Boardseeker continues with the Industry Masters series, this time finding out more about the life of Bjoern Zedlick, a designer working closely with Quatro and Goya. 

Bjoern Zedlick

Studio Director at Vousht

I studied industrial design at the Muthesius Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Kiel, Germany, back then a university course that focussed on form follows function, not so much on slick looks. While there, it was my dream to work for DesignworksUSA, BMW’s creative pool. I succeeded in fulfilling that dream, but reached the corporate overkill after two years and quit to start my own consultancy and work for Francisco, amongst others.

My first exposure working in the design world was an internship at Volkswagen’s design headquarters, but my first real job was said position at DesignworksUSA in Munich.

Bjoern in Hamburg with Lalo Goya

Many sleepless nights contemplating whether it’s simply mildly or truly utterly insane to leave BMW and then ultimately walking up to the studio director one very early morning to hand over the keys to the studio, a flight to Maui already booked. By that time the only project on the horizon was the redesign of the Goya logo. That’s the very first thing I did, coming to Haiku.

I am very drawn to working with companies that focus on shifting their portfolio in a substantially ecological direction. I am no friend of greenwashing or greenwriting. I’d love to see actual products that we can feel good about from a producer as well as a consumer perspective. My goal would be to work on products that are not merely “less bad” but truly healthy and sustainable. I’m a big fan of the cradle to cradle idea, and while it’s a lofty goal, it won’t happen unless we start rolling up our sleeves. Working for a windsurfing company, where pretty much every other component is not exactly organic, sure is a hard place to start, but I guess that’s just the kind of challenge I have been looking for.

Start with a good education. Style is something you have in your blood or develop over time, but the fundamental basics and processes knowledge that’s something totally worth going to school for. Now, in the windsurfing industry, it sure also helps to know the sport, and I guess I should add a duh to that. Understanding the functionality. Sharing the passion. Sometimes that even means appreciating a mechanism that’s been unchanged for 30 years.

The designs in action, Keith Teboul on a Quatro windSUP and Goya sail.

Haha, I’m not sure a typical workday even exists when working for Goya, Quatro, 211 and KT. Simply because of the scope of work I deliver. There’s always stuff to do. Products, graphics, renderings, website pages, banners, shirts, photography, writing, you name it.

I’ll usually start in the morning with checking and responding to emails. Sometimes, especially when hands on work is demanded, this might take up to the entire day. I’m at the end of the food chain, I don’t have anyone to forward and delegate tasks to, I’m the one to actually sit there for three hours. So at times, when I feel like it might be a very creative day, I don’t even check emails until later or the next day, so as to not lose the momentum and the inspiration.

Bjoern at Hookipa during the Makani Classic

Say I’m working on board graphics, trowing around ideas, no strings attached, in such a moment it would totally throw me off to receive an email request for resizing ten online banners. Trivial tasks. Still important, but poisonous for creativity.

I thoroughly enjoy getting together with the guys on Maui while I’m there. I usually go about once or twice a year for an extended time. Many new ideas come to life during those months. For actually sitting down and spelling out designs I prefer to have silence and focus though, most of the time that’s just not possible in the Haiku office, simply because it’s right in there with the store. It’s so busy, so much going on. I love it though. The brands are not a secret any more after all.

Working times also vary depending on what I’m working on and whether fires need to be put out. One day I may be done with all tasks at 3 PM while on another day I might not even find my creativity kicking in until late at night, and that’s when an all-nighter is inevitable.

If you find yourself in a creative moment, you better run with it. It can’t be controlled. And it certainly does not come on with the flip of a switch at 9, neither does it stop at 5. So yeah, be prepared for odd hours at times.

But then again, if you’re a windsurfer, especially in Europe, you know all about having to be spontaneous anyway, taking off a Thursday afternoon because that particular wind direction might only happen a couple of times a year.

Check out Bjoern’s work on the Goya and Quatro websites.

Next up in our Industry Masters series is one of the most well respected shapers in the World, Keith Teboul. 

Keith Teboul

Name: Keith Teboul

Occupation: Shaper

Getting into shaping

Back in 87  we started the company Quatro and I began shaping when we were two years into it. I just wasn’t getting the boards I wanted from Sean, so I decided to shape a couple of boards myself. I ended up doing that and then just shaping, shaping, shaping and slowly but surely other people started to come and order boards from me too.  It just kind of went from there!

I was learning to build the boards with Sean down at our little factory in Kihei, so I had an idea of what a board looked like but when I started I didn’t know exactly what to do as I hadn’t done the shaping part before.

My first boards looked just about ok and worked just well enough to make me continue and from then I was hooked.

When I was a kid in high school I used to watch a shaper shape; I never thought I’m going to be a shaper, I just loved to watch him, I used to go every day after school. I think that gave me the basics, they were engrained in me from a young age.

Keith Teboul, rainbow over Ho’okipa.

Keith in the shaping room.

I came to Hawaii after this and worked in HiTech for 8 years, started Quatro and then we just kind of moved along together: Sean, Francisco, Jason Prior and I. It was a great opportunity for me to have an outlet for the custom boards straight away with Quatro.

Inspirations and current shapes

Most of what defines the shapes I make comes from me and from surfing. There’s a number of shapers I really look up to: Matt Biolos from Lost, Jason Stevenson from JS Sports Australia, and the fact that I’m a windsurfer and surfer too of course means I can really go out and test how the shapes are working.

A lot of what I do on the custom side of things now goes into the production boards; I used to be fairly far away on the custom side of things, especially with  my own personal boards as I used to ride with a lot more rocker. But now I’m riding pretty similar boards to the production, mine just tend to be a little shorter and a little more extreme. What we’re riding is a lot closer to what we’re putting on the market.

We’re getting to a stage where boards efficient enough for the market and radical enough for the professional wave sailors, which is an incredible place to be.

Day to Day

I usually come in around 7.30am or 8.00am, this means I can get in about two hours of shaping before we open the doors to the shop. Then once we’re open I continue to shape, but as customers come in I take some time to speak to them too.

Keith Teboul, heading out.

Depending on the conditions I usually try and get done by about 12.00pm so I can get down to the beach and go sailing for two or three hours, then I’ll usually be back by 5.00pm and work for a couple more hours.

That usually gives me enough time to get the work done for all my guys; we try and keep a steady flow of what we’re doing through the week. Every week is pretty much the same to be honest!

Every day I might get a couple of bottoms ready, shape a couple of rails and fine shape a couple of boards, plus maybe shape a surf board too.

Check out the previous Industry Masters article with Ola Helenius, Craig Gertenbach, Roberto Ricci,  Matt Pritchard, Lalo Goya and Robert Stroj.

If you missed it then there is also a great feature on our front page with the guys behind Don’t Let Go.

Lastly, we’ve got this from O’neill, nice!

________________________________________________________________________________________

Cape Town is the choice of many over the winter and there are a number of options when it comes to clinics, so if you are concerned about heading there for the first time, these guys can be just as good a guide to the location as they are at coaching. However, it is the pros that are catching our attention at the moment. In particular, Andy ‘Bubble’ Chambers who has posted a little gallery on facebook, looks like the usual logo high sunset action mixed in with a bit of freestyle on the popular lake.

A slightly different start to the norm for videos. This one is short, very short indeed but for those getting in to windsurfing it’s cool to see people just ripping and having a good time, so enjoy this no move short edit, perhaps even let us know your thoughts on it in the comments below…

Other pro sailors that have ventured south include the likes of Adam Lewis and Phil Horrocks, both of which can also be seen in this great little feature on our front page explaining in minor detail about the backloop.

More on the video front and Keith Teboul is relly one of the most influential figures in what board shapes reach our feet each year. With a strong focus on surfing and a huge talent in windsurfing he combines the two and shows us what some of his board shapes are all about with this nice little clip produced by team rider Levi Siver.

From waves to flat water and this next clip can only be the distinctive style that is Mattia Pedrani. The Italian freestyler mixes up the latest aerial combos with his own invented moves, perhaps that is really pure freestyle…

Back to waves and a mark our words this is a name to remember. Loick Lesauvage in action at his homespot in France, it’s been a while since we have seen such great talent at such a young age, just 12 years old and truly ripping.

Just to wrap up we posted a bit of formlua news from Latvia yesterday, well if that got you thinking that it looks like a bit of fun then check out these great formula racing tips from Steve Sylvester.