There have always been conscientious craftsman in the surfboard industry but I think for the most part they are usually over looked and as surfboard lengths shortened over time the way we made boards changed as well.

During the seventies as surfboards continued to evolve there was a fair amount of attention to making boards that not only rode well but also looked appealing too. If you find any vintage boards from that decade you see color and line work all done with resin that by 1980 had become all but forgotten. Not that color was absent but the color changed from resin work to air brush paint work.

Air brush color is quick. Take a shaped blank, spray some color on it, let it dry for a couple hours and then go laminate it. You can do fades, panels, rail bands, stripes or even killer graphic art work via air brush. That’s all fine but the interest was to simplify the fabrication process so it didn’t take as long to make a surfboard. By the nineties color was not as much a component of the process. When fin systems took hold and we didn’t have to do glass on fins… making a surfboard was simplified even more. Sanding a board with out fins was the best thing to come to surfboard production sense foam blanks.

With out glass on fins the surfboard became much easier to make and with the ease came the hack job, get it done, get it quick, get it cheap kind of surfboard. “Yeah man, clear free lap sand only to 120… your board is ready.” Short board, long board it didn’t matter. What was important was getting the board done and for as little dollars as possible. Go surf the thing and when it’s lost that fresh feel toss it and get another.

The poorly crafted board at first glance may not look any different than a very well crafted board. Can you tell by looking at the tail of your new board if there is good glass coverage around the corners? Probably not. Can you tell what glass schedule your board has on it by feel or look? No.

If you don’t know that your board was made by a top drawer board crafter you generally won’t know how well your boards are made until after you’ve surfed them.

D.R.

The compound color lam.