Can anyone tell me the history behind the channels on the bottom of Miki’s board? I can see that it’s a Cat model Greg Noll board but I’ve seen a few of those before and even have a friend that has one and they never had this feature. It also looks to me like that channels run all the way out the tail.
Howzit Billy…I think Noll called these boards Slot Bottoms. A friend of mine had a 10’2" back in the 60’s. I think he rode it twice and may still have it in his garage. He even still has is original 1960’s model wife. She is in near mint condition but is not a slot bottom.
Wow that’s unreal to have an original! Can you check and see if your friend still has it? Maybe then I could get some measurements/photos/fin and fin placement info etc. from his board before I try and make one. I’ll also look for more info on Noll’s slot bottom boards. Thanks for that!
Howzit Mr.Clean,You are going to love this one. I had 2 friends who were glassing for Greg Noll during the " Da Cat " era and the were telling me years ago that the way they cut those slots was with a beer can that they cut the top off of since back then the cans weren't aluminum but real metal so they held their shape. I laughed so hard when they told me I thought I was going to crap my pants. One of the guys was my glassing mentor Gary Thernagle who owned PLastic till he sold it to Bob Highsmith and the other was Bobby Allen who now lives on Kauai and ran "The Brotherhood Factory" for Russel Surfboards. That's what you call Cro Magnum shaping,Ha,Ha. Aloha,Kokua
The board is gone but he still has the wife. However she IS a slot bottom. He said she still rides great.
if you are able to get to morro bay mike at wavelengths surf shop has some original da cats-from the early, thicker ones to the later, thinner ones. slots, pintails,etc.it’s been a while since i’ve visited the shop but the boards use to be on display. he also has some original greenough spoons as well.(and a whole lot of other cool boards and stuff)
http://www2.swaylocks.com/comment/1381464/Re-feraldave-post-your-Longboard-pig-porn
I shaped for Greg Noll for awhile. He came down and we shaped a couple together to get me dialed in. He told me the “story” on the Da cat models. They were running adds in the magazines and started getting orders THAN they came up with the board. They figured they had better put some "things’’ in the board to make it special. Part of the name is “slots” the other part is a industry secret. Greg could sure beat the foam into what he wanted.
The slot bottom preceded the Cat by a few years. I think the slot was actually a single wide channel with fairly sharp edges. Nothing like the beer can channels on the later Cats.
Here is a link I found with a few examples of “Da Cat” board’s with the channels in the bottom. One thing I noticed was that on Miki’s board the channels seen to go a lot farther towards the nose than any of the ones shown here.
http://www.vintagegregnollsurf.com/dacats.html
This link has some examples of the “Slot” bottom boards. As Sammy says they seem to be totally different than “Da Cat” models with the channels.
http://www.vintagegregnollsurf.com/nollsurfboards.html
yep…my friend’s slot bottom board was purchased before Da Cats made their appearance. Sammy is right about the shape of the slots. They had hard edges and ran pretty long down the bottom. Actually the board was a semi-gun. He bought it from an Army Officer who came from Hawaii and it ended up here in Georgia where they trained helicopter pilots for Nam.
A lot of Surfers became helicopter pilots back then. (Colonel Kilgore maybe?)