Bert Burger: Sunova Surfboards, Creator of the Parabolic Rail, innovator, designer and shaper
A brief introduction to the man behind the creation of the parabolic rail, as well as Firewire’s technology and surfboard design.
Bert Burger has been designing, innovating and building sandwich construction and vacuum bagged surfboards for 23 years, originating out of Mandurah Western Australia.
A likable guy who is in tune with both the older and younger surfers. A surfer and a shaper as well as an innovator. There are many standard industry practices which were pioneered and invented by Bert Burger. His philosophy has always been to have the best quality each surfboard can be.
I never felt like I was forced to learn at all. I think your environment is your teacher. As a kid you just mimic the adults in your life, you just copy the people the people around you. And so, I would watch my uncle Phil tinker with surfboards. And I would watch my other uncles just tinker with other bigger projects. I’ve just got this naturally curious, inquisitive nature. So I would get a rasp or other wood working tools because I grew up on a beach break in front of my house. I could literally just walk across the road and go for a surf, and surf this thing. I think I was about 7 years old when I tried this. I thought wow, if I change my board it goes differently.
I think what I found I liked about surfing the most, is that is was the ultimate de-stress. The ultimate unwind. Just dropping into a few solid waves and getting that rush, always seemed to clear the head.
There are a lot of good things about building boards that I wasn’t getting out of a corporate structure. You know I thought if I went back to doing my own thing, I could do what I do best. Which is solve people surfboards, and surfing issues.
When someone gets a great board, the emotional response that you get from them makes you feel really good.
What I like about working with wood is the way that it can change in your hands while you are working with it. It’s like watching an ocean and the waves rolling in. It’s never the same way twice. Each board in itself is an individual creation.
This planet grew that timber. You know it started off as a little seedling, grows into a tree and has a life of its own. Every day it experiences the sun come up, the rain it drank. And eventually it turns into a piece of wood that’s just right for putting into a surfboard.
I get most of my ideas and inspiration from the natural world I think.
In my mind I just always wanted to build surfboards that were lighter, stronger, better, faster, perform better. So I just thought that the more things I could learn about nature, about the world, about structure, about physics. Then some how apply that to surfboards.
Every day there was always some sort of experimentation or learning going on.
Just in the process of learning to build surfboards, you are always playing with curves and materials. You are always on a search. I often felt like I was a scientist, just searching for the next breakthrough. Trying this, trying that. Mixing this, mixing that.
So that was always what Sunova was about. The search. Just enquiring. What’s the next thing? What’s around the corner? What happens if we put these two things together?
It’s always been something peculiar to my nature and to this business from the time that it started.
