Hey Swaylocks, a friend of mine in Wisconsin found this old Kahuna board in his parents basement, he gave it to me but I can’t find anything about the brand. I am assuming this is just another company that tried to capitalize on the surfing boom of the 60’s but I figured I would come to the temple and ask the elders.
You got to google harder, bro! I added “pop out” to the search.
Yeah I saw that post but its a different logo and they say its made in RI. Also, not sure if it matters but that board looks very different and a totally different fin. Thanks for the response though!
Probably no connection to the RI Kahuna label. May not even be a popout. Still looks like an el cheapo board.
Having a different fin means nothing. Lots of popouts and budget board labels from the 60s had different fin styles.
I could tell if it’s a popout if I saw it up close. One good indicator is when there is a ridge along the rail. Most popout boards didn’t have the tape line sanded smooth after the second gloss coat went on.
Found out that the board came out of Glass Research, Wayne Land and George Miller were their two big shapers, they made pop outs and customs under a few different brand names.
http://jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/032702/nes_8974567.shtml
“Miller built custom boards with Wayne Land in a massive experimental think tank, Glass Research, on the west side of Jacksonville. Before long, they had a young guy cutting blanks for them named Bruce Clelland.”
http://www.surfline.com/surf-news/shapers-alley:-jacksonville-1_108927
Wayne Land shaped for Greg Noll and Bing in the 60s. Funny that he wound up in Florida.
There are some inaccuracies in that article, though. Sixties popouts were not hand shaped, but they were “touched by human hands” once the blank came out of the mold. The fuzzy edge was sanded off, then a single layer of 10 oz cloth was laminated on both sides, followed by setting the fin, hotcoat, sand and gloss. Some were polished. They were not hand shaped, but all the other stages were done by hand.
this one looks like the stringer is real, Flea Shaw might know if it was in fact an Ormond shop brand. Clean Lines also shaped for Glass Reseaerch, Wayne wound up on Catri’s door step in Pal bay, had a bitchin plug for Spa’s, but Florida was years behind California and Hot tubs. Wayne was living on Busch beer, had sores all over his arms, his reign had come to a halt. Later I found a whole lot of Catri’s boards in a Cocoa pawn shop with the logos routed out, Wayne had pawned them, but Dick did not want to start a war with Wayne, after all, Wayne had torched Oceanside surfboards twice.
Glass Research in Jacksonville was pretty amazing. They blew their own blanks for hand shaping and they molded popouts. I was a sander.
They made several labels and the quality went from cheap ass popouts to semi custom popouts and finally high quality hand shaped boards.
Wayne Land was a friend and he was going to teach me how to shape but he Hauled ass to Cocoa Beach.
As I recall the nicer hand shaped Labels were Allen Total Performance and Land@Miller.
They imported some great talent…a glasser from Hawaii…a glosser from Australia and a Sander from Cali. I was just a wide eyed kid that wanted to make boards.
cleanlines, I remember the Allen label. Those were nice looking boards.
Were the Kahunas popouts? I guess you would know?
What a crazy world we live in! Do you remember the Kahuna Boards at all? Thank you for the info and story Cleanlines!
Does anyone know if the Kahunas were pop outs?
Pretty sure the Kahunas were higher grade popouts.If my memory is right they also made Tiki and Ten Toes (could be wrong). Wayne was a scary guy but very nice to me. I had been backyard shaping and he was going to help me along.
He asked me if I would give him a ride to Cocoa Beach where he was going to shape for Oceanside. I was hoping to get a job with them but I didnt have the experience they needed. Hell I was only 17.
Last time I saw Wayne was waving goodbye in the Oceanside Surfboards parking lot. He was a Hero to me. Back in those days surfboard shapers were like rockstars.
Tiki and Ten Toes were made by Paramount Plastics in Ventura, CA. They made the West Wind for Ron Jon as an in house brand.
They also made the Duke K popouts, along with Stingray and some others. Basically, all the same shape with different logos and color schemes.
