The Stoker V Machine
Exactly one year ago, surfing an epic Santa Barbara County beach break, I saw a young twenty year old surfing as fast and smooth on a wave as ever before. Because of his glide, I thought he was on a single fin: so fluid, so graceful, so effortlessly fast. About 75 yards from the overhead peak he took off on, the wave started to horseshoe and bend through the inside sandbar. Looking like he was going to be tucking into a big closeout barrel, I watched, paddling out in the channel, in disbelief, as he shot through the barrel and blew by me to the sand!
Eewww! I screeched in stoke and disbelief. I am soooo getting one of those boards!
I looked up at the next wave peeling through, and this time it was an older surfer, 50ish, who calls himself “Snowman,” take off on a bomber, fade his bottom turn on a solid 8 ft face, then swoop high up onto the face, while blowing down the line like the young brudda before him.
If surfing is about upping the S-T-O-K-E meter no matter what the surf is like, then choosing a board that is suited for one main ingredient is essential: SPEED. The “Stoker V Machine”(SVM's), does one successful thing for all levels of surfers NO MATTER WHAT: The Stoker V Machine makes you surf fast...you just don’t have a choice in the matter.
(Clockwise from top right) Shawn Tracht , digging deep into a Stoker V Layback. (Bottom right)Order up! Fowler sends his surfboards all over the world (bottom left) Archival photo of Fowler eyeing another perfect shape (Left page, bottom) Da Suplies (Mid Left) Tracht on a stylish 70's cutty in 2014 (Top Left) The arch is Fowler's staple symbol.
...Bruce Fowler
Photo: Brent Lieberman