582 - Bob McTavish: Part Two
Surf Splendor
David Lee Scales
4.8 • 669 Ratings
🗓️ 15 January 2026
⏱️ 74 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In today's episode Bob McTavish explains how one of his most iconic designs came to him in a dream and Joey Cabell's influence in it, he shares the inception of the swallowtail, his afternoon spent with Duke Kahanamoku, the epiphany he had at Rincon in 1967, why he renounced competition for a mortgage and children, climbing out of suffocating debt with an assist from the cast of Jackass, the board he most recently made for Kelly, and reveals the unsung surf heroes who most influenced his journey. Part Two of Surf Splendor with Bob McTavish is now available on all podcast platforms.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Waterways Travel.com is the ultimate surf travel concierge. They've been at it since 1994, |
| 0:08.6 | and remember in the 90s, those days of Surfer magazine, surfing magazine, Waterways was booking |
| 0:14.5 | some of those trips for the editorial and the marketing campaign shoots for the brands. |
| 0:20.2 | That is how they cut their teeth, way into the deep end and developing deep relationships |
| 0:24.4 | with resorts, photographers, boat captains. |
| 0:27.6 | And now you and I are the beneficiaries of those three decades of experience. |
| 0:32.5 | Waterways has booked our listener surf trips for three years now. |
| 0:36.1 | So I can attest that they make the bookings easy |
| 0:39.1 | and then they actually solve problems with the airlines or even medical attention. |
| 0:44.6 | And it's like having basically a personal assistant with you planning the trip and then just |
| 0:48.5 | a phone call or an email away when you're on the trip in country. |
| 0:52.4 | They have over 40 destinations around the world at every level of luxury |
| 0:57.9 | and also surf breaks for every surfability level. |
| 1:02.4 | So don't go it alone. |
| 1:04.0 | Increase your chance of scoring and eliminate the anxiety. |
| 1:07.2 | Travel intelligently with waterwaystravel.com. Welcome back to part two with McTavish. |
| 1:38.8 | I will keep this brief because I already feel badly for making you wait five days for this follow-up from part one. |
| 1:45.8 | Last week, Bob shared his origin story journey of discovering surfing and travel to Hawaii. |
| 1:52.8 | That brought us right up until about 1964 and really right up until he got involved in board building as a career, |
| 2:01.6 | which is what he's best known for. So today we're going to discuss the inception points where some of his most iconic |
| 2:07.5 | designs were developed, the people who helped inspire those moments, the fluctuations and detours |
| 2:14.7 | in his business decision making that pulled him away from shaping |
... |
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