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.