Found this in the trash years ago. The foam in the rear around the original 3 boxes was all mold. They seemed to be layed out in a Bonzer style as you can see i marked where they were. I was planning on just making it water tight as a single to suss it out, plus I could never fix it right anyway.
Gave up on the project but the thing is real interesting with a hull bottom and beveled rails. It says “superlight” which is no joke! Almost seems hollow!
it’s actually in good condition besides the box area.
The Butterfly series. Team riders: Claude Codgen, Bruce Valuzzi, and Sam Gornto . They had a couple of other models including the Blue Morphus and the Iron Butterfly.
The " Original " Con Surfboards were from Santa Monica in California in the early 60’s. Not being able to see the photo’s…well…??? Con had a couple of Hawaiian’s shaping for him as well. Earnie Tanaka and a guy named “Tak”. I can’t remember his real name. I use to surf with them at Malibu, Santa Monica Pier, the old “POP” Pier, etc. Earnie has passed on, not sure if “Tak” is still alive. I was riding for Dewey Weber at the time.
BINGO! Mucho Mahalo’s Sammy…you’ve always been on top of the surfing world for years! Good to see a friendly face around here besides Kokua and Midget F.
That would be Tak’s whole name … He continued on into the import/export scene after those shaping days … saw a lot of him in and out of the Ocean Surfboards Santa Monica/Venice movie … Late 70’s -80’s … I shaped Con’s boards for 8 years through the 80’s … sometimes I miss him … other times … well … contankerous, just the way it’s spelled … what a character … the stories … SB … have fun …!!
Here’s a Con ad from early 1970. The “Auzzie Butterfly” is in the center. Fin system stated as Guidance brand. An earlier ad (late '69) said “Fins Unlimited Vari-set”. So this series could have used three or more different fin systems over the course of its production run.
I stand corrected on the fin box. The point is it had a single box. There were two brands of fin boxes used in 1969 when the subject board was made. The w.a.v.e. set and the Fins Unlimited. I don’t know exactly when Bahne came out with the vari set. Con may have even used the w.a.v.e. set for awhile in early '69 before switching. There was some failure in the wave set and the boxes were leaking causing some manufacturers to switch to the vari set and later to the GS for awhile.
The ad above from 1970 was the next year and the Butterfly series shapes had been modified. Board designs were changing rapidly in this time period.
The Guidance System was developed by the members of the Surfboard Manufacturers Association. The major brands didn’t like the idea of buying fin systems from their own competitors (Morey/Pope w.a.v.e. set, Bill Bahne Fins Unlimited) so they contracted to have their own system designed and manufactured. It was a short lived venture. When Bill Bahne/Fins Unlimited came out with his system which went back to a fiberglass fin, instead of the plastic fins in the other systems, he took over the market.
Con Surfboards was in Santa Monica and in business since the late '50’s. But the Butterfly series was the brain child of Claude Codgen and he brought in his two cohorts Bruce Valuzzi and Sam Gornto. The marketing push was 99% East Coast with some of the East’s hottest riders taking the charge.
I was in Folly Beach, South Carolina on a sales/promotion trip for G&S in Easter of 1969 when Claude, Bruce and Sam showed up with their Butterfly series boards. Dick Catri and the Hobie team blew into town also. There was a local contest and we were all in town to show off the latest boards from our manufacturers.
I distinctly remember Catri and I checking out the Butterfly series team boards laying on the floor in the back of McKevlin’s Surf Shop.
Tak was a shaper who worked for Con in the sixties, I believed he worked some for Greg Noll also. He later had a company exporting US made surf goods to Japan and then was involved with Town and Country. I knew him well but haven’t seen or spoke to him in years.
There was a small Con b/w ad in Surfer mag in the early sixties showing Tak, Ernie Tanaka, and some other Hawaiians whose names escape me now (Wayne Myata maybe?) standing in a line with their Con surfboards.
Agreed about the single fin. Never saw any Cons during that period with more than one fin.
If the OP’s board has evidence of three fins, somebody added them aftermarket. I haven’t looked it up, but Con may well have used WAVESET boxes for a brief time. Also, there were more than two brands of fin systems in '69 (assuming this guy’s board IS from '69. Still no reply, or pics). The two previously mentioned happened to be the most common.
Re: Finboxes. Weber had the Wonderbolt (which was made by Morey pre wave set) and Hobie had the bolt through the top system. Not sure about Hobie but I’m pretty sure Weber was using w.a.v.e set by '69 on the Ski. I don’t know when Hobie switched or which one they switched to but I don’t remember seeing any bolt through the top fins on anything after boards went short in '68.
I don’t remember any other fin systems in '69. Maybe you could refresh my memory.
By '70, at G&S we were using our own system designed by Larry Gordon. It had a fiberglass fin and was introduced in an ad which said “Narrow Boards and Glass Fins”. We had a couple of problems. One was interchangeability. The other was how to keep the fin from falling out. Bill Bahne was working on a similar system and he solved the two problems. We switched to his Fins Unlimited system but not until we’d shipped a few boards with our system which became a problem for me as I traveled from dealer to dealer trying to get the fins to fit.
None of the fin boxes look like WAVESETs. Especially the outside two. Nor, do the side fins bear any resemblance to a Bonzer setup. The placement and angle are all wrong. This is based on the tiny, hard to see photo you posted. Let’s see a close-up of the fin cluster, and specifically the center box. Only way to tell exactly what it is.
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…have fun … !!