Beauty Defined - Vulcan Surfboards

Surfboards. They come in all sizes, colours, shapes, finishes and fin set ups. They are about as limited in possible design as the medium they are created to ride. Waves.

With limitations only set to your own imagination, it has always made me ponder why shapers stick to certain shapes, why more people don’t try to think outside of the box and really push the design aspect. The answer I imagine is about profit margins and people (customers) sticking to what they know.

Even within this surprisingly small community of gifted and talented people who do explore the borders of what’s possible in board design, there are those that push the design but forget about functionality.

I would like to introduce you to someone who has won the ‘Best High Performance Shortboard Design’ in 2013 and 2014, and makes some of the most beautiful AND functionally excellent surfboards on the planet. Dane Hantz of Vulcan Surfboards.

SB: Hey Dane, thanks for sparing us the time, how have the waves been with you recently?

Dane: Thanks for having me. I’ll give you the long answer on that question. At the end of last year I had a bad accident while snowboarding in Aspen and my pectoral muscle was torn in half and the ligament pulled off my humerus which resulted in a fairly invasive surgery and lots of rehab. Nevertheless, the downtime was a good opportunity to work on shapes. Believe it or not, I shaped one handed for months. In the end I gained two new shapes which I consider my best small wave designs to date, the Hexafish and the Arctail. Now that I’m back in the water and have two good boards under my feet, the waves have been insane.

SB: So whats your shaping history, how did you come to be making the most sublime boards on the planet?

Dane: Thanks for asking. Any success I’ve had results from a passion for what I do. I have an intense and strange personality, I feel things like inspiration, creativity, love and anger in a very direct way. Sometimes that gets me in trouble, other times it takes ideas to obsessive extremes; mostly the result is what you see in Vulcan. Wayne Rich said before we met, he knew I was an intense person just by looking at my boards. That tells me I’m on the right path because I feel your work should be the personification of who you are; idealized to engage the environment around you. On this foundation I wanted to bring something unique to the table and create boards that challenged my understanding of principles (functional, technical and aesthetical) in boards that are not just a good shape but construction as well. If I couldn’t build boards in this way, I wouldn’t build them at all. As it is, there are too many boards out there and the industry itself is in a weird and precarious place.

SB: It is clear from watching how your boards work in the water that a lot of hours go into the design, what is the process involved in refining a shape?

Dane: It always starts with questions. Where will this board be surfed and by what level of ability? When do you mostly surf? High tide mornings or textured afternoons? What construction is most conducive to performing in this circumstance? What kind of fin cluster and placement will be most effective? I feel when you thoroughly understand the questions, you’re most likely to give an effective response. If it’s a new design, I’ll shape a scale model for evaluation in house, there’ are questions I want answered pertinent to shape drag and overall drag coefficient before the board even hits the water. If the design merits a prototype, then I build it start to finish, no one else. I’m really adamant about that. I’ll surf it and this is where all shapers need to be brutally honest with themselves. Does this board answer the questions you established in the beginning? It isn’t a failure if it doesn’t, you may have learned something applicable to another design. But be honest, does it answer the questions? This can be tricky especially with more exotic designs where it can be easy to be fooled into believe a design is good just by virtue of the fact that it ‘doesn’t not work’

That isn’t acceptable for a board which I expect someone to pay for. My conscience wouldn’t allow it.

When a board is under my feet, I want to know it’s fast, no exceptions. If it’s fast, can it hold a full speed forehand roundhouse, snapping off the top and carving off the bottom. No slowing down, no busting loose and washing out. A forehand roundhouse will tell you volumes about any board in one maneuver.

SB: Do you work with any riders that give you feedback on your shapes?

Dane: I work with local guys for feedback on most models which is immensely important. Not just their feedback but actually seeing the boards surfed will tell you a great deal. I had been working with Daniel Jones in Oahu but then he was seriously hurt at Pipeline. Recently I was told Sunny Garcia wanted a shape but I haven’t connected with him and now I see he was hurt in a car accident! Get well soon!. I really want to work with more people for the sake of progression, but it’s really difficult to connect with guys. I’m stoked seeing clips of Beau Foster, Torren Martyn, Bryce Young, and Asher Pacey. Who knows, lets just put that out there in the universe and see what materializes.

SB: Which Vulcan board is you favourite to ride?

Dane: Right now I have an incredible board under my feet and it’s easily the best work I’ve done since the Polymath. It’s insane and I’m surfing beyond where I was before I was hurt. It’s an arc tail fish I’m calling the Tachyon. The rails and foil are unlike anything I’ve done to date, I’m shocked at how well the combination works.

SB: This is a quick review of one of Dane’s award winning boards, the Yellow Jacket, and the response he seems to get when people ride his designs.

SB: Do you admire any of your peers that are trying to push the boundaries like yourself in the shaping world?

Dane: I really admire Corey Graham, he’s got a few shapes I’d like to own, I really like his adaptation of channels on modern thruster outlines. I like Ryan Burch, there again, you’re seeing an amalgam of not just good shape but construction as well. Wayne Rich, cause he does it all well. My good friend Gary Linden for his incredible use of agave and balsa. Outside of shaping, I really appreciate Drew Baggett for his complex laminations and vacuum bagging, Justin Ternes would fall in that category as well.

SB: Is there any new technology that you embrace more as far as materials used for board construction?

Dane: Not really new, but improved, are the epoxies which have become incredibly good. I have a close relationship with Dave and Pat at ProLink materials who have worked hard to create resins which are tough, strong and so white they’re blinding. I do a great deal of complex vacuum bag lamination and Prolink has been by far the best choice for the demanding stuff I do.

SB: How much would a fully loaded BullShark set me back and what would the wait be like?

Dane: About $850. and the wait time is about 4 months for a Convex glassed version.

SB: Boys and girls, there we have it, the writing is one the wall. For me it’s not a question of if I am going to buy a Vulcan Surfboard, it’s when, and that’s just as soon as I can get a flight to California.

Seriously, why would you buy a board off the shelf when you can have something as beautifully designed and personalized as one of these craft, molded and shaped to your very requirements and by a true master of the art.

We, at Surf Bunker salute the individuals who dedicate their time so that others can come out of the water with our ‘stoke meter’ brimming.

Cheers Dane, its been a pleasure.