Bill Barnfield: Setting the Record Straight

a boards and establishing a method for measuring them for the purpose of duplication or accurate changes to each of them.
While it is not widely known, this is what I taught many other shapers (some learned better than others). This system and technique had a profound effect on the surfboard industry from the mid '70s and on, but few would know to credit me with it. Previous to this, shapers would sort of just conjure up ideas and then attempt to whittle them into some semblance of the idea they had in mind. This kind of strange mix of black magic, art, and sculpture, would occasionally produce great boards but left little possibility of duplicating it again or altering various points on the board while keeping other points constant.
Some of the shapers I introduced to this were, Rusty, Al, Rawson, Mike Willis, Linden (via Hiendrich Von Shulenburg), Croteau, Arakawa, Carper (via Rusty and working for Arakawa here in my factory), Maurice Cole, Bulkley, Quigg Jr., and untold others. Many shapers also learned it through my working with their team riders and those riders feeding it back to them. For example, Critter Byrne/Tom Carrol brought it to Phil Byrne. Eventually, everyone picked up on the basics of this system as the competitive atmosphere required it. If you wanted to hook and keep good surfers on your boards you had to be able to duplicate good designs over and over with small improvements. I can not over emphasize the value of MCS to the surfing world at large but it is a story that has never been told and likely never will be.. Probably, the biggest reason I was never credited with developing and popularizing it, was because those whom I taught it to, and were therefore, the only ones who could have made this info public......... simply didn't want to tell anyone what they were up to, let alone risk decreasing their cool factor, by telling anyone who showed them how to make great boards.

MOUNTAIN BIKING
As you may know, I started mountain biking back in the late '80s. Eventually, getting pretty into it, especially Downhill Racing. I do this on a National and World level. I am currently 2nd in the Nation (missed first by 29/100ths of a second) and am the reigning World Champion in my Class, 50-54 Masters. Pretty cool for an old surf dude. I compete against

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