// Brett White
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Brett White - The Second Generation - |
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Brett White is No.1 son to our head honcho, Peter, and wife Janet. At 29, Brett has developed into a one-man show, in and out of the surf. A nationally renowned performance Longboarder and a chip off the old block in the shaping room, Brett is also a master glasser, tenacious sander and polisher and can fix any ding you care to chuck at him to a near invisible finish. When it comes to surfboard manufacture, there’s barely a question that could trip White Jr. But is that really any wonder, given his pedigree?
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| Brett’s barrel-riding is exceptional, even on 9+ equipment in hollow Indo pits |
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As was his old man, Brett was spawned down south in Victoria, dabbling his little piggies in the frigid waters around the Mornington Peninsula. Ma White would take the young rugrat down to the family surf shop and set him up in his cot out the back while she served the customers, so the grommet’s early vocabulary influences were the local surfers and a dad who shaped. A youth in the local nippers gave him a taster for the brine, building his fitness, confidence and ocean savvy. Although Brett surfed down south, it wasn’t really until the family relocated to the Sunshine Coast that the bug really took hold. Living on the open beaches of Noosa Shire, Brett was more akin to shore breaks and a faster wave, making him lean towards the performance aspect of longboarding. Though a proficient shortboarder, it was very much the plus-nine arena that took his interest and he soon became a standout in local, state and national events. Junior and Open division titles followed, with a defeat of his idol, Wayne Deane, giving him the Queensland title despite carrying a serious foot injury. But it was in 2002 that his defining moment came. Taking the year’s contest circuit by the horns, he threw himself into as many events as possible, the dedication paying off when, at year’s end, he was crowned Australian National Open Champion. Brett’s days breathing foam dust began at birth, his Dad’s shaping room the shed in the back yard, but it was at the age of 17 that he began his career behind the planer. Starting off cutting the blanks Peter would draw up for him, after 100 or so boards he moved up to pre-shaping, extracting the shape from the raw blank with Peter finishing the job. After a year or two, he got the nod and was allowed to shape from start to finish, his own logo adorning boards and his influence creating a quiver of performance longboards under the Classic Malibu name. Glassing, finishing and all that goes with the industry, Brett has become an integral part of the smooth, and not so smooth workings of the Classic Malibu label, a one-man show in the manufacture of performance boards – and it’s just as well. To say that Brett shreds hard is somewhat of an understatement. Brett loves the big stuff: few and far between on the Sunshine Coast, but numerous overseas and trans-Australian trips have seen him hone his skills in overhead conditions. But there’s one thing that Brett can’t do, one key factor in his surfing that hinders him significantly. Where Brett falls drastically short, in fact, is absolutely useless, is in keeping a board in one piece. No matter what the glassing, regardless of materials, in spite of number of stringers, Brett’s penchant for pulling in hard and late to sucky pits invariably results in his 9’1” Performer model soon becoming a five-foot snub-nose before the end of the session. Often is the call, when a good swell’s running on Noosa’s multiple points, of “Dad, can I have another board please..!” But when it comes to R&D in performance longboarding few worldwide are as experienced from both angles, in the lineup and in the shaping bay as White Jr. |
