This hollow wooden paddleboard came with my cabin and is at least 40 years old. Is it a Tom Blake design? I can’t find any information online about the company that made it. It is in working condition. Any clue if it’s worth anything?
I’d say it’s much older than 40. Probably closer to 70.
Doesn’t look like any Blake designs that I’ve seen.
I’d put that thing in time period between the end of WWII and 1960. Based on the Popular Mechanics plans.
Value? Whatever amount you can find someone willing to pay minus whatever it costs to find that person.
Its in good original condition. I would preserve it as is. Don’t remove patina from age. I’d pay up to $800 for it. That’s just me. I would never pay collector prices for a board. The fun is in the hunt. Anybody can shell out a pile of money and buy just about anything. I’d rather find a hidden gem.
There was a yardsale a half mile from my house this past summer. I missed it. Later that day someone on a vintage surfboard facebook page posted pics of two wood boards he practically stole from that sale. You never know. Those boards are still out there hiding in the rafters garages and crawl spaces.
I have seen pretty good reproductions for $1200. An original should fetch more. Unless it is a Blake or one of the Swastika boards done by that ladder company the lable in this case doesn’t mean much. In other words; no telling.
Blake started making hollow paddleboards as early as 1930. The Popular Mechanics article was in 1937. This type of board was most common in the 30s and 40s. By the mid 1950s they were left by the wayside. The newest of this type that I could find via online research and my reference library is from the early 50s. I stand by my earlier comment that this board is at least 70 years old.
In my High School years, of 1957, 1958, 1959, each year one to three Blake design paddleboards were done by students in woodshop. I was not one of them, though I did shape my first solid balsa board, in woodshop, circa 1958. The plans used in the shop class were the Popular Mechanics (1937) plans for a Blake design paddleboard. Those boards were not considered for surfing, but only for paddling, or as skin diving platforms. In the San Diego area, skin divers would use them to reach the offshore kelp beds. Back then the Abalone limit was ten. You’d see divers coming back to shore with the deck of the paddleboards studded with Abalone. Not one of us knew that we were living in the good ol’ days.