impulsively picked this off on ebay. I have been wanting to find a decent ‘transition era’ rider and this stray was calling to me. haha. guess I couldnt resist the thin foil and hippy lam…
the box arrived today, looks like this dog should hunt. very light weight. Anyhow I thought I’d post it up here and find out what I can find out. Picked up a little info on this threadabout a Magic model from the same era.
I guess I’m mainly intersested in dating the board and getting a sense of how they were received back in the day.The shape seems timeless, not sure about the glassing…
Very nice acquisition. At 7’4, with a WAVESET box, I’d put it around late '68 to early '69. That is one of the last iterations of the Hot Curl. I have an older one that’s 8’8". Like yours, mine still has the original fin and that alone is worth about $200. I saw the ebay listing and I’d say you scored at a decent price. Hold it long enough and you could turn a nice profit. Six years ago that board would have sold for close to a grand. And, you are correct in that it was a companion design to the Magic of the same year.
cool- thanx for the replys. couple of little places to seal up and then out for a spin. I know this WAVESET fin is the typical template for the mid-lengths I’ve seen. I imagine a there must have been others experimented with given that film of Frye testing out a bunch. Was this the best of the lot? was there ever something more like a Stage IV in circulation? or did that go the way of Skips duffle bag?
Your fin is identical in shape to the one on my Hot Curl. It is the G and S Hy Performance design. There were many other fins available from WAVESET at the time. The one board I owned back in that period with the WAVESET system was a Morey Pope Sopwith Camel. I had the adjustable system with a Greenough fin, and I also had the Frye mini fin. I think they called it the New E Free. So, while Frye messed around with fins of reduced size, there were lots of other options from different designers (Harbour, Yater, Weber, etc) that fit the WAVE box.
