ellis ericson
ADAPTING THROWBACK DESIGNS FOR MODERN QUIVERS
Ellis Ericson is always on some kind of mission to find epic waves. He’s originally from Byron Australia, but lives now in Bali. A place where Ellis feels he can be creative and non-restricted. Living in Bali also serves as the perfect testing ground for Ellis to fine-tune his Sunflower Surfboard designs.
Ellis picked up his shaping skills and talent from his father Bruce Ericson, a renown shaper from the 70′s. “I got into my history a bit more and realized how rad surfing was and I ended up getting back in the bay with my dad, who was a shaper through the ‘70s and ‘80s and still shapes today. I reconnected with him and picked up the tools. He’s a great craftsman so I took on an apprenticeship under him and basically turned a new leaf with my surfing. I got really into my equipment and it reignited a love for the sport and a love for the craft. I’ve just been powering on since then, trying to evolve my shapes, trying to better my boards, trying to surf the best waves I can.”
“I was drawn initially to older shapes because I really wanted to go back and revisit the era. People can call it a retrospective trip or whatever but when I started riding the older boards, I felt like it suited my surfing better than the thrusters could. I thought I could express myself more freely when I was surfing, it felt more natural. When I was growing up, riding those short low-volume boards, it felt like I could never be who I wanted to be on a wave. Mid ‘70s and late ‘70s shapes and the early ‘80s twin fins definitely allowed me to do so. The stuff that was going on in surfing at that time, the experimentation of designs, and the characters and the free minds they had, was also very attractive to me. I just really like that time in the sport and I was drawn to that.”
SO, UPDATE
After a short hiatus Ellis has been back in the shaping fold for a while now, but mostly around the Oz, Japan & California triangle. Among other things, he’s been working extensively with Andrew Kidman on the On The Edge of a Dream project, propelling George Greenough’s super-hydrodynamic edgeboard designs into 2020 in a really sick way. Some of his edgeboard shapes have been slowly finding their way around the world and there might be something in the works to get some Ellis action back in Europe. If you’re interested in getting something custom done, hit us up in the contact form up top!
