1966 was the year Tom Morey and John Peck started production of John's iconic board The John Peck Penetrator under the Morey-Pope surfboard label. I've been working on a new Penetrator order this week and realized it was 50 years ago MP went into production of John's board.

I started shaping at Morey-Pope in 1967, the second year of the Penetrators production.  '67 was also the last year MP made the board because by the end of '67 boards were going shorter and MP moved into production of the McTavish Tracker by 1968. As well, the longer boards went out of style. So all the surfboard labels moved to the shorter stuff because no one would buy a surfboard much over 8'0.

From 1968 through the '70s it was short boards all the time. Then about 1980 some baby boomers found the longer boards they surfed when they were in their teens early 20's were a better fit for their older and maybe less fit bodies. They didn't have to struggle as much in the line up and could get more waves and have a good time in the water too.

The Penetrator being one of the iconic boards from the old days found a renewed interest from some of the surfers that either had one or wanted one back in the day, and I started to get requests to make the board again. So in the early 80's I started making Pentrators on request and have been doing them that way ever since.

Now some 36 years after doing the first reissues today I realized the board was introduced to the world of surfing 50 years ago. And you know what? It's every bit as good a board now as it was then.

If it works.... don't fix it.

D.R.