The evolution of surfboard weights and consequently strength is sometimes over looked in the discussion of a surfboards life span.

When I started surfing the foam and fiberglass surfboard was the standard. There were a few wood boards around but really weren’t sold much if at all commercially. My second board was balsa but I made it from an old board that I stripped down, reshaped and re-glassed.

For the most part boards in the early sixties were about 30 to 35 pounds, and generally were between 9’6 and 10’ in length, 23 to 24 inches wide and in the 3 inches thick range. The foam was a bit more dense. As an example, the common weight of surf blanks now is between 20% and 40% lighter than foams of the early sixties. That means if you have a 9 foot blank now that weights around 10 pounds the comparable blanks from the early days would be 2 to 4 pounds more. A short board blank, unshaped, that weights around 5 pound would have been around 6 or 7 pounds… of course there were no short board blanks then.

Now that dosen’t seem like much but, in the sixties a typical stringer was ¾ inch redwood or maybe 2 inch balsa. Now? A longboard will have a ¼ inch to 3/8 inch stringer and short boards 1/8. The difference in wood weight could be as much as 2 or 3 pounds.

The glassing schedule of the old boards was considerably heavier, and there was a reason… surfboards weren’t attached to your leg back then. If you fell and lost your board it was vulnerable and could get a whacking from other surfers and their boards and or what ever was on the beach… like rocks… the boards final resting place if you couldn’t catch up to it before it got to shore.

The typical glass job before we started making boards lighter was 20 oz glass top and bottom. That’s 2 layers of 10 ounce cloth for the deck and bottom of your board. One layer from each side would lap so you had 30 ounces on the rails. That is a significant difference in what boards are glassed with now.

Is it needless to say that boards held up better before the foams became lighter and the glassing schedules were reduced to less than half of what they once were? So… how did this happen?

For me, I didn’t need a heavy glass job because I got better at surfing and didn’t loose my board so I could glass it lighter…. Maybe 2 layers of 8 ounce. Then I liked the lightness and went to one layer of 8 on the bottom and 2 layers on the deck. When boards got shorter we wanted them lighter as well so a layer of 8 on the bottom and a layer of 8 on the deck with a 2/3 8 patch was good. It kept going, next it was 6 once cloth instead of 8. 8 ounce cloth is actually 7 ½ once by the way.

Stringers kept getting thinned down too, from ¾ inch to ½ to ¼ . Some boards in the late sixties and into 1970 had 1/16 stringers.

When guys started attaching their boards to their legs and didn’t have to worry about a lost and probably dinged up board in the process we started glassing boards with 4 ounce cloth. And all along the blanks were lighter too.

It was surfers that wanted lighter boards. As boards got lighter and lighter I don’t remember anyone complaining that they also got damaged easier or even broke. Now… it’s not uncommon for surfers to complain that boards don’t last long and get bust up easy. Yet it’s been surfers all along that have wanted their boards made the very way they are now… light and destructible.

D.R.

It was a few weeks ago when Blinky came into the shop and asked if I ever thought I’d be making surfboards when I was sixty. At the time I wasn’t quite sixty… my birthday was this past Friday the 21st.

My wife, son and daughter decided to host a 60th birthday party for me and was planned for yesterday. It may have taken my wife a month to get an invite list from me, not that I procrastinated but I’m so self conscience about stuff like that. Anyway, come 6 pm yesterday evening people began arriving until the house was full. What a great time!

My wife told me she was thinking about having the party catered and asked what I thought of “ L & L” the local Hawaiian BBQ place. I said ‘are you kidding? That would be great! ‘ I love that place, Suzi and I go there all the time…. Geez, Friday special Lau Lau, Spam musubi . She was afraid some people wouldn’t like it, but I said don’t worry about it, I like it and how could anyone not? Well, she followed through and we had the best grinds a party could ask for.

When David Puu walked in and greeted me he said “ I didn’t even bring my camera”. I replied saying ‘that’s good, you should be able to go somewhere relax and not worry about missing out on a good photo moment'. Funny though, when everyone filled in and he saw the depth of the gang he said “ I should have brought my camera!”. Of course if he had his camera he would’ve taken the picture instead of being in the picture. We got a group shot of some of the guests.

From left to right kneeling: in front is Rachel Jorgensen one of the few female board crafters, also one of my partners at Studio 609 Board Craft. Then David Puu, though now a photographer, a long time board builder under the Morning Star label.

From left to right standing: Steve Huerta, Huerta-McNair Surfboards, Spencer Kellogg, Surfboards by Spence, Sammy Cammack, Sueno Surfboards and also production manager of Fletcher Designs Surfboards, Wayne Rich, Wayne Rich Surfboards, Bill ‘Blinky’ Hubina, William Dennis Surfboards, Myself, Chris Fallon, the most talented paint and line guy in the 805, as well as my partner in Studio 609. And finally Mike Smith, though not a board builder he does have his own ‘Mike Smith nose rider model’ for William Dennis and just happens to be the Mayor of “C” Street.

I had a party for my 30th birthday and was told back then I was over the hill. Now at 60 I’m told I’m over the hill. So what? I wasn’t over at 30 and I’ve been still climbing the hill for the past 30 years? No wonder I’ve been so tired all the time.

D.R.

The Hostess, My beautiful wife Suzi.

My Story Post 35

My first long board right when it started to be OK to have one again.

If I remember right it was 1981 when one of the local guys here in Ventura bought a Takayama long board and of course began surfing it… one of the first guys to start riding long boards again here.

I don’t think he had that board more than a year when he got nailed by a small wave in just the right place and busted his board in half. We got to talking one day after his mishap and during the conversation I asked him if he’d like to sell me the busted board. We came to a price of 30 bucks.

At the time I was riding a 6’3 hull and hadn’t gotten into longboarding again… I may have barrowed a long board once or twice for a couple waves but didn’t have one of my own. I thought for 30 bucks, a little resin fiberglass and work I’ll have myself a tanker to cruise on.

We made the transaction, I let go of 30 bucks and got a surfboard in two pieces in exchange. I’m not sure how long it took before I got around to the repair of that board but I did and when it was complete I had myself a single fin long board. It wasn’t the best looking board having been through some major surgery but it was fit and water tight. And when it was ready I took it down to the beach on a nice sunny summer day with small summer surf to get it wet.

It was a day just like what I wanted the board for, and when I got down to the point there were a couple of the local guys looking at the surf contemplating a go out…. There wasn’t much to go out in but I had this tanker that would make up for the small surf. We got to talking and I showed them my repaired board and said that it was perfect for days like that day. “So, I’m going out and I’ll bet you guys 5 bucks I’ll hang five on the first wave I catch” … I’d never ridden the board before but what the heck…. We all laughed and off I went.

Well, I’m sorry to say I lost the bet…. I’d didn’t hang five on the first wave. No, I hung five on the second wave. Oh well, I had plenty fun on the board. I'm not sure how long I had that board, at least a couple years, and surfed it when the surf was small and fun for a tanker.

You know, I hadn’t thought of this but I mentioned in a post from 11/19/06 that the only board I ever had that I didn’t make myself was a Phil Edwards. I need to correct that, I forgot about the DT. Though I had to rebuild the DT, it was a board I didn’t make myself so, of all the boards I’ve had there have been only 2 I didn’t make myself. The Edwards and the DT.

D.R.

Pic 1.. the boken board
Pic 2.. being put back together
Pic 3.. the boken board in the surf

Learning to surf, a shapers view post 5

Standing on a surf board takes balance. It also takes movement. When you ride a bicycle you need forward movement otherwise you’ll fall down. It’s the same with surfing. You need to be moving… sliding on a wave with enough speed to be able to maintain balance.

Once you catch a wave, when you stand up you must stand on the center of your surfboards width and have you body over your feet. Depending on the length of your board, where you stand in the length may not be as critical but you must be in the center of the width.

As you catch more and more waves and have more and more chances to stand up you’ll be building muscle memory and planting your feet in the right place on the surfboard will become consistant. As that happens keeping your body over your feet and ride will get better.

Staying centered over your board is absolutely essential or you’ll fall. It doesn’t matter where you are on the wave face or what move you work to pull off, if your centered over your board and body and have enough forward movement you’ll make it.

The best way to see how staying centered works is to watch people surf.

D.R.

Taking off and planting your feet…. Centered

Setting up a turn from center.

Standing on the nose and centered.

After stepping back from the nose… centered.

Hitting a section and staying over your center.

Tipp rides with your body over your feet… centered.