My Story post 26

The 7’2 was the first of many Greenough style boards I would ride. From the fall of ’68 into the early ‘70s I made myself a sizeable number of them.

It seems that people think that when you make surfboards you can get as many of them as you like because after all ‘you make them’…. Fact is they cost money, not retail or the bro deal but none the less blanks, fiberglass and resin are not cheap. So what I would do is sell the board I was riding and make myself another board, post haste, with the proceeds.

There was a stretch there from 1969 to about 1972 that I may have made myself a new board almost every month. I could go surf then go in to work after surfing and stick my board in the sales area of the shop with a price tag on it. If someone came in for a board and wanted my board…. sold. Take the money, pay for another blank and start mowing foam. I went from the first 7’2 down to 6’0, a couple inches at a time in not more than 6 months.

I remember reports coming in from Australia of the guys riding sub 6 foot boards. Wide, short and round outlines, full hulled bottoms with big single fins. Hard driving bottom turns engaging as much rail as possible. Sweeping 180 degree turn backs. It was all new territory. If you fell you swam, so there were consequences. But it didn’t matter. Paddle hard, work hard, project your thoughts into the next wave until you’re going where you want to and making it all work.

Looking at some of the old surf films of the era the moves don’t look that radical by today’s standards. But at the time it was.

D.R.

Riding my first Greenough style board