only UK producer of his paw-emblazoned boards, with select other factories producing MC Surfboards across California, Japan, France and Brazil.
Maurice visited us at Cord Surfboards last summer, and said, “It really hit home to meet a wonderful community where surfing is the common denominator for all of us. One of the stunning things with England is I haven’t been there for over twenty years. The food was excellent. The sense of family was inspiring. And, to be honest, I can’t wait to get back soon and get some of these new designs in the water with Markie.”
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