Mr. Complex... James Hawker

 

Autistic? Mult-personality disorder? There is something going on with James Hawker. Spend some time with him, and I mean  'time' with him, get past that smiley, appearance, and you soon realise there is a lot going on in that head of his. First time I got a hint of this, the mayhem boys had rocked up at a fave spot of mine. From the cliff looking down it was a solid 5 foot, offshore and cranking. Grinding lefts, firing off a shallow bank. I'm jumping up and down and clapping, like the kid from the 'Make a Wish Foundation' at Disneyland. All excited. James however, was silently looking down on the bank. He had tuned out  'Rage Against the Machine' blaring from my car's stereo, and was observing, assessing and downloading data. Next thing, he is suited up and heading down the path first. His focus as such that he doesn't mean to be anti-social, just that his brain has 'locked on' like a heat seeking missile, to the job in hand.

Between sets, we all have a laugh and a chat. James switches personalities between 'chatty mate' to 'wave assassin' and back. It being spring tides, the waves pushed over the bank, getting fuller and less rippable. Those who know me will tell you, I have only two emotions, angry or idiot. And as soon as the waves stopped being perfect, I just wanted to reach up and tear the sky apart I was so pissed off. The only guy having fun was James. This is what he had assessed from the cliff. Like the bit in the Matrix where Neo downloads skill sets, James turns off,' Top to bottom waveski attack, and turns on 'Old-school, big carve' style. Gone is the 'off the bottom-to invert air', now there is the 'gun it down the line, and pull long drawn out gouges'. You would swear it was two different people surfing, so contrasting was the styles. It gets more frustrating. When the waves get too full and we get out, James goes up to his van and gets out the weirdest looking Kayak I have ever seen, and continues to carve it up for a further two hours, as we all sat and watched from the cliff. Proof enough that his approach to technology, materials and design are a marriage between intelligence and raw talent. That and the fact he drove us, so all we could to was watch... and vandalize his van.

We are hanging out at 'Boneyards' The not so secret loading bay area at the back of the Future Factory, where James leaves odd projects, ideas and all number of strange stuff. We are working on Project X, an idea for a shape I have had for over 10 years. I have discussed this with many a shaper, surfboard and Ski maker alike, and have met the same resistance, head scratching and a "Well, why don't you just go narrower or more V?" James came back with, and I kid you not, "It can be done if we shift 12% more volume to the tail and spread the surface area at the rails by 8% allowing the X shape..." percentages? This guy wasn't guessing, he had concrete answers, and diagrams for evidence. The backbone being a revolutionary lightweight construction method, that to date, is still a research project!

I love this place - the 'Boneyard' at the back of the shaping bays, lamination units, the lab is the loading bay - full of some of the most important DNA of waveski surfing - Go-Fast Gee boards, Christo's Smashed up Future's - custom Kayaks.

James is like that drawer in your kitchen that is full to overflowing with stuff. All useful, any thing you need is there. The longer you delve into this drawer and pull out bits and look at them, the clearer the picture becomes. See, James isn't just a talented surfer (Ranked No. 4 in the world at the time of writing) . James is also a professional composites engineer, and works with advanced composites every day . He has a fascination with design and attention to detail, that can only be called Autistic. Yet, seeing him in the shaping bay, you are convinced he is a craftsman. Each ski hand cut from a solid block, . ". According to James, it's not till you are working with the shape, watching it take shape in your hands, that you can make the subtle adjustments and improvements that can't be done without hands on finishing. I watched him spend over an hour sanding barely noticeable tweaks into the rails of my board. Each ski is organic in it's construction, and every single one is  unique. Templates are refined for each and every ski- no “standard” shapes here. James stresses how much tiny changes affect performance. He must have 20 different templates on the bench from which he takes measurements and combines ideas. You wouldn't believe how long he takes to shape. Just when you get bristly and do the 'Hurry up visit' - you see your creation and it all makes sense. But this behavior contradicts the scientist James. Who labors over materials, new developments, even developing totally new construction techniques like the ASCC system. So you can have a pro-light ski, with near the strength of a standard ski (mine weighs a little over 4kg!). He cannot settle on the fact that pro-light has to be delicate and far less durable than standard. It doesn't make sense to him and he will not let it rest till he has the answer. Everything from his engineering background pushes the design.

A little sneak image into top-secret land. One of the Shaping bays. Here James is making another custom Kayak for some guy in the USA - a pin-tail rocket ship.

A workaholic - enjoying his vice

 I asked him for a brief explanantion of the ASCC system and as usual James lost me in the detailed explanation within seconds mumbling something about ballistics research...quasi-static loads...dynamic effects... in-plane properties...through thickness properties...flexural modulus...Thanks James, and in English? I finally managed to get a layman's explanation out of him- “think snow shoes, the ASCC is the snow shoe and the foam blank is the soft, crumbly snow- the ASCC spreads the impact pressure over a larger area and doesn't crush the foam. The clever part is doing this  whilst keeping weight to a minimum”

Pete contemplates the un-breakable? James illustrating the Pro-light and ASCC, a sub 4kg ski - he picks it up from the nose and swings it like a bat!

So, do these multiple personalities clash. Yes. Thankfully Elaine is on hand to keep the many James from Fighting. But it does still happen. I have seen a Ski, almost finished, smashed up, because he felt it could be better, his factory is littered with ideas that he won't sell because he has already thought of a way of improving them further, I have had calls at close to 3am, as he is still in his factory, working on a new idea that will make a ski lighter,faster,have flex, more buoyant and thus shorter. He takes calls from respected surfboard makers on developments, and from engineers across the world. He will sit for hours looking at a finished shape, you think he is analyzing it, but he is just enjoying it. Most think this is all new, but he has been shaping and making for over 10 years. Then you see him take off late, on a big closeout death wave, launch off the top, on a never-gonna-make-it move. You then have to wonder where the crazy James fits with the craftsman James, the Scientist James and the Curren-esque thoughtful James. All I know is, he is exceptionally talented at all that he does. In a spooky kinda way.

It is interesting to get an insight into the science being applied to James' skis- hence the 'weapons grade waveski' I just hope to hell he isn't snapped up to develop weapons that aren't for surfing. Because they would be VERY good! Does explain why the company is called Future though!