I saw these on a different forum, some guy has 'em in his attic…
The double stringer seems to be a windsurfer blank but the other I am not sure. They also have a stamp on them “maui”, was there a factory out there or is that ship-to stamp?
Any idea if these things would still be usable or would be too deteriorated after decades of dust?
If I read well, 9’2"? Since it’s got the twin stringers set-up, I would, just like you, suspect a sailboard blank. In my 1999 Clark catalog, there was a 9’2"H shaped by Karl HILL for sailboards. What puzzles me is the marking “GEX” or “CEX” under the size indication. I don’t know what this refers to. The “Maui” marking seems to refer to the customer to which these were supposed to be delivered.
…in 1991 or so, I made a longboard out of that plug
I dont like it
too much foam, too much nose rocker
due to the sailboard model plug…
My vote is also for 2 sailboard blanks.
They put both mastbox and finbox between stingers to gain some stiffness (in front of routing a single stringer).
In other hand, there ¡s a windsurfing boom (wishbone) and a sailboard under the blanks, which indicates that the guy used to windsurf, so my vote is again for sailboard blanks.
Reverb,
If I can convince the current owner of that, then I maybe, just maybe I could convince him to sell me one… I would be tickled pink to make an old-school sailboard out of it!
So… how crappy is it to make a longboard of a windsurfer blank??
you see last year or so there was mention in a thread of a whole lot of these blanks being discarded in hawaii somewhere (I think they were form Naish…) and it broke my heart to think of all those blanks being trashed on the other side of the planet…
There were two windsurfie blanks that Clark had in production in it’s latter years. The 9-2 and the 8-8.
I made superguns from both blanks but the foam got really soft in the tail area due to the thickness vs. amount taken off.
The 8-8 gun I made is in the archives labeled,“Rhino Chasing Gun”.
as for the quality of the foam, don’t despair… I recently made a fish out of a Clark blank that was at least that old, was much browner, and had oil spilled on one side to boot. It came out just fine.
http://www.swaylocks.com/resources/detail_page.cgi?ID=1753&d=1
Herb beat me to it as I was going to say: “Don’t try to shape a longboard out of those! The rocker is much more that of a gun than of a longboard…” And yes, much, much foam to take out, weakening somewhere…
Thanks alot guys! I’m gonna have to convince the owner now!! If it works I’ll be sure to post the results…
Herb, couldn’t find the thread, got a link? Is it in the forum archives or the resources?
Herb, couldn’t find the thread, got a link? Is it in the forum archives or the resources?
Resource number 241, it’s in the photos resources, look for boards 8’ and up. And it’s got some of the who is who of surfing autographed on it… Great gun, Herb. Still own it?
I made this long board-gun-tandemboard out of that 9’2"blank.
My all time favorite 8’6" gun came from the 8’7"blank.Both boards are 4"+thick.
I bought 4 old sailboard blanks for $25 each.One of them got turned into
a 6’ corvette orange organic shaped light fixture.I still have a 8"7"blank.
The foam is a little more dense, like 3-4lb stuff.The foam gets soft in the middle
of the blank.
Have fun,
ian
I donated it to the Surfline contest 2006,for they’re raffle.The money went to needy charities including the SealBeach Lifeguards.
My last surf session on it was during a south swell in the summer of 05 . It still rode and paddled great.This board was built for long range paddling.IB Sloughs and the rockpile out in front of the oil islands at SealBeach.
I made a few boards from the 8’8" and 9’8" Clark windsurfer blanks. Check out the threads “Carpenter Bees Chambered My Blank” and “Windsurfer Blanks Revisited”. I agree that they have too much rocker to make a good long board but they can make good semi guns or big boy boards. Both of my blanks were over 20 years old when we shaped them.
D
D,
Of all the windie blanks the 9-8 was king !
Amen to that. We had to take it down a bit and step the rails to make it work as a surfboard! I called the board “corky” because it floated to well.
D