In The Green Room with Rich Pavel
by Ken McKnight and Ryan A. Smith
posted 2004-11-28
AAS - And, 30 years later, and you took it all in and...
Rich - I think that's part of what makes me the spokesperson. And it hasn't necessarily been lucrative. I've always sort of taken a stand for self-expression, self-reliance, and individualism, and kind of Boy Scout stuff.
AAS - I never really saw you as a Boy Scout, but then again I never saw you at the Army/Navy Academy either.
Photo by JP St. Pierre
Rich - It's that unusual blend, that coming together.
AAS - Free thinking!
Rich - Very much so.
AAS - Now apply it to the surf genre. This spokesperson thing is kinda interesting too. Do you have younger surfers you're mentoring with shaping and surfing?
Rich - Yeah! I've always done that. Most recently my best examples would be Manuel Caro, a super guy who lived in Oakland, Daniel Thomson, and Johnny Gill in Oz.
AAS - The new era of the Fish. A lot of top surf and art guys are getting them.
Rich - A lot has to do with the sharing of Thomas Campbell [Editor's Note: See films the Seedling and Sprout]. A lot of these guys, Andy Davis, the Malloys, will paint 'em up. Machado is willing to wield a squeegee. He's toiling. I tell him he is doing such a really great job and I'm going to talk to the people in the front office. I think they should do something for him, like send the sander on a surf trip. Hey Rob, you ever been on a surf trip?
AAS - What do you think of Thomas's latest film, Sprout?
Rich - I think it's changing the way people feel about and look at surfing.
AAS - Are there any big-time Fish proponents out there you work with?
Rich - Derek Hynd, Jesse Faen, Beau Young, Andrew Kidman, Johnny Gill, Parko, Rasta, they're all in Oz. On Kauai it's Lis and his school of Fish disciples (laughs).
AAS - It's strange how all this history came kind of full circle and now you're shaping in that room and shaping this boards.
Photo by Ryan A. Smith
Rich -Basically, I'm the only known living protegé of Lis. You couldn't respectively call Frye a protegé, he is [Lis's] senior in many respects. Yet he was given the Fish directly from Lis. Bunker is no longer with us, RIP.
AAS - Weren't there others involved with the Fish?
Rich - Many! Larry Gephardt. Like Stevie, he has been without interruption. Not just been involved but has been defining good surfing as a definition to what riding Fishes has been about. They never turned their back on it, ever.
AAS - How does Lis handle this Fish thing? Does he still shape them? Do you discuss this with him?
Rich - Yes. He recently shaped four or five for The Greenroom. There is a rocker available through Clark Foam today that is a Kauai/Lis rocker for the new 6'8" P [foam blank]. Stevie Lis is on the cutting edge of contemporary Fish design as he always has been, without stopping.
Photo by JP St. Pierre
AAS - Back to the Shield/Wall thing?
Rich - There is really no interest in media down here.
AAS - So how does someone get a board from you?
Rich - You either know me or know somebody who knows me. You can also contact us by pulling into The Greenroom or go to www.greenroom.com.
AAS - All of this is part of the evolution of surfboard design through the years that is combined with a lot of other shapers, surfers, and designers.
Rich - And all that counts big time. I think what is happening today is the current generation taking back and re-claiming what is good about surfing. And most are not willing to accept, or have pawned-off on them, this concept of what's commercialized surfing. I'm seeing surfers say, we are not buying it, and they are doing it in a real beautiful way.
The biggest part of the truth is the whole truth. The generational thing is where it all begins. Live cheap, surf deep. Aloha.
