thanks Bill ! [I’ve noticed that occassionally the “copy and paste” thing doesn’t work with 'p.m.'s to forum postings ?]
ben
Wow! that balsa board and story is really special bill.
absolutey !!!
wait till you read THIS one Josh !
[…i nearly pissed myself laughing …]
plus , I could relate to it …[well, sort of …]
cheers !
ben’t
Re: www.whenIwasyoung.com From: balsa
Date Sent:
Dec 14, 2005, 5:41 PM
Hi Ben!
Here’s the story about my first board (the 10’ Barland that I sent you some shots of):
Take one:
- Looking for money to buy a surfboard. I’ve been surfing for one year, renting or borrowing boards here and there, and I think it’s time to have my own. Second-hand, of course. No 12 years old grom can afford to put together 100$ for a NEW board. (That was about the price, back then). Many old things lying around in the attic, I sell all of them to the local antique dealer for peanuts.
On a fine summer afternoon, young grom who knows nothing about surfboards (not even what they are made of) meets 20 years old surfer willing to sell his board, in Biarritz:
Surfer: “Look, it’s a great board. Three stringers…”
Grom: “Three what?”
Surfer: “Stringers. See those fine wooden lines. They are for strength. This is a very strong board. Won’t break.”
Grom: “Oh, I see…”
Grom’s father: “Sounds good.”
Surfer: “Look at that color job! Custom-made by a friend of mine. Like it?” (Surfer points to the cream-like color that’s been painted over the gloss. Grom does not know what a gloss is, so how would he wonder why the hell someone would PAINT over it?)
Grom: “Groovy, man!” (Remember, it’s 1967) “Sure dig it!”
Surfer: “I’m leaving for Hawaii next week. Can’t bring the board with me. Otherwise, I would never sell it. Such a great board. Almost new. Look, there is a very small ding here on the rail, but it’s been professionnaly fixed.”
Grom: “Ding? Rail?”
Grom’s father: “It sure looks like a very professionnal repair to me. I don’t see nothing… How much do you want for it?”
Surfer: “85$. As I told you, it’s almost new. You won’t find another one like it for this price.”
Grom’s dad: “Like it, son?”
Grom: “Oh yes, Dad! It’s soooo nice!” (Concerned look) “But that’s a lot of money… I’ve only got 45$, you know… I didn’t think a used board would be much more. I had seen some in the 30/40$ range.”
Grom’s father: “Sometimes it’s better to pay a bit more for something that’s worth it, Son. This is a very strong, almost new surfboard. Not some piece of crap.” (to surfer) “All right. We’ll take it.”
Take two:
Same afternoon. Grom walks proudly down the path to the Urkirola Surf Club in Guéthary where he is a new member, carrying 35lbs board under arm, making it look like it’s featherlight when he meets someone along the way, especially girls.
Grom: “Look there, guys! I got my own board!”
Crew of experimented surfers look up from their deck-chairs, say: “Uh-uh”, then go back to
catching sun.
Grom: “See those triggers, there? Three of them!”
Experimented surfer 1: “STRINGERS. Yeah, fine.”
Grom: “Hey, look at this cool color job. Custom made.”
Experimented surfer 2: “What’s hidden beneath?”
Grom: “Hidden? Beneath? Whaddya mean?”
Experimented surfer 3: “You’d better scrape some of this awful paint and see what’s lying under…”
Take 3:
Grom and old friend Daniel spend the rest of the afternoon scraping paint with old rusted knives. Inch after inch, various dings are revealed. Some are “professionnaly repaired”, many are not. A long crack at the base of the fin appears. The fin tip moves from right to left under the slightest pressure.
Take 4:
Not long after, grom decides to build boards himself…
“Balsa”
…" Not long after, grom decides to build boards himself… "
…so , here are some of them , from the 1970s [quite a contrast to the pygmy 5’ s-deck in the above post , eh ?!] …
" From L to R: Hull-type board prototype (too wide, too thin rails, never worked, could hardly catch a wave with it…); first cloth inlay over a blue tinted lamination (great little board, about 6’6" if I remember right); a 7’6" classic pintail shape (only board I broke in half in 35 years); one of my very first chambered balsa guns (7’4", narrow squaretail); 8’00" full-on pintail gun (was later stripped and re-shaped into a blue and yellow semi-gun, see below); 7’6" downrailer with a narrow squaretail (was shaped from a Bennett blank that somehow made it to France… very good board, kept it for a very long time…) "
Bill , just wondering why you stripped that blue 8’ gun ? It looks a nice board [so does the one you made blue and yellow , too, but … just wondering …what was “wrong” with the 8’er ?]
cheers !
ben
Ben, that 8’00" was a really good gun, but, as such, was limited to a few days of use each year. You must also remember that foam was hard to come by in those years. So it was a regular practice to strip and re-shape a board… I still own the blue/yellow one after all these years. Complete with hull-type bottom and egg rails… Very unusual by today’s standards, but still fun to ride in over-head hollow waves.
…fair enough !
cheers Bill !
which of all those boards in the quiver photo did you like / ride the most ?
and do you have any shots of early [like around 1970] twin fins , too ? DID you make any of those …the square tailed wide pod , with fins almost on the tail type twinnies ?
ben
Don’t you laugh, please…
wow maaan , groovy !!!
what year would that have been , and what size were those boards , do you remember by any chance ?
cheerrsss maaan
ben
…with a mo[ustache] like that , you could have appeared in a few…er…“adult” movies , shall we say ?!
Well, not exactly the kind of twinnies you were talking about, but it’s the only one I made, it seems. Twins were never really good in reef breaks such as Guéthary…
As for which of the boards I used most, the last one on the right without a doubt. Great all-around board that I shaped in 1973. It was airbrushed and glassed by Joël ROUX, french shaping legend of the '70s.
Quote:
wow maaan , groovy !!!
what year would that have been , and what size were those boards , do you remember by any chance ?
cheerrsss maaan
ben
…with a mo[ustache] like that , you could have appeared in a few…er…“adult” movies , shall we say ?!
I would say '77 or '78, but not quite sure. I’ll tell you tomorrow 'cause I still have those two “relics” lying somewhere.
As for the moustache, well, it’s even worse now, mate:
Now that is keeping it real…
Great thread.
Happy Holidays
-Bassy
What about this Bing Lotus, circa 1972? It still belongs to a friend of mine.
That board was sold to him by none other than Mickey DORA.
________________________________________
“You should have been here yesterday…”
…is that a “waveset” fin , Bill ?
Still having trouble with the pictures, Ben?
it’s a funny thing …I ‘copy’ and ‘paste’ the whole message , AND photos …it shows up fine HERE , then when I get to the forum to look at them …boom…photos have disappeared !
So . … I go back , right click photos "save picture as " etc …
…ho hum …
no wonder not many send pictures nowadays …
ben
Quote:
…is that a “waveset” fin , Bill ?
I reckon it is, but I haven’t seen it in a long time and thus I’m not 100% sure. That or an early Fins Unlimited? But the shape looks much more like a W.A.V.E. set. What puzzles me are the TWO screws… Were there 2 screws in those?
…I think so , from what my brother told me .
ben