If you want to know more, I suggest a web search for “Pete Peterson” and “tandem surfing”…
When did Dick Catri stop shaping? He didn’t pass until 2017. Is it possible he built a modern SUP?
I was researching in my spiral bound paper 1999 copy of S-n-B (#37). No entry for Catri there under “C” or “D”. The material that was on SHACC was a revision to the 1999 material, with corrections and additions. No doubt Catri was one of the additions. I may have a copy of the Catri page archived on a hard drive here somewhere; I was wokring with Andy Anderson for a time in the early 2000s on his efforts to digitize the material, but that is a story for another time (and far from a short one :-()
looks like i’m still having trouble with photos on the site.
So it may be a prone/kneeling paddleboard, may be a tandem board, shaped sometime in the 70’s or 80’s?
and dimensions for those that don’t see the photos are 12’0" length, 22" width, and 4" thick in the middle of the board.
I seriously doubt it’s a tandem board. At 12’ x 22" it isn’t wide enough. The ratio of length to width makes it totally unsuitable for tandem. Tandem boards are extra wide to increase stability. 22" is a typical width for an 8 foot board.
So the width says it’s not a tandem, and the length and thickness say it’s not a longboard. So prone/kneeling paddelboard? Any veterans familiar with these designs that can chime in? Or know where they hang out so I can go look for them?
I also started asking for more info from the previous owner. Apparently he received the board from a guy in his 60’s who brought it over from Cali. If that’s true, and if this board was shaped in Florida, it’s been around the block a couple times.
22" is narrow for the average current use Tandem Board, but keep in mind that anything less than 23" in the USA is considered narrower than the average longboard in use these days. As compared to 22" and even 21" in the 60’s. The average Tandem Board in use these days is 25" thru 29". And yes they are in use and still the occasional Tandem Competition (pre China virus). There is a Tandem Surfing Assoc. that I believe may still be active. One question; Are you taking the measurements as penciled onto the board or have you actually put a tape measure on it? Also; very possible this board could be a Tandem board that was a custom one off for a customer who had a narrower reach when paddling. Both Tandem surfers paddle. The short reach of the average Woman surfer has resulted in SUP “handles” in longboards 23" and wider requested by customers the last year or two.
PS So I chased you pictures and measurements. Some kind of a paddle board? Maybe? But a tailblock on a lifeguard board? Probably not. May have been intended as nothing more than a big surfboard for a really big guy.
There isn’t any identifying info on the spine like there normally is. No measurements, shaper signature, nothing. I thought maybe they didn’t start doing that until later, is that abnormal for this era board?
I put a tape on all the dimensions.
So if it’s a tandem, does that mean the two pads were placed at a later date? I really need to spend some time today figuring out how to get the pictures posted.
Dimensions and a shaper’s sig did not become common until the late 80s or early 90s. Even then, not everyone did it. People are often puzzled by the absence of those when the reailty is that it didn’t become a standard practice until pretty recently.
I thought that may be the case. Thank you for the confirmation.
So, it’s DEFINITELY fiberglass, made for the water, and built sometime before people signed their shapes. Progress!
The overall outline, shape, rocker etc. tell me it is a paddle board. In your best estimation; are the pads intended to be under the chest? Or under the knees?
Ah ha.
That tail block…isn’t a tail block. Leastwise, it’s by no means original, it’s a repair. What the original was, square tail, round tail, pintail. or for all I know swallow tail, it isn’t any more. No real way to know what it was.
My guess is it was something pointed, or at least round. And standing it up time after time after time, that crunched it time after time after time and somebody got tired of fixing that, broke out a saw and had at it. Then they stuck on a chunk of foam, shaped it more or less, glassed it with boat resin ( same thing they used on that really cobby nose repair) and there ya go.
Now, I still think it was a paddleboard of some sort, rather than a tandem, maybe somebody wanted it for exercise, whatever. But that’s me and my guess.
hope that’s of use…
doc…
You are probably right. Tail has been worked on and that is probably the reason it is so blocky, because of the cut off. Nose doesn’t look right either. May have originally been rounder. Hard to cut off a nose or a tail and blend them into existing fiberglass rails. Personally I always thought Dick Catri was supposed to be a pretty good shaper, but those rails are telling me otherwise. He probably didn’t shape it.
FWIW - just noticed the fin is drilled thru for primitive leash; i.e., surgical tubing or bungee style. Early 70s?
(chuckling) well, you know, broken clocks and all that. I had to be right sometime.
I had seen how the nose was off, but for some reason thought it was just a really badly done repair. I think you’re right. As was I, it was a bad repair, just done differently than I thought. I wonder if those were dragged in the sand, Gidget style, until it wore through the glass.
Umm- rails on a paddleboard, really, I don’t think they matter. Down at the tail for a more or less clean release and that’s about it. You look at https://www.marine-rescue.com/rescue-equipment/water-rescue-equipment/rescue-boards/classic-big-red-rescue-board.html which was the go-to paddleboard from the '70s to now, not a tremendous amount of hydrodynamic sophistication there. More like it was whittled out on a band saw.
And Con Colburn got, if not rich, at least well off turning those out. There had to be hundreds if not thousands built. I worked on a few dozen myself, straight red pigment, there ya go. You wonder what happened to Con surfboards, well, now you know. Can’t blame him.
Around 1995 ( very roughly) they started to import Australian competition paddleboards, epoxy and styro, and I think they glassed them with 2 oz cloth and hard candy, they would ding if you gave them a dirty look. First time I had to fix a lot of epoxy boards. Hell, if you set the things fin down on the sand, no other weight on them, the fin boxes might break loose.
The towns all had their own lifeguards and some towns, they’d recruit college swimmers for the annual lifeguard competitions - maybe from Iowa, I dunno, and they were real fast swimmers, barely able to stay alive in surf. And they were racing budgets buying the latest hot ultralight paddleboards and how well they could paddle, their surf skills, that didn’t matter if you had a 12’ x 14" paddleboard that weighed as much as a loaf of Wonder Bread. And as opposed to the big old heavy red Con paddleboards they actually used to haul in tourists. Quite a lot of the towns were pissed off, they spent their budgets on things like salaries and all, hiring people who were good in the water. .Shop I worked at sponsored some of the comps, I suggested that everybody bring the old red boards, assign them by luck of the draw, you’d see who was actually capable - that went over real well.
As I mentioned, my buddy sells the things. You’d think he would have loved the ultralights and how everybody had to have the latest hottest etc.buying them and buying them and… Nope. Shipping damage, they were so weak he was figuring that if one in four came through okay, he could live with that. Good times. He is probably still trying to settle shipping damage claims.
Anyhow- right, that hole in the fin for a leash. On a 12’ x 22 x pretty heavy paddleboard, Yep. I wonder just how many times somebody tried using that? And if they had to live on the side of a hill afterwards, so both feet would touch the ground…
doc…
That fin could have been repurposed from any board that was handy. No way to be certain that it’s the fin used on that board when it was new. Who knows how many times this thing changed hands, and who used it for who knows what.
The pads on the deck also support the idea that it was used as a paddle/racing board.