About

About Dennis W. Smith

It all started in 1975

In 1975 Dennis left Australia and travelled to South Africa where he first landed in Jeffreys Bay. He regularly hung out at Larry Levine's Surfboard Factory and was fascinated by his shaping knowledge. In the same year he moved up the coast towards Durban where he was supposed to start a job in the Diamond Industry.

Larry Levin Surfboard Factory Jeffreys Bay

But before that he met Spider Murphy, another legend who developed his approach to surfboard design through his relationship with Shaun Tomson. In 1975 Shaun was making headlines in Hawaii on Spider's Pipeline Gun when he took the Pipe Master's title, that brought world wide attention to Spider's shaping skills. Spider shaped Dennis a beautiful 6.10 Terry Fitzgerald Hot Buttered double-flyer-swallow tail custom model that would accompany him on his journey.

Dennis Smith surfing Jeffreys Bay in 1975

Dennis surfing Jeffreys Bay in 1975

In 1976 he left for Europe and traveled with his surfboard across the Greek islands. On the ferry from Corfu to Bari in Italy, he became friends with a Canadian couple who offered him a lift to Holland, and so they strapped his surfboard to the roof of their car and off they went.

He then headed to the UK where he was to meet up with his Australian friends in Woolacombe, North Devon. Woolacombe had a surf club, The Red Barn, surf competitions and The Long Bar at the Narracott Grand Hotel and was pretty much a full-on surf and party town in the mid-70s.

Woolacombe, Red Barn Parking Lot

That's where he met Bruce Palmer an Australian shaper who learned his shaping skills in Hawaii in the 1970s, where he worked for big names like Lightning Bolt and Town & Country, with legends such as Gerry Lopez, Dick Brewer and Jack Shipley. When Bruce saw Dennis' board, designed by Terry Fitzgerald and shaped by Spider Murphy, he took a template of it and they started pumping out and selling replicas. Bruce employed Dennis in his surfboard factory and started training him. He had to cut blanks, glue the stringers in the foams, cut out and sand make fins, put the fin boxes in and sand the boards.

Bruce Palmer Surfboards North Devon

After the summer they all planned to go surfing in France, Spain and Morocco on the continent, following the waves and the warm climate. But the time they spent in North Devon and the surf was just phenomenal, which delayed their journey a little.

When they finally hit the continent the weather and waves were not good nor in Les Landes, Biarritz or Mundaka and they kept driving further west towards Santander where they finally surfed the beaches of Suances and waited for a bigger swell to arrive. One morning Dennis and his friend Gary had a little dawny when all of a sudden the sets started doubling in size. They loaded up the van and drove straight back up to the Biarritz area where they surfed perfect Lafitenia for 10 days before leaving to Mundaka where they scored even better waves.

They rented an old house around the other side of the harbour with a perfect outlook towards the wave. They surfed Mundaka with a handful of other guys from California and had the best time of their lives. When it got colder a lot of guys started to head off towards Morocco but Dennis, for some stupid reasons, decided that it was time for him to go back to North Devon and spend some time with a girl he fell in love with the last Summer.

Dennis surfing Mundaka with a handful of other guys

Dennis then travelled back to Australia with his old friend Gary to surprise one of their friends at his wedding. Back in Bankstown; Condell Park a suburb of Sidney Australia, Dennis started shaping surfboards in his garage. His good friend John Krasinski organized the materials such blanks and resin but at the time they had no electric planers and Dennis had to learn how to take the thickness of the blanks down by a saw to shape the foam.

However, Australia was no longer the place he wanted to live; he was desperate to get back to Europe, and after doing some jobs to earn money for the trip, he set off again.

In 1979 Dennis returned to Woolacombe, North Devon, where was supposed to meet up with his friend Bruce Palmer, who never showed up.

Tiki celebrates 50 years in surfing business

John Hall another Australian shaper who stayed in the area asked him to come and work for Tiki Surfboards in Braunton and a couple of days later Tim Heyland and Dave Smith gave him the job. In that time he learned a lot from shaper John Hall as well as Roger Cooper the laminator.

Dennis W. Smith putting stringers in blanks at Tiki Surf Factory

In the early 80s John Hall started shaping for several windsurf companies such as F2, Fanatic and that’s when Dennis met Jürgen Hönscheid a German Windsurfer who was on the pro tour at the time. John, Roger and Dennis then went to the island of Sylt and set up a windsurf factory for Jürgen. After they set up the factory Jürgen asked Dennis to run the factory while he was on the windsurfing tour. Dennis didn’t think twice and started his new job on the island of Sylt until 1986.

After his time in Sylt, he stopped his shaping career for the next 10 years.

The journey eventually saw him teaching squash and beginning to massage and work on his top athletes (Belgium champions) to prevent injury and ensure optimum performance. All through his years of travelling, if another surfer had a physical problem or injury, it was always Dennis they came to see.

It was in the next chapter of life when he moved to Lanzarote, people outside of the sports world were recommended to see him. They came with a multitude of issues and problems and intuitively the gift of Natural Dynamic Body Release was born!

It was not long before he met Jill, a real professional yoga teacher who puts her soul into what she does. She is very friendly and patient, with a constant smile.

Jill and Dennis are waiting for you in Tao Lanzarote to share their experience with you.