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