Crystal Voyager
Clip 1: Learning from fish
3 min 3 sec (
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Taken from the documentary Crystal Voyager (1973)
Original title classification G – this clip chosen to be G
Availability of the complete title
Curator’s clip description
George Greenough explains how he takes his design ideas from nature, from the curve of a marlin’s fin, for example. He is shown building his own equipment from scratch, then trialing it in the waves.
Teachers’ notes
provided by The Le@rning Federation
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This clip shows George Greenough, designer, innovator, photographer, filmmaker and surfer, shaping a surfboard fin. This is intercut with footage of Greenough surfing on a kneeboard and showing its manoeuvrability. As he puts the final touches on the fin, Greenough explains that his designs are inspired by the shape and movement of fast-moving fish such as marlin. His designs provide maximum thrust and minimum drag, delivering higher speeds and better manoeuvrability. The clip then shows Greenough surfing on another board of his own design, with point-of-view shots taken using a camera strapped to his back.
Educational value points
- The clip comprises sequences from the first surfing film biography, Crystal Voyager. The film was produced and directed in 1975 by David Elfick, who later produced Newsfront.
- Some of the stages involved in creating a surfboard fin are included. Earlier surfboards were generally less carefully designed and they sacrificed manoeuvrability for stability. Greenough’s designs delivered greater thrust through the water with less drag, providing much more speed and control.
- Greenough is shown on a special kneeboard, known as the ‘spoon’, which he designed. Greenough’s revolutionary design reduced the kneeboard’s buoyancy, delivering higher speeds and better manoeuvrability.
- Point-of-view sequences are filmed from inside a breaking wave, which surfers call ‘the green room’. Greenough shot these sequences with a camera that had waterproof housing of his own invention and that was first used in his earlier film The Innermost Limits of Pure Fun (1970).
- The clip shows water droplets on the camera. In the 1960s, mainstream filmmakers would have regarded this as a fault, but here it adds to the authenticity of the film and gives the audience the feeling of being inside the wave with the surfer.
