Our stop in Jefferey’s Bay proved to be one of the best ever for Ticket to Ride, arriving shortly after the WSL CT event where the top 32 surfers in the world competed for a title at the worlds best right hand point break. There was still excitement lingering in the town after the event and especially so for us as we’d get to surf and see waves that the best surfers in the world were surfing only days before.
Max Robinson, a frothing surfer on our trip had previously spoken to Chris Bond our head of operations and mentioned to him that it was always a dream of his to own a single-fin surfboard and that he was hoping to find one that suited him whilst on the trip. Chris fortunately has a longstanding relationship with J-Bay local legend and shaper Mikey Meyer and immediately arranged for us to meet with him, because after all, why look for a single-fin surfboard when you can have one shaped brand new to your every specification? We went and met with Mikey down at his workshop and after 5 minutes of discussing the ideas around Max’s dream board with him there was glint in both their eyes. Max’s passion for the sport and his ideas around his dream board seemed to link up perfectly with Mikey’s passion for his craft and the old school principles around single-fin surfing. It was almost as if it was meant to be, we had a limited time period to get the board done as we were only in town for a few days and with some blind luck it was a great possibility as only the day before Mikey had accidentally ordered the wrong blank, a blank which just so happened to be perfect for Max’s dream surfboard.
Max’s froth levels hit the roof when not only did Mikey agree to shape his dream surfboard but he took it a step further and offered Max the opportunity to come along everyday and work closely with him in making his dream surfboard. I think they just clicked and the energy and excitement they exchanged fed their creativity and it became so much more than just shaping a board, it became a project they could both learn so much from and inspire each other in. Their passion and raw energy when discussing the board was tangible and over the coming days they went about building Max’s dream.
Mikey was so accommodating and helpful throughout the whole process and despite having numerous projects on the go simultaneously he was able to make this project a priority and they were able to complete the board just in time. The board was yet to be ridden and what better place is there to test out your new single-fin than Jbay? we woke up just before sunrise on our very last morning in J-bay before heading up the coast to the Transkei, hoping for waves we arrived at lower point and the conditions were great for Max to test his new board. the excitement and nervousness was felt by us all as we all watched Max start out his new single-fin adventure.. After hours in the workshop and years of dreaming we all felt a bit anxious. How did it ride? Did he enjoy it? find out his views and watch him surf his board for the first time in the interview below.