Back To Where It All Began

One of the oldest surf shops in South Africa is Safari, started by super surf coach Graham Hynes and now owned by shaping legend Spider Murphy.

Spider just seems to get younger every year – go down to the beach early in the morning and Spider will come carving out of the dark on his own design of skateboards often followed by an enthusiastic group of grommets – Spider and his web.

Then it’s time for a surf and then he is back in the shaping bay, revving up his planer while most of the world is still in bed.

Spider is the definition of STOKED and HARD-CORE.

Spider shaped me some of the greatest boards of my surfing life – the blue 7’ 0” round pin tube rider and the 7’ 10’ Pink Banana became world famous, all hand shaped in his shaping bay in Durban. We would draw out the outline together, making subtle changes until it looked just right, and then we’d place it on the floor, and I would stand on the blank – checking my feet positioning and I’d imagine myself carving into giant tubes at the Banzai Pipeline and Backdoor.

I won the Pipeline Masters on a Spider, won the World Title, and 5 Gunstons, and along the way invented new lines and maneuvers in the tube at Bay of Plenty, Cave Rock, Pipeline and Off the Wall – all on a Spider.

I am part of Spider’s web that stretches across the world…

Thanks, old friend.

I am so stoked that the first surf shop carrying Instinct for its re-launch in South Africa is Safari – we are going back to the deep roots where it all began for me.

Joined by web and the roots of stoke…

Shaun Tomson