I thought it might be fun to build a balsa board with red foam t-bands in a lay out similar to the old G&S Hynson red fins (wider stringers on the outside). I’ll be borrowing ideas from many of the old signature models of the sixties. The red foam, as Jim Phillips pointed out, were features of the Barry Kanaiapuni Rick’s. The inspiration for this project came in part from the Pipeliner project seen on these pages a while back.
Since this may be the last balsa board I ever build, I decided to go all out. (I always say that).
The first step is to cut the rocker into the pieces and then spot glue them together. One at a time.
After rough shaping the blank. I knocked it apart to get ready to chamber it. it came apart pretty easily. It was actually coming apart during the rough shaping and I had to reglue some of the sticks so I was a little concerned. But as the photos show, all of the pieces came apart. I had glued the t-bands so they would not come apart.
Aloha kokua, Gordon started blowing foam with Hobie in the late 50s. He soon split off to form his own company, but I'm not sure of year (60, 61?). I got the story about Dick Thomas from either Gordon or Dick Morales. I was curious about the origin of the ''T-band'' term myself, so I asked.
There's a 1963 Yater ad reproduced on the current ''Yater deconstructed'' thread, it shows a balsa/redwood T-band but they don't use the term. They do specify the blank is by Clark.
Bill, I just built a balsa blank for Gene Cooper, I sued the lightest wood I could find, but it was soooooo soft that the spot glues on one plank would not hold, it just pulled the fiber out each time I released the clamps.
I drilled and put a dowel into this plank and it pulled the dowel out, so what was I to do ? I went to Harbor Freight, got a pack of 24" long drill bits and inside of the rail pieces, drilled from rail to rail, slid in a piece of all thread with a nut and washer on each side and snugged that sucker up tight.
It held fine throught the cutting process, I popped off the rails and out came the rod and I found a new way to skin a cat
From what I know, colored high density foam can be purchased from USBlanks. They carry a wide array of colors (remember the Cooperfish board with the green T-bands by Jim Phillips?)
Maybe a stupid Q, but why is it called a "t-band", they look more like "I-bands" to me!
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Dick Thomas was a Clark Foam employee who came up with the sandwich stringer (usually redwoods on either side of spruce or balsa). Thomas = T = ''T-band''.
Nice looking work, Bill! I'll be stopping by to check this one out.
I wanted that sweet board with the foam stringer you had up on 2ndlight not too long ago. Such a beautiful masterpiece!
A friend is big into Ricks and we just bought two boards from a collector: a 1967ish Rick Barry K and a 1966.5 Con Wingnose. He got the Rick, I, the Con. Love the red foam!
Howzit Mike, When did Clark start blowing foam? I remember having a Tband stringer on a board I bought in 63" and it was made from Foss foam. Aloha,Kokua
howzit Mike, I remember hearing a story about Grubby getting a blank maker drunk and getting him to give his chemical formular for foam and Grubby's dad was a chemist who was there to take the mental notes and that was how Grubby got into the business. Hope I have got it right plus Dave Sweet was a pioneer in the business also. I jsut remember Walker and Foss foam from my young years as the foam blowers. Then later there was a company in Cerritos that started with a S and I bough blanks from them. I know that Greg Noll made his own blanks and probably a few other board builders but just don't remember Clark in my youth. Should have asked him the time I met him at Brewes in Sunset beach back in he early 70's. I stand corrected. Aloha,Kokua
The origin of the term “t-band” is one I never knew. I always assumed it stood for “triple”.
Clark Foam was a seperate entity by 1961, or earlier. In the mid 60s, I recall there was Clark, Walker, and Foss Foam. Looking at the 1964 “buyers guide” in Surf Guide mag, it states that Sweet, Noll, and O’Neill were using their own proprietary foams. Australian Surf Shop (Morey) lists Clark, Foss and “Lindeman Foam” as their blank suppliers…
I love the look of that blank. The red foam goes quite well with the wood.
I had heard the story about Dick Thomas (Dick Thomas was in the first Bruce Brown movie). Also heard that the “t” stood for “three”.
And then there is the “reverse t-band” if the redwood is in the center and the balsa on the outside.
Red does look good next to balsa. I’ve had balsa boards with red pigment tape offs and red print fabric inlays.
I almost wish I hadn’t used the redwood and just left the red foam against the balsa. I was debating it.
I took some of the scraps from the stringers and mailed them off to Juan Rodriguez to see what he’ll come up with for a fin. I’m thinking a rising sun design but with thinner pieces of red foam. I was also thinking of a plain sugar pine fine with a red all over tint.
I saved enough for a tailblock but I’m still undecided. I’m not a big fan of tailblocks. I remember when we got the first red fins in a shipment at Keller’s Surf Shop in Lavallette. We had a store full of boards with tailblocks, which were pretty standard, and here is this new model, the Ferrarri of surfboards. A unique strip design, distinctive red fin in a routed glassed in black box and no tailblock. It looked so clean.
But on this board a balsa/redwood/red foam/redwood/balsa tailblock might look pretty good.
“But on this board a balsa/redwood/red foam/redwood/balsa tailblock might
look pretty good.”
I’d rather do redwood/balsa/red foam/balsa/redwood. Redwood being a litle bit stronger than balsa, I’d tend to have it where dings are the most likely to happen. Tailblocks are great for looks, but their original goal was to protect the tail from dings, weren’t they?
redwood/red foam/redwood is a done deal. Already glued. And it’ll match the stringer, It’s cut off from the stringer glue up.
I have some balsa that’s harder that any redwood if strength is the issue. After all, balsa is technically (biologically) a hardwood. Soft and light when young. Harder as it gets older.Or I could use pine. The idea is to make the tailblock look like the basic layout of the board. I could go balsa/redwood/red foam/redwood.
There was an article in an early sixties issue of Surf Guide Magazine by Rennie Yater and Bob Cooper I think where they discussed the funtionality of wood tailblocks. It’s debatable whether they were for looks or protection.
My vote would go for a glass tailblock, red of course. When I was at Phillips place he never did wood tailblocks - he saved fin sheet cutoffs and would laminate 2 or 3 together to come up with proper ''thickness'' and get some crazy color patterns. Sometimes we'd lay up special sheets just for blocks, the black and yellow ''bumblebee'' was always popular. Or just pieces from the same solid color fin sheet (usually tints) to get a mono-color translucent block.
Wood tailblocks are definitely cosmetic. Glass is for taking abuse.
And yeah, I've heard the ''story'' about Gordon getting someone drunk. I think it's just a fable. More likely he just worked his ass off to get his formula, and he had some chemical engineering training himself. He also had a wave or two in one of Bruce Brown's movies.
Howzit surfifty, Thanks for the correction, I remember reading about it a couple of times and even as I wrote my post I was wondering if I had the right names. As for wood or glass for tail blocks I like them both but wood or glass eyes on the sides of the nose were really neat. Aloha,Kokua
