I was wondering if anyone on here had some more info for me on this board. Tried to contact Con throught their website but didnt have any luck. Just curious when it was built and what the value may be. Thanks for your help
Does the fin box have a set of small caps that cover the empty space in the channel? Looks like it, to me. If so, you have a Guidance Systems box and fin. That would date the board at late 1969 to early '71. It is one of the Con “Butterfly” series. Early transitional shortboard. I think jbirdsurf is a bit high with his value estimate. I’d say more like 300-500, at most. Not a big collector market for those transitional shapes. Most were dogs.
Also, you fail to mention the length. Is it a 6’6"? 7’6"? Bust out your tape measure.
Thanks for the input guys I appreciate the info, good to know.
Sorry I should have busted out the tape measure to begin with its a 6' 7", Sammy A you are correct with the fin box I included what I thought was a clear picture when i took it.
At 6’7" I’d say it’s from ‘69-70. By 1971 you’d have a hard time find a board off-the-rack in the US mainland that was over 6’. A misguided time when the Australian influence sent board lengths to ridiculously short dimensions.
Misguided huh. You yanks since the late fifties are way behind the ball game. Them thar “ridiculous short dimentions” are now the norm. I remember from '69 when Corky Carol was out here 'round about that time. We were out at Snapper Rocks together and I had the latest 6/6 doing the do and he kept telling me 'You’re board’s too short" As a youngster I didn’t want to say nothin in return … so I said nothin 'cause Corky was a world champ at the time. Ah the wisdom of hindsight. Thems there were glory days with revolution in the air. And dammit we built one short board revolution while the world we knew was falling apart from Berckley to Abbey Road.
Damn right. I need only remind you of a certain contest held at Johanna in 1970, where a “Yank” named Rolf Aurness soundly defeated the likes of Young and Farrelly on a 6’10, while the local heroes sank on their sub 6’ abominations.
Are you talking about “dimensions”? Other than length, the present day boards under 6’ bear no resemblance to what was seen in 1970-71. Plus, at that time boards had dropped a foot a year since 1968 and the refinements of design hardly kept up with the blind march to go shorter and shorter. By now, folks are very much used to riding small, low volume boards. So making the transition from a 6’3" to a 5’10" is not the major adjustment it was back then. I stand by my assessment that the fad of sub 6’ boards was a wrong turn in the progression of surfing at that time. If it had been such a major advancement in design theory, then why did lengths return to more reasonable numbers in the following 18 months, or so?
I would agree with some of what you say about most of the boards being produced in those early years between 1968 and into the late mid 70’s.
Like all things there are some notalbe exceptions. The Fish is one and the Egg is another. The twin fin has it’s modern short board roots in boards produced around 1972 or so. ( lets not go into how long the twin fin has been around we all know about Simmons )
Those years were full of experimentation and exploring. In the search for something new. The innovators often throw out the baby with the bath water.