Fatum Surfboards – The Legend of Gero Tragatschnig

One meets many different types of people in life and I like to think that's what it takes for the world to go around. Horses for courses etc. Just sometimes you meet someone who is unique and quite fascinating, inspiring, dedicated and knowledgeable. Someone who is, on many different levels, conflicted in an entirely decent way.

Enough talking in riddles, I was lucky enough to grab some time with Gero, owner, shaper, glasser, founder of Fatum Surfboards in Peniche. When I say I was lucky to grab some time, I mean I was lucky, Gero is one of the busiest humans on the planet, I knew that, but now I know why and when you read on so will you.

Fatum Surfboards is a pillar of the Peniche surf scene. Gero has been building boards in the Peniche area for 20 years which, to put to scale in the surf industry, is the equivalent to Old Testament stuff and he is one of the original players.

SB: Hey Gero, thanks for the time. So how did the building of surfboards all start with you guys?

Gero: Well it all started with windsurfing, with building windsurf boards on the island of Sylt (Germany). As most people of my generation, I grew up windsurfing and only after travelling did we then start to explore surfing as well, for a time we used to run the sports in parallel and then years later I stopped touching windsurfing boards altogether. This is where I come from and where my roots are, in wave windsurfing.

SB: So you would be perhaps the first ever German surfboard shaper?

Gero: Surfboards, yes maybe but not windsurfing for that you can go back a generation from me. Legends like Jurgen Honscheid came from Sylt and I grew up in their wake.

SB: So when did you make the change from Sylt to Peniche?

Gero: The first time I came down here was 1996, and it was initially to help a friend of mine set up a windsurfing factory, I was showing guys how to finish boards using a technical sandwich construction of the time. That was down in the Cascais area of Lisbon, I came back in the winter of 1997 to do the same and that's when I discovered Peniche. It was totally different back then, I was staying in a caravan and I was surfing completely on my own in November, December and January. That's when I came up with the idea of moving here permanently and setting up the factory.

I was with Claudia (Gero's wife) then and she was still studying in Germany, so there were lots of flights to and from. I started the first factory in Alto Verissimo in 1999, and that burned down in 2008, in April of 08 we moved to this space that we have now.

SB: How much have you seen Peniche change in 20 years?

Gero: Well of course it has changed, but if you live here you don't really notice it as it happens gradually. It's only when you see a photo of how it used to be that you are like 'wow' that's different. The one thing I do remember as a fact is being at Lagide (now a crowded left hand reef) and being one of two people out. I remember having that feeling of surfing completely in the middle of nowhere, that it was really cool if someone else was out surfing too.

SB: Having ridden a few Fatum boards, there is an unmistakable feel of quality and they have a reputation for lasting a long time but they are not expensive. Is there something you do differently?

Gero: To break it down for you, there are no secrets any more, everyone uses the same glass and procedures, but the difference for me is having a company that you can trust that makes you blanks. I use a company that will glue the stringer to the foam with the deck curve that I want. Of course I can get my surfboard from anywhere in the blank, but the closer to the surface it is, the more dense the foam will be and the stronger the blank, ergo the stronger the board. This means I have to have a big stock of blanks as you can only make a certain board with a certain blank.

There are a lot of sub-standard blanks out there in my opinion and maybe three companies in the world I would say that are reliable and produce the kind of product that I would use for my boards.

SB: What about different types of glass on an board, a lot of retro shapers are using Volan glass, does this make any difference?

Gero: Volan glass is what they used to use, it an older more traditional type which is missing a treatment so you can see more of the detail on the cloth, there is no difference to the strength or durability.

S Glass, which is what we are using with all of our boards, is supposed to be stronger and have a better tensile strength, at least on the technical data-sheet, in practice whether that happens I don't know. All surfboards will break and you are more likely to break a board on a head high day at Supertubes when you are not paying attention than when the surf is really pumping.

Something that is really misunderstood, even by guys who surf well and a lot, is the difference of epoxy. Here is how I see it. Working with epoxy is more work with a higher danger of mistakes because epoxy is still tricky to work with, the final product is lame, sure it has better shock resistant properties, if you were to give it a punch or something, but there is a lot less flex. There have been a lot of new epoxy resins released in the last 5 years and they are almost the same in performance to the polyester boards, so why would I use it if it has no advantages?

There is an environmental advantage, because you have more time to work with epoxy there is less waste, with polyester you have 20 mins and that's it. To make one board you would use between 2-3kg of resin and about 1kg actually ends up on the board.

All in all, with the finished product, I am convinced that the feeling of surfing an epoxy board will never reach that which you get when on a polyester one. While we are on the subject of construction and blanks I have to say that this EPS core has no place anywhere near a surfboard. Sure you can create a lighter board but it is too light and it's a strange feeling, the boards need a bit of weight to carry momentum. Most people enjoy the feeling of the EPS core the first time they surf it but always come back to a normal board in the end.

SB: So where do you get your blanks from, who are the guys making the best ones?

Gero: Surf Blanks Africa that are based in Durban and secondly Burford Blanks from Melbourne. I get all my blanks from Surf Blanks Africa for 30 years or so, their consistency and quality is, for me, the best.

SB: Do you ever shape outside of your designs? If someone came to you and said can you shape me another board like this?

Gero: Yes, if it's interesting then of course, but if its complete crap then no (laughs) but to be honest it rarely ever happens. It can be really interesting to try and understand the concept behind a board that someone else shapes, it would be stupid not to do it, I can't invent the wheel all by myself.

SB: I know you like to be involved in all the processes of making the boards, is there any way Fatum can get bigger?

Gero: No, there is no way to get bigger and keep the same standards. In a way I would like to get bigger but I would also like to have more time for myself. It is always the same problem. We are at the limit of production the way things are at the moment, we have the demand to make more boards but if I do make more boards I have to change some things that I don't want to change. I like to design the boards, I like to use the machine and I like to shape so that really puts us on maximum production and I don't see that changing.

SB: The new website looks amazing, does it bring in a lot more business, what differences are there with the new automation.

Gero: Yes the new website has been up for 3 weeks and it works pretty well. It's is the first time we have had boards for sale that are physically in the shop, for me that's a real bonus. The custom order forms work really well, they are as far removed as I would like to get in the order process, before now I would at least speak to people on the phone and you can work them out a bit or call them back and say maybe tweak it a bit.

SB: When did you build your first surfboard? Have you still got it?

Gero: When I was 14 years old, which was a long time ago, no it would have been destroyed when the last factory caught fire back in 2008.

SB: Out of your entire range of boards do you have a favourite?

Gero: The Moby, it really is one board that you can take everywhere that performs in most different types of conditions.

SB: Well thats about all we have time for, Gero is one of the busiest humans on the planet so if you get 30-40 mins to talk to him you are doing well**.**I had the opportunity to test one of the small wave boards, the 'Havano'. Unfortunately conditions were too big at the time, I can say however that I really wanted to surf it, just feeling it under my arm and looking at the lines of the board I could imagine just how it was going to work. Very well indeed. I will be testing it at some point in the future but for now here is a pic of it, looks like it has summer fun written all over it!

Before I go I will say two things.

If you are thinking about coming to Peniche on holiday and not visiting Fatum HQ , that would be a mistake.

If you are already looking at a Fatum board and wondering how it will work, what the quality is like then don't wonder, just hit the 'Buy' button.