Slide into the world of prone surfing as we sit down with “G” Graeme Webster, the man behind G-Mat Custom Surfmats. From humbling prone wranglings between the body, mat and ocean to mastering his craft and being globally recognised for his knowledge and workmanship. Join us as we dive into Graeme's passion for prone.
What initially drew you to the world of prone surfing, and how did you stumble across surfmats?
I started life as a waveski surfer (i.e. goat boater) as a youngster. Back then skis were really popular, and I got into comps and stuff. When I started driving, I found skis hard to lug about and got into kneeboards after working with Bro Diplock for Graeme Bunt at Local Hero Surfboards. Kneeboards and skis share a lot of similarities in terms of how they turn, fin placement and of course, you’re facing forward.
That’s all a bit of a ramble but there is a point to it… My interest in kneeboards (and shaping) took me to an interest in George Greenough which in turn made me aware of mats. At the time I thought the same as most youngsters (by which I mean young during the early 90), look at him go on a lilo! It wasn’t until my early to mid-30’s that I actually bought a mat. I had downsized my vehicle and didn’t have room to carry a bellyboard and thought I’d get a mat purely for ease. It wasn’t until I got it that I realised that this thing was super hard to ride… And it wasn’t even a proper lightweight mat!
Now I reflect on it, changes in my driving status have been the catalyst for some pretty significant changes in my surfing life.
Can you share anecdotes or memorable moments from your early experiences with surfmats and their unique appeal?
My prime early memories are around the matmeets we organised. Being a kneelo I was a member of the British Kneelo Club online forum and was aware how important that was in bringing together members of a fringe surfing community. At the time (around 2008 or so) I was starting to get the hang of the mat. I’d just bought a 4th Gear Flyer and was getting my head around the idea of lower inflation but had nobody to surf with other than my mate Matt who had one too. I set up the UK Mat Surfer forum (the site developed eventually into matsurfers.com) and got to know people through that. People all over the World joined (at that point there can’t have been more than 200 people Worldwide riding mats). We got together for the first meet in 2009 and the mat World was blown away that a whole 5 matsurfers were in the water together! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_NMzYBK7Lk
It was at that meet that I really understood what riding low inflation meant seeing far more experienced mat surfers, in particular Ian Wraith, leave me in their dust in the half foot dribbly piss at Polly Joke.
Another key moment was going on a trip to Brittany in 2011. I was still riding kneeboards then and would save the mat for smaller days. As it was a family trip I couldn’t fit my board in the van and couldn’t afford the extra height. All I could take were mats. It absolutely pumped for the whole week and I discovered that I could ride a mat in solid overhead waves. When I got home I just carried on. I only rode a fibreglass board once after that because I felt I should and spent the whole session wishing I was on a mat. Eventually sold to the board.
One more milestone was the first time I surfed with Andrew Stephen Buck on a trip to California in 2016. We paddled out in waist high Rincon. The only ones out if you can believe it. There was a moment where we took off on a wave together and I was in the pocket. Buck took off, stayed high, dropped the tail and was gone. Not a hope of catching him. We spent the rest of that session with him guiding me through using controlled tail slips to reduce drag and it revolutionised my mat surfing. Another great teacher I have been lucky to call a friend.
It’s been amazing meeting other matsurfers when travelling. Hooking up at meets or just surfing with some really good friends and absolute legends of mat surfing and surfing in general. I’m yet to surf with Jamie McClellan and this has to happen. He has been riding mats at a super high standard forever in heavy, hollow waves on the Outer Banks. Hopefully he’ll come over to the UK one day.
How did the discovery of surfmats ignite your passion for building and customising them to match the specific needs of surfers?
I had always been interested in building my own stuff. Growing up, my dad used to shape his own waveskis and would take moulds off them. In the early 70’s he modified a surf rescue ski called the Cobra that had a pair of lumps at the tail to act as fins. Dad knocked that down to a single lump and moved it further forward behind the seat pan to make it turn properly. It surfed really well! Later he replaced that with a fin box and foiled a Greenough inspired flex fin. When I was surfing skis, I modified things a lot and foiled/re-foiled fins. I spent a little time working in the surf industry as I said before so it was a natural progression to start building mats when I finally developed competence in riding them (they are hard to ride!). I spent a huge amount of time communicating with the late and great Dale Solomonson (Neumatic Surfcraft) who taught me so much about materials and how they behave. I also have a good relationship with Paul Gross (4th Gear Flyer) and he just has so much knowledge and wisdom. Both of them were fantastic teachers offering prompts and Socratic questions for me to find my own way. I wasn’t planning to build commercially initially. I started out with PG sending me over 4GF Blue Streaks (4GFs with lighter decks) that I would grip and sell via the matsurfers.com site. But with PG deciding to focusing on the canvas deck style mats and Dale unfortunately going out of business I wanted to make custom mats in lightweight materials available to fill the hole left by Dale, which he was very supportive of.
What challenges did you encounter in learning your craft of building surfmats, and how did you overcome them?
The challenges aren’t necessarily what you would think. Building equipment was a bit of a design chore and involved some work but once that was done I had things set. The simple process of welding TPU coated nylon together isn’t really that hard (although doing it cleanly and finishing a mat well take skill). Surfmat design however is something else. I had a pretty good understanding of surfboard design and had read all the usual books on planing hulls and fluid dynamics that every serious shaper has on their bookshelf. The challenge with the mat was that you are building a craft that morphs on the go so when you are deigning them you need to exaggerate certain characteristics and minimise others. Tiny differences have huge effects with mats. The other issue was learning about the importance of point loading and minimising that by distributing the forces exerted by the wave and rider across the whole structure to allow very lightweight fabrics to stay in one piece! Learning to build mats is a lot like learning to ride them in that you have to retain all of your existing knowledge but let go of all your previous assumptions and be open to new perspectives.
A Beginner’s Mind.
In what ways do surfmats differ from other traditional surfcraft, and what advantages do they offer to prone surfers?
In short, the main difference is that mats aren’t boards. Bodyboards and paipos have more in common with surfboards than with surfmats. The main factor affecting this is the lack of structure due to the lightweight malleable materials and inflation (or deflation) levels. Before I go on about low-inflation, there are people who love to fill their mats full of air so that they are rock hard. If that’s how you enjoy your mat best then you are doing it right! Personally though, I believe mats are much more versatile with less air. As a general rule of thumb, a 90-degree bend (i.e. The mat will fold to a right angle before going taught) is a good starting point. Less air allows the mat to morph in response to the wave face and also the movement of the rider. The rider can adjust the inflation level on the go by squeezing or hugging the outside pontoon. This moves the mat from low inflation and a flat highly malleable hull with a finely foiled rail for super low drag high speed drift, to increasing the internal air pressure and introducing bottom contours, rocker and a rounder rail and inside back corner for more hold and structure through carving turns. Gently lifting and lowering the outside rail by a small amount with a flat palm underneath makes a massive difference. I generally ride my mats very low (able to flop over on itself) but again, that is personal preference and if waves are more solid or choppy and the mat starts to lose hold I will put air back in until the mat feels right.
The rule is, if it feels right it is right.
Materials also make a huge difference too with a mat with a heavier less malleable deck material feeling more stable throughout the whole mat and vice versa. In addition, the way the mat is vented internally can restrict airflow (restricted breather or “wheezer”) or allow it to move freely inside the mat (free-breather) affecting the rate at which the mat can change shape. Two mats with identical dimensions but different materials and internal venting are very different mats.
Can you provide insights into your process of hand-building G-Mat Custom Surfmats and how you tailor them to match the specific preferences of surfers?
As I mentioned, the basic bit of welding them is relatively straight forward as I said. You can weld TPU coated nylon with a steam iron. However, building my own tools when I first started building mats in 2011 really improved the quality of what I could make. However, design is the key. I’ve developed a number of base models over the years to cover pretty much all conditions you would want to surf a mat in and I’m constantly innovating and tweaking. When building a custom mat, I take the time to speak with the customer via email/text or ideally over the phone to get a sense of them, the waves they ride, their experience and their general approach to mat surfing. We’ll think about the model that best fits, and I will get a number of body measurements from them and then scale the mat to fit them based on that. I will make further tweaks to the basic design to tailor it to what they want/need.
Materials play a huge part in this, as I said, along with elastic rockers (i.e. skins being laid up to stretch or not) and also different venting options. Function has to come before form and taking the time to hone in on the perfect mat for the person you are working with is crucial. I actually enjoy this part of the process the most of all.
Can you share the level of customisation available to surfers when ordering a G-Mat.? What’s the most interesting customisation you have done?
This follows on from scaling and design. As I said, function is the priority so any aesthetics that also have a job to do (eg. deck grip) have to do their job first and foremost.
Whilst keeping that in mind there are a number of things I offer to customise people’s mats. The easier options are things like pigmenting branding or deck grip. Also creating more complex patterns with deck grip, although people need to be mindful that grip eventually needs to be topped up before they start getting too fancy! I can also offer stencilled artwork on decks using sealants, as well as doing acid dye paint jobs on the nylon skins. The latter of these is a lot more work than a spray job or resin tint on a board and really pushes up the price of the mat but can look great. I’m not the greatest artist in the world by a long shot, but I am creative enough to get by within the limits of my skill set I think.
It’s hard to think about my favourite build, but the most interesting is probably a Grateful Dead themed mat I built for Jim Freeman over in California. I learnt so much about a band that I had obviously heard of but wasn’t particularly in to. I was anxious about ripping off intellectual property and looked into the Grateful Dead a bit more and it turns out they are super chilled with fan merch which is an admirable trait. I stencilled the Steal Your Face logo on to the deck skin and painted in the red and blue with acid dye and then filled in the rest of the skin with tie dye style red and blue. There were a lot of steps for this to go wrong but over-all Jim and I were pretty pleased with how the mat came out. All custom G-Mats are named by their owners and Jim named his “Stealie”. See link at the bottom
I’ve also built a number of pool toy animal themed mats for the wizard that is Andrew Stephen Buck. So far, he’s had a pig, a rubber duck and an alligator. At the time of writing, I’m currently working on a whale for him.
What sets G-Mats apart from other surfmats on the market, and what do you think makes them a preferred choice among mat surfers worldwide?
Well, that’s an awkward question to answer! Ha ha!
I don’t really want to comment on other brands. There are some very good options available now and I have a good relationship with the people who build them. It’s exciting to see people bring their own ideas to fruition.
In terms of my mats, I think people appreciate that I have put a huge amount of time into learning what mats are, how they work, how to surf them and translating the science of board design into morphing squishy bags of air. As I mentioned previously, tiny adjustments in dimensions make a huge difference to performance and I think I have a pretty good handle on that. I have built a lot of prototypes over the years and tested them extensively making tweaks and adjustments until they hit the sweet spot and I feel ready to unleash them on the public. In addition, I have also been honoured to have built mats for some of the greatest water-people on Earth. Highly skilled surfers notice and can name the nuanced differences that we normal people experience as “magic” and their feedback is invaluable in refining designs.
Also having my good friend and business partner, Tom Jennings, come on board (or off board) has really made a difference. Tom builds the G-Mat RFT range which are stock versions of my designs and this has increased access to G-Mats considerably. Tom is a super-skilled mat builder (and mat surfer) and uses the same methods and materials as me so people can find G-Mats in stores around the World. Like me Tom is a bit of a perfectionist, and it shows in his work. Ultimately, people will always have their preference, and I am stoked that so many people enjoy our mats.
What are some of the most significant lessons and insights you have gained from your journey with G-Mat and prone surfing?
There are two questions in one there. What have I learnt through my journey as a mat builder? I would say that I’ve learnt that if you take the time to learn your craft, come up with your own ideas, take on feedback, learn from your mistakes and be honest then you will generally be OK. I’ve learnt that if you stick to your path the right people will find you. I have met some amazing, super talented people through my journey as a mat builder and built mats for some of the surfing World’s most noticeable characters so I feel very lucky.
As for my journey surfing prone. I ride paipos and bellyboards now and then, but I am essentially just a mat surfer. Mat surfing has opened up new lines and awareness of pockets of power on the wave that I had no idea about beforehand. I had definitely gone over the brow of the hill kneeboarding but mat surfing is something I can continue to improve at. Greenough is in his 80’s and told me he is still learning. He’s still hacking down trees and stuff too mind! Letting go of hard boards has opened up a real sense of freedom and flexibility in the water and has also completely stripped the bullshit out of surfing for me. I spoke to South Devon local Mark “Tom” Underwood about this. Tom was an outstanding short boarder, then long boarder, then SUP’er but like me has ditched the lot and is fully committed to mat surfing (he’s great at that too!). We concluded that surfing is no longer about [putting on a] performance. Instead it’s about experience. I laugh more now than I ever did when I’m in the water.
I still get stoked on board design and seeing people surf other craft though. For example, watching Bryn Dampney getting barrelled (again) on a Kneeboard still makes me lose my shit (seriously he would get a cover up in a jacuzzi that dude). What he’s doing with his performance kneeboard designs is blowing my mind too! You should definitely interview Bryn!
How do these experiences shape your perspective on the intersection of craftsmanship, innovation, and community within the surfing world?
There is a lot going on in this question and I really had to dissect it and give it some carful thought. I think we’re in an interesting time where there is something of a backlash against the mainstream corporate surf industry. People are becoming increasingly tired of being sold packaged hype and as a result there is far more scope for grass roots development. I think the fringe surfing scene is a perfect petri dish to observe this. People are open to trying new things, the builders are able to try new things and this generates movement. People seem a lot more open minded in general now and that generates further growth. We’re seeing a lot of talented younger surfers of all genders riding mats and other fringe craft now (rather than the traditional grumpy old man), and you can only guess where the standard will end up. Johanna Brebner is tearing up the Pass taking her life in her hands burning past all the drop-ins. James Tanner is absolutely unreal and probably to smoothest and most stylish mat surfer I’ve witnessed. Over in California Owen Kaestner and Chris Cravey are unbelievable mat surfers. I’ve just mentioned a few here but that list is far from exhaustive. I personally believe we are nowhere near the top end of what mats can do and I’m excited to be creating surfcraft for this new generation to blow my mind with.
There are some potential threats though and we need to be watchful. Those corporations will swallow up anything that has a hint of cool, chew it up and shit out a poor replica with a plastic aloha and a Micky Mouse shaka thrown in for free. I’m hopeful that this doesn’t happen, (or if it does that there is a strong enough scene that will let it be nothing more than an annoyance) but it is a thing to be watchful of. Surfing has a habit of eating itself at times.
That said, I do think attitudes have changed. I have some optimism that every pro surfer I have spoken with over the last 10+ years has been cool and super stoked on hand-built quality and they’re the role models at the end of the day. We also can’t understate the influence that Steve Halpin over at The Temple of Fringe Surfshop has had on all of this. His seemingly effortless social media charisma has pulled together the diverse band of ‘alternative’ surfcraft riders into a collective movement that has become Fringe Surfing. That is really powerful and it comes from the bottom up so I remain hopeful.
Can you share your thoughts and reflections on the positive impact of G-Mat Custom Surfmats and companies like Simpel. on the fringe surfing community and the broader surf industry?
I hope I’ve generally had a positive influence over the years. Through mat building and running MatSurfers.com, I have tried to promote and contribute to the art of mat surfing and in particular to provide the best possible craft to allow people to take their mat riding to whatever level they can. Along with that I think it’s important to keep G-Mat in touch with the people we build mats for. Although we have stock mats available, these are still hand built by Tom and we are both committed to being a part of the scene rather than just making a buck from it and building real relationships with real people.
I think there are a lot of similarities between what we and you guys at Simpel are doing and where we’ve come from on that front. I think people who have embraced “the fringe” are often tired of large faceless brands and dig being able to work directly with a smaller outfit with a focus on the individual and what they need. Chatting with you guys at Simpel, it’s so inspiring to hear people genuinely committed to listening to what their customers need when it comes to wetsuits. From a prone perspective, a wetsuit with a nylon belly to grip a deck and a rubber back panel to keep the wind at bay definitely fits what prone surfers need… Oh and that easy access entry for a bloke over 50 is very much appreciated, ha ha! Well done fellas!
I think a quick mention to Sean Starkey at Yucca Fins is in order here too. He has been putting all of his passion and energy into creating the highest quality fins I have ever seen for a few years now. Who would have imagined a day when a swimfin would be made specifically with mat surfers in mind (the Yucca Long Blade)!
Sorry that all turned into a bit of a love in there!
What hopes and aspirations do you hold for the future of prone surfing, and how do you see yourself contributing to its growth and evolution?
I think non-stand-up surfing is in a good place right now. Generally, I notice people have let go of their biases. You’ll still bump into the odd person who sneers as you paddle out but very, very rarely now and the reality is they are almost always mediocre surfers and there is a fair chance these days that their favourite surfer or the guy who shaped their board owns a mat. A good number of the World’s best stand-up surfers have surfmats and in general there seems to be much more of a shift towards the wider definition of surfing being about riding waves as rather than riding waves on your feet. In short... The fringe is becoming less fringe. I’d say compared to when I first jumped on a Surfmat it’s positively mainstream! I just hope as it grows that it retains the spirit it has now of openness, inclusivity and just having fun.
VIVE LA REVOLUTION!
As Graeme reflects on his journey with G-Mat Custom Surfmats, he leaves us with an insightful appreciation for the world of prone surfing and his energy for helping people to connect with water. Through his dedication to his passion and craft in hand-building high-performance surfcraft, Graeme continues to push boundaries and inspire stoke!
Link to Stealie surf mat. - https://customsurfmats.com/blog/2023/8/31/stealie
