This Pyzel custom order made its way through the factory this week. Nothing like fluro pink and tiger stripes to scream 1980's!
The 1980's were bright – well, from a surfboard and surf fashion point of view. Ironically, several other aspects of the 80's were really very bleak. Maybe as a disguise, or the fuck you attitude of surfing at the time, nothing stopped the loud, brash flare of the fluorescent colours being splashed over everything in the surfing world.
So every now and then, someone will want to capture the essence of the decade on their surfboard. A board will come through with bright fluorescent pink, yellow, orange or green, or all of them! Often adorned with flames, paint splats, checks, chevrons, angular shapes or tiger stripes, as was the case this week.
I started spraying surfboards in 1989 so got in on the tail end of the excitement! It often happens that a noticeable period will be followed by another that is distinctly different. As was the case in the early 90's when we saw a trend of clear white boards and black wetsuits.
These things tend to be cyclical – a craze from some time when will reappear slightly tweaked to help it fit in with the now, or for younger people be totally fresh.
Having done lots of surfboard industry cycles, I'm approaching the point of having seen it all! Luckily these retro nuggets arise from time to time, a welcome refreshment in a time when the mass production element of surfboard construction has lessened the idea of each board being 100% original...like no other.
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