The Longbottom name is ingrained in Sutherland Shire Surfing folklore and now it's making a comeback with one of Australia's best-regarded surfer-shapers Dylan Longbottom opening a new board room in Cronulla.
Coming from a famous surfing family, patriarch Ross was an original Cronulla Boardriders club member from the early 1960s and most famously worked as a surfboard glasser in the halcyon days of Peter Clarke and G&S surfboards from the 60's to the '90s.
G&S surfboards were one of the biggest and most famous Australian surfboard manufacturers -set up in 1965 by American Floyd Smith who came to Cronulla by ship with surfblanks and materials to base his new Australian manufacturing business around the red hot Cronulla natural footer Bobby Brown.
The brands' history was littered with famous surfer-shapers like Peter Townend, Michael Peterson, Terry 'Snake' Bishop, John Monie, Jim Banks, Greg Melhuish, Gary Hughes and Ross Longbottom glassed thousands of surfboards.
Ross had two sons Dylan and Darren, who tragically broke his neck in an accident while surfing in the Mentawai Islands in 2008 and now runs a Kiama surf shop.
Dylan had a stellar junior surfing career and became one of the best freesurfers in the world before becoming a standout in the heaviest heaving slabs around the globe.
Dylan puts all his knowledge and years of experience into his creations and is world-renowned for his big wave and tow surfing boards, going to Portugal and Bali every year to make life-changing surfboards for all the worlds big-name surfers.
Dylan said he got his inspiration from his dad Ross and he was always hanging around surfboard factories as a grommet.
"When I grew up in Cronulla, all the pro surfers shaped their own surfboards, that's what got me into the business" Dylan said
"I've been with Billabong for 27 years and my whole shaping career has blended with my surfing."
Dylan (46) has been shaping surfboards for 22 years and famously won the WSL XXL Big Wave Monster Tube award on a tow board he shaped himself.
Dylan is carving out a magnificent existence with his family; shaping much sought after craft and chasing massive barrels with the odd cameo as a Hollywood stuntman in Point Break II.
"I shape for everything, from 80 ft Nazar'e down to high-performance small wave shortboards."
The Longbottom name is also well known in women surfing circles with Dylan's 17 yr old daughter Summa showing from a very early age that she has some of her Dads' talent. For more information: www.dylansurfboards.com-0410 343 989.
