“Making surfboards gives my life a sense of wonder and this is all that I could wish for.”–Joshua Keogh
Some describe Joshua Keogh as a young man with a cosmic and sharp mind. We could not agree more when admiring the designs he comes up with and how they perform in their natural scenario: waves.
Joshua Keogh was born in a small coastal town called Merimbula in the southern NSW. A beach town surrounded by tiny mountains, if we compared them with the ones in Europe, located between Sydney and Melbourne, AUS. A town that keeps its quiet, relax and slow pace during the winter, but that attracts lots of tourist during Summer. He’s half German half Australian, and he has expressed his desire to connect with that part of his heritage at some point tin the future.
| Why Become a Shaper?
How he ended up shaping surfboards is kind of a hard story, since it was a back accident during surfing that held him out of his element for 18 months. He was 18 years old and, at that time, surfing was all his world, so it was a devastating life experience. That was the moment when one of his father’s best friend, being a well-know shaper, took him under his wing and taught him all the basics there are to know about the surfboard craftsmanship.
“Patience and persistence are two virtues that you must adopt if you wish to make quality surfboards, and it is these life elements that shaping has taught me.”–Joshua Keogh
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Joshua Keogh in his element: shaping cosmic boards. Photo Credit: Joshua Keogh
Shaping surfboards, experiencing surfing from the creation perspective, became his way of being attach to the culture, of feeling close to that surfing life. After learning the basics, he purchased his range of basic tools to start shaping for himself and close friends.
“I strongly believe that it is not what you are doing in your life that matters but the state of mind you are in whilst you are doing it.”–Joshua Keogh
| Everything is Unique
The uniqueness of his boards goes beyond the fact of shaping them from scratch with his hands. You may think that all surfboards look the same, but the subtle intricacies differentiate one board from another; Plus, the subtleness that these provide are key for any person to feel attracted, or not, to that creation. A surfboard, in this case.
Joshua Keogh surfing one of his creations. Photo Credit: Joshua Keogh
“Everything is unique, but at the same time nothing is unique, it’s still just a planning surface made of foam, fiberglass and resin like almost every other surfboard” –Joshua Keogh.
A surfboard is also “the” vehicle that takes you into another element; an element that you desire to conquer. That, also, makes it unique: it makes you one with nature, it can make you feel close to life.
Simple, Sleek & Maneuverable Forward-Thinking Designs
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Joshua Keogh shaping process pics. Photo Credit: Joshua Keogh
Living all his life on the east coast of Australia near to almost every type of wave that ca be experienced, makes Joshua Keogh a vassal for feelings and sensations that inspire him when designing a surfboard. He will look to offer that experience to the surfer when taking one of his boards for a ride.
“Shaping surfboards is a creative pursuit that allows me to access and stimulate a unique area of my brain that seems to make my life richer.”–Joshua Keogh
One of his investments are twin fins and he spends lots of his time making them since he considers them a superior design over other surfboards in almost all conditions due to their unmatched speed and agility.
| A Path Walked With Good Friends
Joshua Keogh. Photo credit: Joshua Keogh
Joshua Keogh’s journey as a shaper has been blessed with the opportunity to work with great surfers feedback; one of the most valuable assets to motivate a shaper. They were the stimulus that made Keogh’s designs evolve throughout the years. Jasson Salisbury has been his guy for many years and helped him stablished Joshua Keogh Surfboards foundations for many design characteristics.
Speeding, Holding & Turning Ability Are Key
When it comes to finless designs, Ari Browne was his right hand. The underground surfer, Drew Mcpherson, accompanied him on the singlefins. Nathan Webster on the challenge of designing high performance channel bottom twin fins. Along the way, we built some boards with amazing surfers such as Ozzie Wright, Otis Carey, Harrison Roach, Johnny Abegg or Dave Rastovich.
“Taking raw materials and through the use of your hands and mind creating something that somebody can take into the ocean and enjoy, is an immensely rewarding experience.”
However, not only the top level surfers have influenced Keoghs journey, but also the average everyday surfers who provided the upmost feedback: is the design user friendly and adaptable? That’s gold.
| Obsessively in Love with Twin Fins, But Not Only
Is no secret that, as we mentioned before, Joshua Keogh is devoted to the design of twin fins. Today is a very popular design but Keogh insists that there is way to go if we are looking for unraveling its true potential. He addresses its hidden design elements that makes a twinny, what it really is and it has very little similarities with a modern thruster. Keogh consideres himself still on his way to making sense of the subtle intricacies that go into building these type of boards. Still working on “the labyrinth that is a twin fin.”
Photo credit: Burch for Keogh.
Joshua Keoghs gets inspired by the 70s/80s designs and them makes magic blending them with a forward-thinking, modern approach. A high level creativity that provides highly functional and sought after results.
Pushing his designs with great company along the way, as we mentioned before, Keogh has pull out some of the best, modern, simple, sleek and maneuverable surfboards.
| Construction
Two different construction of surfboards that Joshua Keogh offers. One, being the traditional polyurethane construction, using a polyurethane foam core laminated using polyurethane resin and fiberglass. Second, using the stringless EPS form core glassed with an expose resin. He also uses a carbon/kevlar composite around the rails to make them really strong. EPS construction is a special one that makes the board stronger, last longer and be a great option for smaller less powerless conditions.
“Making surfboards gives my life a sense of wonder and this is all that I could wish for.”–Joshua Keogh
| Joshua Keogh, Unattached to a Rigid Identity of Himself
Life a wonderful and unexpected journey. We don’t know who we are gonna be in the future since, ourselves, like everything that surrounds us, is in constant change. That is why Joshua Keogh’s future goal is to remain true to his own inner voice; being true to what feels correct at a moment. Who know, maybe tomorrow he’ll take a total different direction and we will be expectantly following his stellar journey whatever path he takes.
Joshua Keogh. Photo credit: Burch for Keogh
| Joshua Keogh Surfboard Collection at Pukas Surf Shop
Joshua Keogh has prepared a very special batch of surfboards for Pukas Surf Shop. You can get to know the five different designs a little bit more in the following lines.
| MONAD
There are some things that are better explained by Joshua Keogh himself and how the Monad came to life if just one of them:
“Before the monad my shaping was without direction, I knew there was a feeling I wished to achieve so I floated from one design to another but I was always confronted with a glass ceiling, that’s not to say there were not great moments but overall I was left mostly disenchanted with the design principles of the boards I was attempting to create.
I had ridden twin keel fish’s in the past and knew there was golden elements, so started to experiment with this proven design and haven’t looked back since.
The Monad came about almost as a mistake. I had been making a few keel fish’s for Jasson Salisbury and they were working good, but lacked that magic high performance element that he had been seeking, particularly on the backhand.”
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| MONAD by Joshua Keogh 5'4" x 20 1/2 x 2 3/8 | MONAD by Joshua Keogh 5'4" x 20 1/2 x 2 3/8 |
From this moment onward, Keogh made two boards for Jasson, one with a conventional stringer, a 5’3”, and a stringless 5’4”. In his own words:
“Without a stringer to hold the rocker the stringerless blank warped slightly whilst sitting in the glassing racks to the point where there was a noticeable acceleration in the last 8 inches of tail rocker behind the fins, the rocker had increased exactly on the point of the hip In the outline creating a fulcrum pivot point between the rocker and the outline. I was hesitant to give the board to him initially but from basically the first wave it was clear that something special was happening.“
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| MONAD by Joshua Keogh - 5'6" x 20 1/2 x 2 3/8 | MONAD by Joshua Keogh - 5'6" x 20 1/2 x 2 3/8 |
| How Does The Monad Feel?
"The Monad's got glide, speed and drift, all the hallmark traits of any good fish but what makes it unique and exciting is the way it can break a track, and change direction. You can get it to pivot and go vertical, so no excuses about not throwing fins above the lip. Its such a sick little shape. 5'3 fits in the passenger seat." Jasson Salisbury
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| MONAD by Joshua Keogh - 5'8" x 20 3/4 x 2 1/2 | MONAD by Joshua Keogh - 5'8" x 20 3/4 x 2 1/2 |
"At first glance the Monad looks deceptively simple, a satisfying seamless fish outline. However there are so many subtle and hidden details that really make this board exceptional. The sensation of surfing the Monad is exciting and fulfilling. The board gets up to speed quickly and with little effort, holds its velocity through turns and transitions and has amazing trim and glide capabilities. The feedback from the board is sensitive and responsive, largely due to the scoop deck at the tail, less volume between your back foot and the water, the smallest changes in the wave are perceivable as a result of this design element. The Monad is fast, agile and above all else fun." Ari (Krooky) Browne
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| MONAD by Joshua Keogh - 5'10" x 20 7/8 x 2 1/2 | MONAD by Joshua Keogh - 5'10" x 20 7/8 x 2 1/2 |
| LIBERATOR SINGLE
Designed to be the all round board for those surfers that enjoy the surfing experience that a longer board provides, thanks to a longer rail line and lots of unique elements that makes it a Liberator.
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| LIBERATOR SINGLE 7'4" x 21 3/4 x 2 5/8 | IBERATOR SINGLE 7'2" x 21 1/2 x 2 11/16 | LIBERATOR SINGLE 6'8" x 21 x 2 9/16 |
The Liberator | Wider, flatter and thicker. Designed to surf in less powerful conditions, still features all performance attributes. Excels in waves up to head high.
“The bottom contours are relatively simple, slight roll through the nose blending into a mostly flat planing surface that transitions to a double concave / spiral vee through the tail“, explains Keogh.
All these features combined with a bit of an exaggerated tail kick, translates into a “very responsive and alive sensation when surfing from the tail.”
| LIBERATOR TWIN
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| M2
Joshua Keogh initially designed this board to fill the gap between his shorter fish and longer channel bottom twins. So, it shares the features that give the speed to the Monad but the rails, rocker and overall foil have been adapted from aspects that he has learned wit the longer channel bottoms.
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| M2 6'10" x 21 1/2 x 2 3/4 |
Something that he also learnt with the Monad is that in order to liven up a board, you need to have all these features intersecting the same area of the board, under the back foot: a straighter longer outline combined with and accelerated tail rocker with a hip or exaggerated curve in the outline.
Now you got speed that combined with the vee, which gives a solid support under the back foot, gives the opportunity to easily roll from rail to rail while maintaining all of the elements forward of the fins, which provides effortless speed and glide.
| M2 FLAT
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