For the most part surfboards have always evolved in degrees, or small steps. And for the most part the design changes were a synthesis of an older surfboard iteration and something new.

One of the biggest changes of course was the material change from wood to foam. But the new foam boards were not a whole lot different in design from their wood counterpart.

As an example the early foam boards and the older wood boards had similar deck curves. Cutting deck curves in a wood board takes some effort. Gluing the stringer in a foam blank so the blank has some deck curve was easier to do.

Along with getting deck curve in a board, cutting some of the volume out was a step for more performance surfing as well. Reason being, deck curve made for a rail line with curve so your surfboard could make moving along the wave face less difficult and less foam volume helped make the board less difficult to maneuver.

Couple those changes with the fin design changes in the mid sixties (which I've talked about here) and we were well on  the road to performance surfing.

As boards got more and more maneuverable what began to happen was the realization that the typical rail line of a 9 foot plus surfboard was too long.  We could get even more maneuverable and have more control of ours boards on the wave face if the rail line was shorter. Which is what fueled the short board revolution.

D.R.       

A 7'10" Gadget. The length of this board is considered a mid-length. Though through the first 6 months of 1968 it would have been called a short board.

One of the changes in surfboard design after boards went from balsa wood to foam was rocker.

The early balsa wood boards were pretty straight from nose to tail. The boards were made by face gluing wood planks together to get a solid piece around 20 inches wide and 9 feet long and thick enough to  cut a surfboard  from. That big block of wood then was cut and shaped into a surfboard not unlike hand shaping an eps blank now days. The difference being eps blanks are profiled and have rocker cut and glued to a stringer.

The wood board was just a big plank. The end result for the most part was a surfboard with a nice outline, as thick as the wood plank would allow with some curve from rail to rail on the bottom, a little curve from rail to rail on the deck, a bottom rocker curve from nose to tail with the decks from nose to tail pretty flat.

The original plugs for surfboard foam molds were similar to the balsa boards of the day. That was what was known, so the early foam boards as far as shape were quite similar to the balsa boards.

The bottom rockers were ok but because the decks were flat the rail line from nose to tail was pretty straight. That long straight rail line began to change from the early sixties, because the foam blanks could be made with nose to tail deck curve and when a wood stringer was glued into the blank it helped keep that curve in place. As well you could cut the stringer to any number of bottom and deck curves for custom rockers.

With bottom and deck curves better surfboards became more maneuverable, combined with the foam cores which made boards lighter performance surfing was getting it's start.

D.R.

It may be a little hard to see but in the above picture I've pulled a string from nose to tail across an early sixties surfboard. I can barely get the fingers of my left hand between the string and deck... pretty flat deck curve.

This second picture is from a mid sixties type board. The space between the string and deck of this boards is double the space of the early sixties board.

Again it's a little hard to see but the rail line curve is quite different between the two.

We had a little swell this past week here in Ventura, lasted about a day and a half.  It filled in during the day Wednesday.

When I surfed Wednesday there were some 5 and 6 wave sets, with frequent long lulls. The crowd wasn't terrible but the inconsistent sets made for a low wave count session... especially considering I was in the water for 2 hours. 

So, I look at the point Friday morning, the tide is high with some small peaks hitting the top of the point. Nothing left of that swell really.  Maybe 2 or 3 small waves every 3 - 4 minutes with a dozens surfers in the water.

Seeing the number of waves coming through and the number of guys in the water, then thinking of the Wednesday session and low wave count...  a light went on. That's why you'll see 2 or 3 guys on one wave.  If you don't just stroke into a wave even if someone else is too you won't get any wave at all.

In the early days of surfing people would ride waves together.  2 or 3 people on one wave was no big deal. There wasn't much maneuvering on the wave face back then so everyone could pile on a wave, angle down the line, trim and smile at each other.

Now? we like to move up and down and around on the wave face which makes it tricky to share the wave with another rider.  When you know another person and the 2 of you plan to ride a wave together it's ok and can be fun. But it's usually not fun otherwise.

As many as there are people in the water these days around Ventura, and the amount of waves there are to catch at any given time on any given day, I'm thinking it should be no surprise when there are 2 or 3 people on one wave... there just isn't enough surf to go 'round. Either ride with someone on the wave or maybe end up paddling into the lineup waiting and hoping for a wave of your own, and then paddling back to the beach with no wave count at all.  

It's hard to call that surfing.

D.R.

The fall season around the Ventura / Santa Barbara coast for the surfer is usually a time of anticipation, expecting swells from the north pacific to start arriving.

This year is no different.... of course, but, so far there has been maybe one swell that was a little over head. The weather has been really nice and the water temps have remained in the mid to upper 60's. Very rare for this time of year.  Actually I don't remember a time when the water was this nice so late in the year. But the surf has been small for the most part.

Usually this time of year I start looking back at what has gone on through the year and start thinking about what I might like to see go on next year.

Since it was 50 years ago that I made my first surfboard my wife suggested I do a 50 year surfboard.... I thought it was a good idea, especially because it would be fun and making surfboards should be fun. So this week I picked up a custom blank to make a surfboard that will be my 'Model 50.

I can see it in my head so now I've just have to take what's in my head and make it a reality.

D.R.

I'd guess that everyone that surfs in a crowded lineup or even in a not so crowded lineup have had accidents, the kind that boards get dinged and people get aggravated. For some unknown reason a few of my personal lineup incidences have come to memory lately.

For as much as I surf the number of times that I've had a bad experience is really pretty small.... considering. But this one time I was surfing the Fair Grounds, probably around 9 or 10 on a  sunny Saturday morning. The surf was maybe waist high, clean but not real exciting.

I was surfing my high bred machine... also known as the '67. I take off on a wave turn and step to the nose. As I'm sliding down the line.. on the nose there is this kid all of maybe 8 or 9 years old paddling out and moving right into my line. As I reach the kid I back peddle and straighten out so as not to run him over. The kid freaks as I'm coming down on his position and bails his board just as I making my turn, as he bails his board gets pushed into the nose my mine cracks the nose open and peels the fiberglass off the bottom of my board about 18 inches or so.

I fall... of course, and catch my board, the kid, who wasn't hit or hurt pops out of the water after ditching his board looking a little rattled. If he would have just kept paddling  nothing would have happened but now my board is messed up. I say 'geez kid...'  just when I hear this voice screaming... 'what the f'... are you doing? you #$%&#, you almost ran over my son! 

Turns out the kids dad watched the whole thing as he was entering the water with his own surfboard a half minute after he sent his kid out.   "What... I was in total control,  you have no business bringing your kid to a place like this to learn to surf" I say.  Bla, Bla Bla, back and forth as I'm walking away with my bust up board.

What made this mishap more memorable is later that day I went back for another go out, with another board, and saw the dad in the water. Should I have been surprised the guy was dropping in on guys?

D.R. 

I've been having a hull of a time lately. 

I do a number of hulls throughout the year but it could be a couple months between orders and I'm always amazed how second nature it is for me to shape them. Hulls are a very different surfboard and have a pretty complex design aspect. The bottoms aren't flat, they have "S" decks and heavy crown as well as a soft rail with a variable apex line.

For some reason these shapes are really etched into my memory, which is great because I don't have to think about how I'm going to go about getting them out of a blank. It's the same way with the classic reissues I do.  Aside from the enjoyment of shaping them I seem to know exactly how I'm going to get them out of a blank. 

I didn't do any classic reissues for some 12 years and hulls for maybe 20 years but for both there was no trouble shaping them after all those years. It was like riding a bicycle... something you just don't forget.

Was it because I was young when I first did them, or because I did so many of them back in the day? 

I've got no idea... it's curious how our minds work.

D.R. 

What things in life do you buy hand made? What do you get hand made and customized to your interests?

Reality... the custom hand made things we might use for what ever reason stopped being hand made years and years ago.  But the surfboard???? different story.

Most surfboards are made by hand. Even the ones that are pre shaped or cut with a machine still get finished shaped by hand, laminated by hand, sanded by hand and polished by hand if that's part of the process.

The skilled and semi skilled processes of making a surfboard are specialized and unique. When you order a surfboard made to your liking or even buy one off the rack at a surf shop you are getting something made by hand... a very rare thing in today's world. And that's what makes the surfboard such a special thing to the surfer. 

If and when you buy a custom surfboard you are getting something made by just a few people that work at the particular facility that the shaper works with and that's it. Or, in my case only my hands work through the process... even more rare.

Think about it... what else is like that? what else does anyone get like that these days? I mean besides nothing...

D.R.

 The hand made process

The hand made process complete

Getting skunked is no fun.

How about when you can't sleep at night thinking that there is going to be good surf in the morning with some size for a change. Getting over head surf in Ventura during the summer months.... doesn't happen much.

So those hurricanes spinning into our swell window this past 8 - 10 days had promise. Forecasts were predicting the good stuff. I surfed Thursday mid day and it seemed as if the swell was starting to hit. Granted the sets were about head high, still more than we've had for awhile it got me thinking early morning would be really good.

Serious, I was remembering past good summer swells so much I couldn't sleep Thursday night. Finally it was a little after 5 a.m. and I got up, fussed about and left the house at the but crack of dawn. With anticipation I drove down to the point pulled into a parking space, jumped out of my van, walked up to the beach, watched for a couple minutes and all I saw was lumpy waist high 3 wave sets.

What??? I watched some more.... inconsistent waist high max, 3 wave sets. I walked up the point and checked Fair Grounds... like it would be any different up there. Walked back to my van and left.

You know sometimes when the morning is coming off a shallow low tide and the wind doesn't back down until a late hour at night there is a little sickness on the surface in the morning. And south swells don't always show well on low tides.

Sure enough when my son got home around 5 and reported that the surf was pretty darn good through the afternoon... yeah, so the incoming tide cleaned up the surface, and the swell showed better with the higher mid day tide.  I was even more disappointed, because I didn't get any.

Only a surfer knows the feeling.

D.R.

This  week I've been working on the blues. 1 blue opaque bottom lam, and one blue tint reverse lam. And, though the Ventura Fair has been going this week, making the point difficult or close to impossible to get to, and makes you want to sing the blues. I got a little of both south swells... Monday and Friday. Good fun surf always cures the blues.

D.R.

My story and the Book.

It was sometime winter 2013 when a friend called told me saying he was finishing up a board for big waves and wanted some in put on fin placement. I told him it'd been some time since I'd done any shooters so numbers weren't fresh in my head.

"I'll look in my book" I told him and  went to the file cabinet to dig it out. The book I pulled out wasn't the right book. The book I was reaching for, which  should have been in the file cabinet was my old shaping log book. The one that had board info from 1992 though about Y2K. I moved to Kauai in '94 so the book had my Hawaii board numbers and information.

I thought 'what the heck' where did that darn thing walk off too?  Well, it surfaced a couple weeks ago... what a relief... and I gave it good look though. It's a comfort to know all that information is back in my file cabinet.

A couple loose papers in the back that were extra nice. One was a note with the numbers for a Hawaiian tri fin longboard I've been thinking would be a nice addition to the model lineup and the other one was a note about the some boards I was doing for Kaipo Jaquias in '97 when he finished 5th in the ASP.

An 8 year span and a lot of surfboards. From sub 6 footers to tankers to 9 foot plus shooters. I don't write in the book now, I've got individual sheets for each board I do these days, then I put the sheets in a binder... I guess that's a book too.

D.R.

One thing about the 4th of July,  sometimes we get a nice south swell arriving on and around the holiday. 

This year we got just that. A small swell into the holiday Friday, and a slightly larger one for Saturday/Sunday. A I decided to break my MO... not going to the beach on a holiday or weekend... to see if I could get in on the swell.

Getting out early, like to the beach by 6:30A was the plan. Friday the 4th there were no parking spaces at inside point and too much crowd for up in the Fair Grounds. I ended up talking story with a few of the crew that surf pipe like everyday, guys I don't see too often.

Saturday was really clean but just too inconsistent to motivate a go out.  Today I got a parking space after a short wait, nice. Looked at the surf for 10...15 minuets and thought 'even though the surf was cleaner yesterday, and it is a little more consistent, I've come down for the 3rd time now, I should go out even if it's pretty crowded. So I went out.

I got some waves by manipulating my way through the lineup. Surfed for an hour or so and came in after waiting through a long lull and getting an insider to the beach.

On my way back to the house I got to thinking. Though I know some guys that fish plenty, and listened to them talk story about their days fishing, I've only fished about 3 times in my life.  You know what? Surfing in a crowded lineup is like fishing.  Some times when you fish you catch nothing. Or your getting no bites so you move your boat some and find a couple. Sometimes your friends in another boat get all the fish and you get nothing. 

Sometimes in the crowded lineup you get nothing. Sometimes your buddies get all the set waves. Sometimes if you move around in the lineup you end up getting a couple... Just like fishing it's all kind of random.

D.R

Yesterday.... the first day of summer 2014.  The surf? small,  The water temp? warm or pleasant, like I remember summer before I moved to Kauai. Since I've been back it seems the summer water temps have been not pleasant at all. But this years it's nice again.

Last week end I had surf fanatic and writer Shawn Tracht visiting with a couple of his writer/photographer friends so we got to surf and hang together Friday afternoon into Saturday morning. It was like my younger days surfing until almost dark then talking story into the night and then hitting the surf first thing the next morning. 

The surf was small, but fun... It's summer. And how I thought ' I could get used to surfing and hanging with surf fanatics on a regular basis'. 

D.R.

7'10 Long Hull 

Shawn checking the bottom contour of a hull while I move the flat bar.

Photo by Zack Gingg

The first week of June is over and so is our annual beach/camp/surf trip. 

Every year for the past 6 we've had at least a head high or better swell show up.  This year the swell was small and inconsistent. But with no swell forecast hype there was very little crowd, or no crowd at all.

My son and I surf together often but,  seldom is it just the 2 of us in the water.  But this year on our trip we surfed for a time by ourselves... in the middle of the day no less.

D.R.

The Paddle out

Just the 2 of us

Big smiles about that

 The small wave entry

Sandwiched between a Sailboard and the only other surfer besides my son Robin

 Back at camp with my son, daughter and grandsons foot.

 My story and the mini long board.  Seems to me we called them fun shapes in So Cal. during the yearly nineties, I could be wrong, But in Hawaii a fun shape is not a mini tanker... or mini long board.

Anyway originally I was asked to make a board in the 8'0 range that had an egg type shape. So I did and it was a pretty popular board.  This was around '92 - 9'4.  I moved to Kauai in May of '94 so that's how I can date the original iteration. To bad I didn't put a date on the outline template, then I'd have an exact start date... of course I could look in my shaping log book from that time but I've miss placed it. 

So, having taken my outlines with me to Kauai I started making the same tri finned mini tanker there and again it was pretty popular. I didn't have one for my self but did barrow them from a couple of my friends I'd made them for.    

Then after returning to Ventura in 2K2 and knowing that my 6'10 was not going to be enough foam for me as well as it being summer when I returned I decided to make myself an 8'0 mini.  Though I always made them as a tri fin the one I made for myself came out of the lam shop as a 2 plus 1. 

So I decided to surf the board as a single fin for awhile just for fun, and fun it was. Then after a time I put the side fins in the board.  As a 2 plus 1 this board really track a line in larger surf.  I still remember the revelation and looked forward to times when I could get the board out in better than head high surf.

After the quad thing started to gain some ground I thought I should drop a couple more fin plugs in the board and run it with a quad set up.  That's when the board really came alive in smaller surf and when the surf got bigger.  I thought the 2 plus one was good, and it was, but the quad was really good.

The only thing a can say about my 8'0 is I wished I never let it go... that was some 3 or 4 years ago.  I'm close to making myself another.

D.R. 

7'6"

 7'10"

Man, was it hot in So. Cal. this past week. Actually been hot for the past 2 weeks. Ventura on the beach was right at 90 degrees Thursday 5/15. 

Maybe sometimes in the early fall we see that kind of heat and then only for a couple three days. But, in May? Not... My shaping bay one day went from 70 degrees at 9 in the morning to just under 90 degrees an hour later. At that point all I could think about was going to the beach. Which I did. Small surf but cool in the water.

The hot weather brought on memories of my teen years being land locked inland in the summer months, hot, dry and even with a swimming pool in the back yard going to the beach was all I wished for.  A stroll to the local Dairy Queen was good but no where as good as getting to the beach.

Most of the time when the weather is hot the surf is not... or at least pretty small.  And really there isn't any thing better than pulling out the traditional long board, putting on a short wet suit ( water temps were upper 50's during the heat wave ) and having a cool fun go out.  The big boards catch everything, time your turn let that little wave stand up in front of you and step to the nose.

I learned how to nose ride as a teenager.  It's just as fun some 45 years later.

D.R

Travis Riley having fun

I've talked a little about my experience with Hulls. This post here I mention how I went from a 7'2 hull down to a 6'0 in a matter of months.

Thing is the hulls from the early days were short. They weren't called stubbies for nothing. Anyway.... when I started doing reissues of the boards from my Wilderness days I patterned them off of an archived outline and the old hull that I made for myself in 1973. That's why I named the boards the Retro Hull.

Thing is, most guys were wanting hulls in the 7'0 range, and even longer, so I worked over the old outlines to come up with longer versions.

Then last year I was asked to make a more full nosed version. So I went back into the outline archive and dug up another hull outline and worked that one up to fit into the mid 6 ft to low 7 ft. range.  This new outline I decided to call the New Hull.

I've made some pretty long hulls over the last few years, all the way up to 9'6.  Doing the longer versions takes some time putting the outline down because as I mentioned the early day hulls were mostly sub 7 ft.

This past week I finished up an 8'10 hull and in the process decided to ice down some dimensions, outline curves, deck lines and rockers curves. With that I've got a new hull model I've named the Long Hull.  Not to be confused with the long haul.... which is a truckers term for cross country freight runs.

D.R

An 8'10 Long Hull

As I mentioned in a post last month the evolution of the surfboard was performance driven, and in the sixties it started with the fin. 

There was another time that surfboards made a big change around the fin. But in this case it was fins.  The tri fin, I think originally called a thruster that got surfboards changing about 1980.

I remember my first tri fin. Back then I wasn't sure where guys were setting their fins and for some reason I didn't go on any hunt to find out what was considered good. I believe that first tri fin was 6'3.  After shaping it I fussed about where I'd like the fins set.  The consideration was how far off the tail the back fin would be, how far up from the back fin the side fins would be, the distance off the rail the side fins should be as well as how much toe and cant the side fins would need.

That's enough to think about, or stress about. Back then the fins were glassed on so if you needed to make a change after the fact it could be done. A hassle, but doable.  After some lengthy internal debate I made my decision marked and set the fins, finished the board and went for a test drive.

My friend and surf buddy told me my surfing improved immediately with my new board.  I wasn't sure what that meant, but I was happy with how the board surfed and it was definitely way different than what I'd been surfing and put me on the wave face in places I hadn't been. 

Then one day I got a really fun day at inside pipe ( in Ventura ) with the  place pretty much to myself.  I was having a great time but was puzzled that the board would lose it's edge sometimes while pumping a high line.

It took some thought but after that go out and looking at my fin placement I realized the fins were too far off the rails.

I never did reset those fins and eventually got rid of the board. But all the boards after had better placement. I should have kept that one because it was my first tri fin... another one I let get away.

I wonder where that board is now...

D.R.         

A new 67

a new Easter egg

When Blinky came into the shop and asked if I ever thought I'd be making surfboards when I was 60,  which I posted here, I'm sure neither one of us thought about what it would be like still making surfboards as we got older and watching some of the guys we knew or knew of in the industry passing on.

This past week it was Hobie Alter. If you stop and think for a moment, Though Hobie was a big name in surfing and surfboards, I'd say he was pretty much the one that ushered in the modern surfboard as we know it.  That is the foam and fiber glass boards we have and have had now since the late 1950's

One of the 2 surfboards I've owned that I didn't make myself was a Hobie Phil Edwards Model.  But, thinking about the story of how the modern surfboard developed, how as a young guy Hobie started making surfboards and worked the different processes out to do production work. Make a nice surfboard and do it consistently. That's a really big deal, and to think he was the first guy to do that stuff.

I know what it's like to figure out how to do something you've never done before or even seen or seen done before. That was Hobie pretty much with the whole surfboard fabrication process... Amazing!

A year or so ago the Surfing Heritage Foundation did a Hobie presentation which a friend of mine and I were able to take in. I'm glad we got to see it.

RIP Hobie.

D.R.

The evolution of the surfboard was driven by performance.  From wood boards to lighter wood boards, like balsa wood, to foam core.  From heavier foam cores to lighter foam cores, lighter and thinner wood stringers etc.

Take two long boards shaped the same one built to weight 16lbs and the other built to weight 25lbs you'll will find the lighter of the  two to be more maneuverable.

Something that may be over looked in the evolution process aside from boards becoming lighter is the way fins evolved too.

In the early 60's virtually all surfboards had a "D" type fin. And the fin was placed right in the tail. We all found out over time that less fin area made for better performance and well as moving the smaller aspect fin up from tail made for better turning ability.

D.R. 

The above fin was  typical of early 60's designs.

The below fin was one of many more performance fin designs from the mid 60's and later.

The process of designing a surfboard is basically an intuitive process.  For sure there is science behind why surfboards actually work, but the guys that design and shape surfboards aren't scientists... or engineers, at least I don't know any to be.

Wait.... I think Tom Morey may be an engineer, whom I've worked for.

Anyway, as an example, when Blinky got going on his Mega Fish it was an idea he got in his head and tried it out.  At first he messed around with fin placement and changing the rails a little but that's how you do it. Intuitively you get the idea and go after it testing and making changes as you go.

So I've completed the Mega Fish blank Blink gave me and took it for a test drive this past Friday.  I'm not a fish guy... that is I've shape plenty of them but never kept one for myself, until now.  I'll definitely be surfing my new board and working through the particulars. The surf on my first go out was about shoulder high and not real clean but the board worked great. Pretty much as I expected really.

My new years resolution is done.

D.R.

Two boards delivered this week for a father and son.  A custom 7'10 Hull and  6'6 New Hull.

D.R.

My son went out looking at new cars this past week.  So he got to see some of the latest technology that these new cars are equipped with... like the parallel parking assistant, not sure what it's called but, if I understand right the car computer guides you into a parking spot.

If you have a hard time parallel parking no need worry now, the car will guide you.  I remember parallel parking being included in the practical driving test when I got my license. Don't know if that's still in the test, if it is everyone should pass that part with computer help.

I think the car tells you when you're too close to the vehicle in front of you and various other stuff as well.  Me question is what happens when the computer fails?  If you're dependent on the computer will anybody be able to drive on their own.  Or maybe when the computer fails the car won't run. And I guess with technology we won't know how to drive a car because we'll be dependent on computers to do it for us.

That's what happens when the shaping machine fails you know?  When the computer fails or a part goes bad then the machine doesn't shape.  Then what?  Of course if you aren't dependent on a machine to shape your boards then no worries. 

One day last year when I was driving out of the parking lot at Fiberglass Hawaii, after picking up some supplies, one of the local shapers was driving in and we both stopped to say hello. He told me that the local machine had broke down. He get his boards machined, and for good reason, he makes a lot of boards.  So he was stuck. I said "time to dig out the planer!" He looked at me like I was crazy.

When the machine stops shaping then production stops.  Heck, go surfing! I think the technology is here already for surfboards, use a computer or don't shape.  I'd guess that some shaping bays don't even have a planer in them, just sand paper and finger planes.

D.R.

Do you realize that if you don't surf for awhile but stay in shape physically enough to be able to handle the physical demands of surfing you can surf after a long lay off?

 If you've learned how to surf and are good at it you'll have developed the muscle memory to surf, and after a lay off will have the ability in memory to continue your pursuit with little trouble. You may have some timing issues and foot placement adjustments to work out, but it will come back pretty fast.  The big problem with surfing after a long lay off is losing out physically.

 Surfing is very physically demanding and it's the physical part that is lost when you don't surf for a long time. If you're not up to it physically it will be much more difficult.

 Muscle or motor memory is amazing... like, once you've learned how to ride a bicycle you can always ride a bicycle. If you've done something enough it sticks, you do it with out thinking about it. If you can surf and have paddled into a wave you get to your feet without a thought.

 It's also the same with making surfboards. For the most part I don't think about what I'm doing when working on surfboards.  I just do it.  For the longest time I didn't shape any Greenough type hulls. Then when I was asked about making them again I simply ordered a blank the way I needed it to be for a hull, pulled out an old outline and went at it.  When I was done I looked at the finished blank and thought... wow! where did that come from?

 The motor memory archive. 

 The one thing that sucks about motor memory and working with out thinking about what you're doing is sometimes  you screw up in the process.... you stop and look and say " dang, what did I do that for"?  You may not be thinking but you've got to be paying attention.

 D.R. 

It's been at least a couple years now that Blinky has been making his longboard fish, what he calls the Mega Fish.

I remember when he first started making these boards and how stocked he was.  There's nothing better than getting into something that gets you excited about surfing and that's what happened with his Mega Fish. He'd come into the glass shop with another one and start talking... "these boards are working so good"! Trying a different fin placement or coming in with a new fin set to try. He kept saying "you've got to try one... you've got to try one. " then one day he walked in with a cut Mega Fish Blank and said "Ok Dennis this one is for you. Finish shape this with your own touch and you'll see, the board just works". I said 'ok, I'll finish it up and see how it goes.'

Well, you know how it is, one thing leads to another and before you know it almost 2 years go by and that cut blank has been sitting in the corner and never touched.  Then just after Christmas I'm talking to Blinky down at the beach the same day I see Joe with the board I made that was his Christmas present from his friend Johnny.

I say to Blinky 'Some friend Joe has yeah? gives him a new custom surfboards for Christmas.... I never had a friend like that!'  Blinky says "I gave you a blank and you never even did anything with it...what?"

So my new years resolution.. finish Blinky's blank, glass it and have a go at his Mega fish.

D.R

 Blinky briefing me on the Mega fin layout

 

 

Seeing my friends old surf footage

 

Between the holidays I visited with some friends for a BBQ get together during which we watched some old surf movies of 4 or 5 guys I knew in high school. The footage was from '65-'66 mostly shot at Hobsons I think. 

 

The thing that I took away from the footage aside from how well my high school buddies surfed was how flat the rockers were on the boards they rode.  I knew that back in the day the old boards didn't carry much rocker, after all I made them back then too, but I didn't think it would be that noticeable watching guys surf those boards in the film.. at least it was to me.

 

Of course the boards were long boards....  those boards left us, and when they returned the long board had more rocker.   I'm not sure why, well actually I do know why. The new long board was about maneuvers, turning up the face, turn backs and tight turns in the pocket not the old trim and glide stuff from the old days.

 

You might wonder how long boards would have evolved had they not left surfing for a dozen years by the masses but instead followed a parallel path along side the evolution of what we call the short board. Would the  contemporary long board look the same as it does today?    

 

D.R.  



New with the old school curves