A Short Story............The 70s

…Dyno Surfboards loses there #1 signature model rider to start a surfboard company w/one of the original shapers from the genesis of Dyno Surfboards company.Shortly after this change,This top world class rider was invited to visit Japan for a surf/surfboard promotional trip.Seems this rider went back to A SPECIFIC SHAPER to get a great fish to take with him,rather than settle for his own present label at the time. …Can you fill names in the blanks? …Herb

it was a brom fish and my friend stole one of the boards and hung it from the pier at world championships and wrote ," good luck dave". Sorry we were all young then! It was a Lis rip off.[smile]

…for the most part,yes.There’s more to that event,not the world’s but the board.Herb

When I think back what is interesting is Blears won the world’s on a short fish and David was second and after ALL THAT!!! The fish design went nowhere fast except for a couple of oddball kneeriders.Then Mark Richards wins 4 world championships on a big guy stand-up fish.Then EVERYBODY rides a MR fish for 5 yrs until a too big guy Simon Anderson sticks another fin on it.Now it’s the little fish again --kinda funny huh?

Do the Mark Richards twins differ much in the way they ride compared to a lis fish? Does a richards twin perform better in certain wave conditions? regards, Håvard

A lis fish has no V in tail and is about a ft longer and a narrower tail.The difference is a lis fish was a kneeboard and the richards twin-fin was a standup board .Richards took Reno’s Lis fish and made it a stand-up board for a guy his size and style of surfing.He did OK on it too !

But didn’t M.R.'s twin have a totally different fin shape and set up (i.e., angled) verses the traditional Lis? Plus wings? I remember seeing a “fish” shaped by Reno for David Nuuhiwa back in the old Bolt shop on Kapahulu. Just before the Aussies came on strong. It had pretty much the same set up that I later saw on M.R.‘s…single wing with angled fins different from the longer based keep type on Lis’. Beautiful tint job by Boscoe Burns (Ronnie’s dad). For some reason David didn’t want it so they were selling on the floor. Should have bought it. But, could we get more info on the board posed in the original question.

A friend of mine brought me his favorite Richards twin to copy for him in the mid-80s. When I started spec’ing the board I was astounded by the extremely deep belly (over a quarter inch) and even deeper V. The rails were relatively down as well and, yes, it had wings - or rather - bumps. The fins were not as straight forward as a fish nor were they as large. The deep belly and down rails made the board look thinner than it was. It was easily over 3 1/4 thick in the middle. I still have specs in my archives (read boxes with multitudes of papers in them) and could probably relocate them if some really wants them. I may even have a paper template. The extreme maneuverability of this board and his ability to ride it in small and large surf definitely influenced my thinking about Vee, belly and thickness. My boards still show this influence. (also greatly influence by Mike Perry’s belly bottomed single fin round tails as well)

Very, very interesting! Do you know of any connection to McCoy surfboards with their wide, thick, short boards with belly? regards, Håvard

I once met MR thru a friend when he first brought his twin fin design to Hawaii in the late 70’s. To me it had more of a regular surfboard outline. The nose was narrower than a fish and the winged swallow was much narrower from tip to tip also. MR shaped a lot of vee into the bottom of that board, a tiny bit thru the nose/mid section and tons thru the fins and tail. The rails were really hard from nose to tail. The fins resembled scaled down Brewer wide based templates, foiled on the outside. I still remember checking that board out on the lawn of the Sutherland complex where MR stayed during his visits. He was such an easy going, unaffected person…a really nice guy.

It’s all via media from me as I skipped Hawaii from 1973 until the 90’s, but while I recall hearing that the Reno Fish influenced MR…I don’t seem to recall reading/hearing that he made a Fish as we know it…seemed to be his twin fin…maybe he applied the Fish knowledge to the early 70’s tracking twins? Anybody get more specific in there?

My loving wife (you are all jealous, I know) bought me an MR Twin a while back for Christmas. What an ordeal to get it here. What a ride. Concave bottom. More rocker than any fish I’ve got. And a little v in the tail. Narrow nose. Narrow dove tail. I’d say he has the “twin thing” wired. I’m not a big fan of FCS, but it has the MR carbon twin fins on it and they are bigger than most twin fins, which I think adds some stability and drive. I treasure this board, and worship MR. And MR is a super nice guy to talk to. So’s his mom who runs the shop and who must have wondered what kind of a nut would buy a board from the other side of the world. I should have told her there are more where I come from. If anyone is interested, I’ll borrow a digital cam and post a few.

yes ,please post the board .I would love to see what his twinnie has evolved into.I know he designed the twin after working with RB .Iam sure his design is different than his design from 1979in regards to rails,concave and fins.Thanks

kboy, If you saw that board in a shop on Kapahulu, it may have not been the Bolt Shop. The Bolt Shop was always on Kapiolani. The shop was always in the same row of buildings, moving temporarily due to the infamous “Thanksgiving Day” fire. The shop moved a few doors down for a time, during the rebuilding. I was lucky enough to get out of school early enough the day before and picked up my new board the day before the fire.

kboy, If you saw that board in a shop on Kapahulu, it may have not been the Bolt Shop. The Bolt Shop was always on Kapiolani. The shop was always in the same row of buildings, moving temporarily due to the infamous “Thanksgiving Day” fire. The shop moved a few doors down for a time, during the rebuilding. I was lucky enough to get out of school early enough the day before and picked up my new board the day before the fire. There was quite a “fire sale” of boards, and a lot of glass stripping and trying to salvage the blank.