DAVE SMITHERS aka BIGGIE
Part 1: Larger Than Life
Who is Dave Smithers, aka Biggie
Dave Smithers, better known as Biggie, is a well known figure in New Zealands windsurfing scene. Although he now moved on from windsurfing, he is still firmly involved with the watersports industry. In the early 80ies he inovated the PVC sandwich contruction for windsurf boards under his brand name Sirocco and is nowadays developing shapes and construction methods for Armstrong foilboards.
We had the honour to sit down with Biggie in his workshop in Oakura, Taranaki for a chat. Biggie is always up for a good story and we learned a lot – about him as a person as well about his craft and his philosophy when it comes to building boards. As this covered a lot of ground, we split the interview in two parts: Part 1 is the personal side of Biggie, whereas Part 2 will go into more detail about his craft, building boards.
We talk about who he is, what brought him to Taranaki and how he did get into surfing and windsurfing. But we also talk fiberglass installation, snowkiting and – last but not least – what keeps him frothing about watersports and waves.
How it all started.....
Tell me, how you did get into surfing, windsurfing and ultimately into building boards?
My brother is a couple years older than me, he got into surfing and I followed.
It was over the Christmas holidays before high school, when I was 12 or 13. That year I started doing a little bit and then sort of got keen during third form (that’s the first year of high school). And then over the next Christmas holidays, I got right into it. Going back to school, the other kids gave me a really hard time because my hair had gone from being dark to being bleach blonde. They’ll call me a surfie, and I didn’t like being a surfie, because they were, you know, posers, right? I was a surfer! (laughs)
During fourth form I got more into it and totally committed in the fifth form together with Ton Dekon, who I went to school with. Well, we didn’t go to school together we went surfing instead, hence I didn’t do particularly well in school. Ton was a hot surfer at that stage. In 1971, after we finished school, Ton and I came up here to Taranaki, to go to the national surf champs. He was competing, I just came along for the ride. They called the contest off because there were no good conditions. So we ended up staying here for 3 months waiting for the contest to be held, which ended up being in Gisborne. When we went back to Christchurch in the middle of winter, it was just too cold, so we came back.
To sum it up: you came up for a surf comp, and you got stuck?
Yeah, I kinda got stuck. I’m not a local, you know. I don’t live with my mother, so I’m not a local (laughs). We surfed 7 or 8 years before we saw windsurfing in 1979. That was right in the middle of El Nino, which was westerly (onshore) winds every day. When I saw windsurfing, it was the new thing and it looked really good. We were still surfing, but a couple of us got into windsurfing, and then a few more. And I mean, we’re talking 12 foot boards out on the beach of Oakura.
Graham (Currie), who started just before me, was actually responsible for me windsurfing. He had 2 windsurfers and he let me have a go. Of course I went out, and I couldn’t get back in. The thing was, he had his board and his wife’s board, which had a broken fin on it. He put me on that one, and I couldn’t get back in!
Were you one of the first windsurfers in Taranaki?
Oh, we weren’t the first. You know ‘79 wasn’t quite the first thing, There were a few guys around here in Taranaki that would windsurf a little bit. We got into it on 12 footers.
My friend Paul and myself went up to Auckland and we bought the sails and masts and I made us a couple of boards out of Trax blanks. We went out on the beach in Oakura and we used to have those mast bases that would pull out of the board. We had a leash on the front of the board onto the mast base, so you didn’t lose your board. One really windy day I was out on the beach and I got caught in the waves. The mast came out and the board pulled and broke the leash. I’m just swimming in with my rig while the board, which had one of the fold back centerboards on it, washed up on the beach. Then the wind caught the board and started rolling it over down the beach. Then it dug in, and now it’s going end over end, 40 pounds of 12 foot windsurfer! Going end over end down the beach! It must have been winter or so, as there weren’t any people out. But I thought if somebody, or a horse, had been walking, I mean, it would have killed them. Unreal, just watching!
Actually, right at the start there, we used to go up to Ahu Ahu reef. The high wind daggerboard worked really good on the waves, but I couldn’t get upwind well enough with it. So I had a square old style daggerboard that I’d used to sail up to the reef with, and the other one tied to the back of the board. Then I’d sit down on the board, change the centerboards over and ride some waves.
So that’s what started windsurfing. I had been making surfboards with my brother for 5 or 6 years before that.
Sirocco Expression Session, now Taranaki Wave Classic
We’ve got a lot of people who know about the Taranaki Wave Classic, that evolved from the Sirocco Expression Sessions, which you started in the early 80ies. How did that come about?
It was probably not until about 83, because we weren’t really going down the coast ‘til then. But we just thought, it would be good to have a contest for wave sailing. We decided on the format of pulling the prizes out of the hat, and just have an expression session where everybody judged everybody. Everybody just wrote down 5 names, the best 5 guys or the best 5 sailors. Hardly any girls then. We just wanted to get people here, to enjoy Taranaki. I went to all my suppliers and all the guys in the industry and asked for prizes. We ended up with heaps of prizes and I would give a board because I may as well make a board. That was my major promotion of wavesailing around the country. As a result, I sold dozens of boards from there.
After 2 or 3 years running the event we ended up with well over a 100 sailors. I did it for 10, 12 or 15 years… When I decided to pull out of it, James (Dinnes, Carbon Art) picked it up.
Life beyond watersports and the workshop
I’m curious, what are you doing when you’re not on the water or in the workshop?
I’m riding my mountain bike a lot. Though nowadays I’m just cruising, it’s just for fitness. Way back, I used to get right into it, riding to the top of the Kaitake and stuff. It’s kind of hard work nowadays, but I still go up there. I ride up some of the way, then push my bike as far as I can, before hiding it in the bushes and I carry on walking. Then I don’t have to walk back down, because walking downhill is really hard.This way I can ride two thirds of the downhill, that’s easy for me.
I also read a lot, all sorts of novels. I haven’t been snowboarding much the last few years, it hasn’t quite worked out. I had a knee replacement, had a hip replacement, and then my wife broke her ankle, so I couldn’t take off. That’s why I haven’t really been snowboarding much for the last 4 years, but I did a lot before that.
Where does your nickname “Biggie” come from?
That actually started off as Bigfoot. I think 7 of us went from Christchurch to Westport to go surfing in a big old Dodge. There’s 4 of us in the back and 3 in the front, and of course, there’s quite a jam. And I was the big guy, so I was always to blame about taking up too much room. And Bigfoot was around at that time, there was all sorts of talk about Bigfoot. So I got this nickname Bigfoot, which morphed into Biggie, and I stuck with it. I’ve got known as Biggie early on in windsurfing, and it just worked to keep it as a nickname. But it’s also kind of a brand now.
If you could disappear for a week, where would you go?
I’d love to get to Japan in winter, into the snow. It would be nice to go to some places for the wind, but, you know, I’ve been there, and I’ve done that. I’ve done a lot of surfing in Hawaii and in Indonesia. I haven’t traveled much recently and I haven’t been out of New Zealand for snow. But I can’t easily fit in a plane anymore, as I can’t bend my knees easily, so I’ve got to have a big ticket, big seat.
What’s number one on your bucket list? Is it also travelling somewhere for snow, such as Japan?
I’m pretty keen on snowkiting, and I would like to go up here on Mount Taranaki. I mean, I’ve climbed the summit tons of times but I haven’t snowkited here. On the right days it would be really neat going onto Rangitoto Flats, which is between Fanthams peak and the mountain itself. There’s quite a big area, and I think in the right conditions you could kite right up to the crater. You’ve got an hour and a half or 2 hour hike to get there in the first place, which you probably can’t use your kite to get up there as you need an uphill wind to get up. And you’re not going to get that. You’d go up from the ski field, which drives you the highest. And then you walk for a couple of hours or so.
The stuff that really inspired me is that Ride up TV on Youtube, they are right into it. There is apparently a lot of really good European places where they’re going up steep slopes. They’re riding up, spinning their kite both ways, then they put the kite down on the top, and they ride down. And they’re full on performance, skiing down steep slopes. And that’s what would be up here.
Back in the day I’ve had a lot to do with the ski field up here. I’ve been the convener of it for ten years. The ski field here is pretty low, so it doesn’t have a lot of snow. The top tow is pretty good, and there’s really good snow higher up when the conditions are right. So we’ve developed a portable tow. It’s basically just an electrical motor with a pulley system on it, with what is pretty much just a kite rope. You walk up with the kite rope, and then it winds itself and the tow up to the top, which you anchor there. Then one person rides down with the rope, half a dozen people hook on it, and the motor tows them up. People have done it. I mean, you’ve got electrical issues, cold batteries don’t work particularily well. But yeah, you could do it with a little turbo diesel motor, because you’re not actually carrying it per se, you carry the rope up, and then it pulls itself up.
Fiberglass installations
I know you did quite a bit of fiberglass stuff as well that isn’t surfing related. Do you still do that stuff?
I do sometimes if anybody wants it. For a while I worked with an architect in town and did a lot of different things.
Biggie gets up and pulls out his photo album.
How come they asked you in the first place? I mean, you’re a surfboard maker….
Well, the first thing was the big surfboard out here. Having made that, and if someone can do that,…. But I’ve made lots of other stuff, all sorts of things. Here’s a few other things.
I was doing that probably for about 8 or 10 years. Best pay I’ve ever got! Then the architect moved on. And it wasn’t about my artistic stuff, it was me building his ideas.
What formed Biggie and what keeps him going
What was your first paid job? Did it have anything to do with the ocean?
(Laughs!) You know what that is? My first job out of school was making condoms in Christchurch. Back in the days, they were made out of sheep intestines. We would dry the intestines by the dozens. Basically, it was work for a month, earning some money for a new surfboard or stuff…..
Is there anyone in particular you would like to meet, living or otherwise?
I don’t know….. I don’t think I’m hanging out to meet anybody…… I met lots and lots of water people, surfing, kiting, and windsurfing. Windsurfing in particular. I just about got to Europe to judge a contest over there. They pulled the pin on me a week or so before I was about to fly over.
But no, I’m not hanging out to meet anybody. Celebrities don’t do much for me.
Of those people you met, which ones influenced and shaped you?
I suppose some of the Hawaiian boardbuilders. Ed Angulo was pretty informative.
Dave Kalama, who was really inspirational in his ability, and still is. He is just dedicated to it and a nice guy as well.
I had a lot to do with other boardbuilders that worked in the background. They are not known names, but they were capable of doing a lot of stuff. Armie (Armstrong) was one of those as well. We actually worked together really well and bounced off each others ideas. He can hold a lot of information in his head. Didn’t need to say much a lot of the time, I just have an idea and he’d pick up on it straight away. And I could discuss it from a technical point of view. I think I’m probably pretty quick at that sort of thing: I see something and just flash on it and suddenly realize yeah, that’s a good idea, I could use that idea. And he’s a bit the same.
I have one last question. When we set up this chat, your main condition was, that there would be no wind. You’re obviously still frothing about water sports. What’s the secret?
Just do it. Just love it and do it and do what you can.
I think a big important part is morphing to what you’re able to do, as the body doesn’t work how it used to. Just figure out ways of making it work. Don’t look at the young fellas, don’t look back. Don’t think what you used to be like. Actually, I really enjoy learning new things. That’s one of the biggest reasons I’m winging, because I love the learning of it. I mean, I’ve learned to kite foil, and I’m still learning some. But I can’t surf anymore, I’ll never be as good as I windsurfed, as good as I surfed or snowboarded or anything. but I’m actually getting better at winging. I’m not getting better at kiting anymore, I’m sort of maintaining, but winging, I’m improving on. And to me, that’s really what it is about.
Thank you Biggie for sharing all those stories with us and the Water Nomads community.
If you want a custom made Sirocco board, don’t hesitate to get in touch with Biggie under [email protected] or visit his website and discuss your ideas. He has a wealth of knowledge, and he won’t be around forever. Now is your opportunity!
Cover picture by Water Nomads, all other images curtesey of Sirocco Surf, unless stated differently. Thank you for letting me use them!
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