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< March/April
	Surf Zone
Yvon Chouinard: Acting More Like A Fish

If you’re a climber, skier or boater, undoubtedly you have something designed by Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard stashed in the mildewed recesses of your gear bag. Aside from reinventing the climbing industry with his stoppers in the ‘70s and giving the world synchilla jackets made from recycled plastic soda bottles, it turns out Chouinard is also a closet surf-kayaker—and surf-kayak designer. Chouinard is no stranger to paddling, with numerous first descents to his credit in the ‘80s, including the formidable multi-day Box Canyon of the Clark’s Fork in Wyoming.

Having just celebrated his 48th year of surfing, Chouinard comes clean to Paddler about his surf-kayaking habit and talks about the kayak he designed more than a decade before anyone had heard of the sport.

Paddler: How did you get interested in waveski/kayak design?
Chouinard: Merv Larson is the guy who really started this whole thing with the waveski. He was a really good whitewater kayaker who went to a sit-on-top. Not only did he develop the best surf ski that I think has ever been made, I’ve never seen anybody that’s better than him.

I wanted to make a decked boat so I wouldn’t have to use a wetsuit. Although I really appreciated what Merv was doing out there in a flat-bottomed, sharp-railed boat without fins I really didn’t want to do any of those tricks he was doing. I’m just a functional kind of guy, pure function. I wanted to do real hard bottom turns and power surf. I needed some fins to do that. Not just directional fins, but fins that actually gain thrust and power from the wave. The secret was a combination of a hull-shaped bottom and round rails that really hold in. What I basically have is an 8’2" surfboard with a deck on top and exposed rails. I have three fins in a line on it with two very small side fins and a bigger, radically cutaway center fin that’s farther back behind the seat.

Paddler: You designed this boat at least 10 years before people started making surf kayaks. Why didn’t you manufacture your design?
Chouinard: Perception wanted to make this boat and I wouldn’t let them. As far as I’m concerned, there are way too many surfers in the surf breaks. When you start mixing it up with surfers and kayakers, it’s hopeless. There are fights, I mean look at Santa Cruz: It’s awful. If I lived there I wouldn’t surf, it’s so crowded. And then throw in kayakers who are far more efficient; a kayaker can catch the first wave of the set and paddle back out and catch the last wave of the set. I don’t want to get my boats out there (laughs).

Paddler: You mostly surf on a point break; how has that affected your design view?
Chouinard: I’m kind of an old curmudgeon: I really don’t like short kayaks, surfboards or skis. When I look at kids trying to surf these little short boards, it just hurts my eyes. Flailing all over the place. There are less than a handful of guys in the world that can really look good on a short board. People coming from beach breaks have these little short waves with only a few seconds to do anything with them, so they have one big move, then crash, one big move, crash, and that’s what’s driving these skateboard surfing maneuvers. I see it with surf kayaks as well. Because the sport is really coming from South Africa and Australia where there are a lot of beach breaks, there’s no carving; people just go side to side on a flat hull instead of really being able to bank turns.

Paddler: How often do you get out?
Chouinard: I only take my boat out in the springtime when we get big wind swells and there’s nobody out surfing. There’s lots of places you can go where there are no surfers; really slow breaks that aren’t very good for surfing that are good for kayaking.

Paddler: How has your experience as a river kayaker influenced your approach to surf kayaking?
Chouinard: I really made a big breakthrough in my whitewater kayaking when I kayaked the Upper Gros Ventre near my house in Jackson Hole, solid Class IV in high water. There are very few eddies and it drops 100 feet per mile. It’s a real flush. I run it a lot. One time I decided to do it without a paddle. I went through this whole thing, was able to eddy out and everything. What I had to do was come up with a way to replace the paddle, because it’s too powerful of a tool. Instead of relying on that, I had to look way ahead, turn the kayak by banking and carving it. It was amazing how well it worked. I never went over. Even though I can hand roll, I never had to. In fact, I had better lines than if I’d had a paddle. All by acting more like a fish.

Paddler: What are some options for manufacturing environmentally sound boats?
Chouinard: Plastic boats need to be made out of plastic that’s recyclable. I’ve got a busted boat in Wyoming, I hate to take it to the dump but it’s not recyclable plastic. What am I going to do with it? Fiberglass boats really need to be epoxy because it’s a lot less toxic than polyester resin. All of the surfboards my son shapes for Patagonia are made out of epoxy and non-toxic foam.

Paddler: What elements from paddling have you adopted and infused into Patagonia?
Chouinard: We merged with Lotus Designs several years ago to create a paddling line that reflects our ethics. We have a history that includes first descents in the Sierras, Rockies and wild areas of South America. That’s what we’re about: wilderness experiences. We’re not competitive or motorized. We’re into personal experiences, risk and really getting out there.

Paddler: Tales of gnar from the field?
Chouinard: Oh, I’ve had some! The scariest thing that ever happened was out at the overhead here on a big day; it was about 15- to 18-foot faces. I got caught in a really big set that came up on the horizon. I thought I could paddle it–I paddled over the first wave and I paddled over the second one and just barely went flying over the top. But the third one...just drilled me (laughs). I went over and over and over again and tried to roll in this ten-foot wall of soup. I finally got out of it and I was still in my boat, but I felt like I’d just been in a boxing match with Mohammed Ali fifteen rounds. I was completely wasted. That was the worst wipeout.

—Bridget Crocker