KEITH TEBOUL – QUATRO’S LEGENDARY SHAPER

Sixteen dedicated years of playing with concaves, rails, rockers and fin set ups have earned Keith Teboul an undisputable reputation as one of the world’s top shapers. Keith’s skills on the water are equally impressive, widely respected for his progressive, fluid style, it is safe to say that Teboul is one of the major driving forces behind modern wave sailing today.

Born in Madagascar in 1970, Keith then moved to Guadeloupe where he learned to surf at the age of twelve, before moving with his family to San Diego in California. After honing his windsurfing skills during various trips to Baja, he eventually moved to Maui in 1987. Keith hooked up with the likes of Sean Ordonez, Francisco Goya and Jason Prior to start Quatro in 1996 and hasn’t looked back since. Designing boards for both Quatro and Goya; sailing, surfing and travelling make Keith’s schedule pretty hectic throughout the year. It’s a lifestyle that he never tires of and with the perpetual challenge to make better boards for every level of rider, Keith is more motivated than ever to improve his designs and of course his own level of sailing on the water. In a rare bit of downtime, JC sits down with Keith to talk shop.

TRENDING
Right now the direction is still with all the different multi fin set ups, apart from twin fins, which I have not been concentrating on much anymore. Quads and thrusters are definitely in right now. I have riders like Brawzinho who really love quads. He is sticking to that. I throw him a thruster here and there, he has tried them but you don’t want to confuse a rider too much. He is doing well, he loves what he is riding so it is not worth pushing him in a direction he does not need to go. I don’t want to confuse him when he is competing, it is important he stays focussed. With Levi, he has been riding more thrusters but he still steps on a quad also. I think it is important to stay in tune with the quad as well. Quads are still amazing boards. For my surfing I use quads all the time right now, whereas windsurfing I use thrusters only. I have been playing around with both.

THE PASSION
The whole shaping thing has been going for 16 years now. I never get bored of it. I have been fortunate because I went from hand shaping into machine shaping, which really evolved my shapes, and now I have my own machine I have been able to start bringing things to another level. Right now I have a better start to finish product. I can see the whole transition clearly, I can have an idea at night, and the next day mill the shape and a week later ride it. So it is a really quick transition between idea and board on the water. Before I was relying on someone else to mill my board. You never knew how long it would take, which was a bit frustrating. Now if it does not look quite right I can mill it again the next day and get things how I want them. The look of my boards with the machine I have, enables me to finish them a little bit more and I have more time to do it. I barely have to touch the board anymore once the machine has milled the shape.

EVOLUTION
I am trying some pretty radical stuff right now. That is more for me to play with. I am running a 6’11 board!, even 6’10 and some other different concepts. In general I am riding a 7’3. Levi and Brawzinho are on 7’6’s up to 7’8. They tend to like a little bit longer than me. Camille Juban and Bernd Roediger are both on 7’2’s so most boards right now at Ho’okipa are in that range. In general we were going pretty short and now we are making the boards slightly longer with a bit more outline curve in certain spots. The tails are round pins and squashes, with lots of different configurations but both about equal. It is a constant evolvement but for instance my latest board I have gone back to an older bottom shape that I really liked. I kind of came back to the mind-set that I would like the old design again so I am going to try that mixed with all the new outlines and rail flows I have been doing. The shapes are always evolving and getting better but occasionally you have to switch back to old stuff that you liked to incorporate into the newer models.

A TYPICAL DAY IN THE LIFE
If I know the conditions are going to be good the next day, I try and do my computer work the night before, so I can give that to the guy that mills my boards. Then he can mill while I go sailing. I will get to the shop around 8am; from there I will give my guy the files that he needs. Usually there is work waiting for me from the day before. It might be a deck sandwich that needs to be fine shaped. I will usually work until about 12 and be at the beach by 1.30pm. I will sail for 2-3 hours and then come back to the shop and finish up what I was doing. I have to say that I have been sailing a little less since I have had this new machine. I have been a little bit pickier about the days that I go out. If there is sailing or surfing I usually make it out every day. That is why I am in this game! I have told myself that it is important that I keep that up. Time on the water is what inspires me.

TRIED AND TESTED
I have not made myself a new windsurf board for the past three months. I am just making myself one now. I am excited. In the beginning it was much more of a crap shoot but now I have much more of a clear vision of how a board is going to perform, the feeling it is going to give me and what it is going to allow me to do. When I get the board I gauge how close I was to that and figure out why it is doing what I want it to do or why it is not. That can also open up other things that it does. In general now for me I am pretty confident on how a board is going to perform. With Levi and those guys it is a little harder. I am not them and they try to explain what they want. I can only interpret by listening to what they are saying and how they are sailing. They are easy to work with. Levi usually loves what I make him but sometimes he admits they are not working or he struggles to get a board going. Whatever, we move on. I don’t get attached or take any criticism personally. It is all part of the process. When you look at the surf industry and you hear Mick Fanning gets 200 boards a year and he likes 20 of them, that just shows you right there what the game is ! Those guys are using machines. There is an element of something that goes into boards sometimes that you don’t know what will happen. I think the main satisfaction for me is seeing other guys rip on my shapes. Before, it was if I made something sick for myself. Seeing the other guys going off makes me feel like I am achieving something. I still love making myself a board that works really well. Especially something that brings me places in my sailing that I have not been yet. If I can make Levi and Brawzinho a board and they are super stoked and honestly stoked and not just saying it, then that makes me happy. Actually any customer saying that makes me feel great. Because Levi and Brawzinho are at such a high level does make it even more satisfying. To see those guys go sail on a board that I have created is pretty cool. When they are ripping I feel a part of that. A small part, but I am a part of what allows them to do that and that makes me happy. Even when I see photos and videos, I am like ‘Wow’, I am helping to create that.

GOYA AND QUATRO
I work with Brawzinho personally for his boards and also Francisco for all the Goya boards. Francisco comes to me and gives me his ideas for the Goya range. He is very particular about what he likes. I am just a tool for Goya and they use me as a shaper. It is great working with him. It is challenging and he can be stubborn but he brings amazing things to the table and a whole other view on things that I don’t have. I have been working with Francisco for a long time now, fifteen years and our relationship is actually now the best it has ever been. Quatro was originally myself, ‘Cisco, Jason Prior and Sean Ordonez. We bought Sean out, then Jason Prior and then Lalo (Francisco’s brother) stepped in. Lalo and myself grew the whole business and then Cisco left Fanatic and started up Goya and moved everything forward again. It is one big family pretty much. A lot of work but it is all good. With Quatro it is more my input, my designs and my vision with Levi. I can be a little bit more radical with the Quatro stuff. Not that the Goya boards are not radical, they are just done in a different way. I do the whole range for Goya. I have work to do in the free ride but I am getting there. Slowly but surely. It is not my main passion but I know how important it is and I am slowly building my passion about it. Free ride is a bit more technical and very number orientated. I think I am much more of a free flow shaper. Now I have the machine and we are working on a new, really good free ride design that Francisco loves. I now have a good base which took a long time to achieve and think we can make some amazing free ride boards.

A MATTER OF STYLE
Brawzinho is looking for a little different style to myself and Levi. We are really trying to bring the surf aspect to our sailing and stay closer to the wave, use the power of the wave and do a lot more sliding manoeuvres. Also making sure we are finishing turns more. That makes me stoked when I can bottom turn, go straight up and slide and play with the lip more. Levi has been trying to get a bit more of that in his sailing. I think we are getting there. He has many aspects of his sailing that he is so good at. Those long, driving, big, powerful bottom turns and the big hits. But right now he is trying to get a little more vertical in his sailing. I think I have been helping achieve that. I just made him six new boards. If he can’t do it with any of those six then I don’t know what is wrong (Laughs). My knee has been causing me a few problems so I am not so into the tricky stuff myself but this whole season I have been trying to get my knee strong. I think I am ready now. If I can go up, hit the lip and slide around I am happy. I feel now I have my boards where they are allowing me to do all that stuff more easily and also to pull it all off because they are a little more forgiving. You have to put yourself in some pretty tweaked positions to pull off the most radical turns so you have to be ready.

FUTURE ASPIRATIONS
Over the next years I just want to keep on going with what I am doing. Maybe I need to get involved in a little more promotional aspects of the business. I am also developing the surfboard side of my shaping. I have been making guns for Jaws and I have a couple of team guys that are surfing that wave really well. I am really passionate about surfing as well. That only helps the windsurfing and what I do, both sports feed off of each other. I have been gluing up my own blanks with certain flexes and working with my new machine. Things are changing and all that is exciting for me. I will be spending more time in the workshop but I think the time I am going to be spending on the water will be more efficient as well. More surfing and more sailing.

THE MARSHALL ISLANDS
I work with Martin Daly. He is the owner of Indies Trader which is a charter boat company in the Mentawis specialising in surfing Indo during the summer. During our winter season on Maui he is in the Marshal Islands and has two boats down there. He is actually setting up a land based accommodation also. The boat is like a floating hotel. You are docked on the island and you go wherever the waves are good for the day. Some breaks are forty five minutes away and some up to an hour and a half. You spend the day there or spend the night and come back the next day. It is paradise, and I don’t say that easily. It has got everything, windsurfing, surfing, diving and amazing fishing. I have travelled a lot around this world and for me it is the best place where you can do a bit of everything. It is uncrowded and has a great balance of windsurfing and surfing. It can be epic, when it is six feet it is pretty heavy and you can score the best barrels of your life, when it is 2-3 feet the wave that is the most hardcore is the easiest wave! There is something for everyone, it just depends what is being thrown at you. Slater has been down there and he is claiming it as one of the best waves he has surfed. It is world class. I have a web site, www.marshallwaves.com, where I work to help organize trips with Martin. I usually go a few times year, maybe once with a group of friends and once I might fly in for a big swell. It is pretty expensive but it is worth every penny in my book.

The post KEITH TEBOUL – QUATRO’S LEGENDARY SHAPER appeared first on Windsurf Magazine.