Safari Surfboards

BACKGROUND

Safari Surf is the home of Spider Murphy and the Spider performance surfboard brand.  Since shaping his first board in 1963, Spider Murphy has become one of the world’s most experienced and prolific surfboard designers.

Spider’s style developed when he started shaping for Shaun Tomson at the original Safari factory. Spider and Shaun pushed their shapes to the limits and worked closely to develop the ideal board to suit Shaun’s revolutionary style of manoeuvring far back in the barrel. The boards had to be as fast as possible and still have the freedom to manoeuvre from all positions.

Subsequently, Shaun made headlines in Hawaii, blowing everyone away on Spider’s ‘Safari Pipeline Gun’. Shaun taking the ‘Pipe Masters’ title in 1975 and the ‘World Champion’ title in 1977 brought the worlds attention to Spider Murphy’s shaping ability. “This is where the curve of today was developed and we are still shaping ‘Shaun Tomson’ replica’s today and developing new models for the future”  -  Spider.

Spider’s next World Champion was Martin Potter. Nicknamed "Pottz" and "Eggy Potter", Martin was a British born surfer educated in Durban, South Africa. Their collaboration revolutionised surfboard design to the extent that he was considered the best “free-surfer” of his generation, Pottz displayed immense talent, but lacked the necessary consistency in the era of 25-plus event tours. He forever silenced his critics in 1989 by winning the world title. Pottz redefined competitive surfing by performing risky aerials moves and helped lead the way for a new form of competitive surfing now standard on the Pro Tour.

As with Shaun and Pottz, Spider has always worked closely with some of the worlds best surfers to develop the most innovative ‘magic boards’ to suit their individual needs and this forms the basis of all his new designs. With a cumulative of 45 years shaping experience, Spider has always remained focused on refining the shape of performance surfboards to meet the needs of ever progressive surfing.

Safari has come a long way since its beginning in the early 1960’s but has always been situated close to Durban’s North Beach. The latest factory, custom designed and built in 2009 is fully equipped with the latest technology. This combined with our dedicated and professional team ensure that the quality and consistency of our surfboards are amongst the best in the world.

GALLERY

CONTACT:

Safari Surf
6 Milne Street
Durban 4001

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