McTavish, Bob (1944 – )
Cheerful Australian surfer and surfboard designer; inventor of the vee-bottom surfboard, and a key figure in the 1967-launched shortboard revolution. McTavish was born (1944) in Mackay, Queensland, the son of an accountant, and began surfing on a 16-foot plywood paddleboard at age 12, not long after moving with his family to the south Queensland city of Brisbane. At 15 he dropped out of high school, and two years later he moved to Sydney and began shaping boards; he eventually worked for most...