"WHAT THEY'RE RIDING"

- Pt. 1: Connor Griffiths

Jul 06

Welsh people say “wasoccurin” when they greet each other, it’s like “what’s up” but better, because nothing’s ever really up and there’s always heaps of shit occurring. Keeping this in mind, we said “wasoccurin” to the one Welsh guy we know well enough, Thomas Surfboards laminator Connor Griffiths. Connor was relishing in the relative warmth of a Noosa Heads Winter, sunning himself in the back carpark at Thomas Surfboards. His four-wheeled patina châteaux faced north and an array of healthy pot plants told of the length to which he’d been estranged from any permanent residence. The broad smile on his dial told of his contentedness. It was 8am and Connor had already lammed the bottom of four new Thomas longboards – all cut laps and an array of colours – and was munging on his breakfast, a bowl of oats.

Most laminators are only just rolling out of bed with last night’s bong rip heavy on the brow at 8am. Connor however, is motivated – he’s positively frothing to get shit done. Needless to say, we weren’t there to chat about his relentless work ethic, we were there to chat about his recent exploits in the surf.
Ask anyone else around the factory “wasoccurin” and they’ll tell you about Connor’s standout session at a heaving local beach break. He was riding an 8’4” ‘Has Been’ and gliding in from way out the back, not exactly pissing anyone off, but certainly making people jealous. Connor didn’t have much to say about it when we pressed him but he did blush a little when we reminded him of one particular barrel. He was dead set standing in the thing!
The rest of his quiver runs as follows:
  • A 9’6” ‘Old Faithful’, one of the longest standing longboard models here and Connor’s go-to on the points.
  • A 9’0” Speed Shape, which is code for highperformancelipbasher.
  • And wait for it, a 4'2" Foil... hah! Connor and Thomas Surfboards co-founder Jake Bowery can be seen on most days pumping their foils in and out of the Noosa river mouth.
An eclectic quiver, you might say, and it would seem that most of our staff members here have similarly bizarre mixes of surfboards under their feet, which is why we’ve decided to document them. Next up: Sierra Lerback – stay tuned.

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