In 1967 the boards I made for myself and friends were getting shorter and shorter. Still by short they were like 9 ft. but were also a bit narrower and thinner than what was considered a more standard size board.

There was concern that the smaller lighter boards wouldn’t float good enough for knee paddling, or make knee paddling difficult. I think the reason we all liked to knee paddle was the knee paddle position kept you up and off the water. Which meant you’d stay a bit warmer, if you didn’t get wet by prone paddling… there wasn’t much in wet suits back then.

The sacrifice in paddling was replaced with better performance. Snappy turns and turn backs, and what we used to call roller coasters… or rolacoaster. But, by the beginning of 1968 the surfboard dropped to sub 9 ft lengths… actually I was shaping sub 9 ft. boards in the fall of ’67. My first board in ’68 was 8 ft. and my second board was 7’6. Both of them Vee bottoms.

When Vee bottoms came in longer boards were done. There really wasn’t anything called a long board before boards started getting smaller, there were just surfboards. But, it’s pretty safe to say that when the Vee bottom era came there were new and different things going on… the long board era was gone.

It happened fast and a number of labels were unable to make the change and died right along with the long board. The surfboard industry as a whole went through a big shake down. What was once dominated by a handful of California labels that made hundreds and hundreds of boards per week all but disappeared in a matter of 2 years. The young guys that wanted to keep pushing the limits in their surfing had to start making there own board because the labels couldn’t or wouldn’t keep up. The industry became very fragmented and localized and birthed what we now call the local shaper.

D.R.