Okay. Ill let you know what he says!
A nice board for sure. They were good boards. I can’t speak for the longboards. In fact, I didn’t know they made them. I had a 7’6" back in 71-72. It was a nice board and I had a great time with it. You could count on Simo for some kind of deal.When I had the scratch for a new board…or less scratch then it really took at the other shops, I would always walk out with a board from Simo. I felt I needed a shower when I left but I always scored a board. i think I paid about $120 for the new Dusty Rhodes.
In the early '70’s there was a surfboard price war going on in the Lavallette area. Many people scored new boards in the $100 range. It was a plot to run the new guys out of business.
Well you may have thought you walked out of Simo’s with a deal under your arm, but your watch and wallet were most likely missing
In the early seventies I bought a 7’6" Surfings New Image from Simo with a full deck air brush
that was drop dead gorgeous. At the same time I got a 5’6 fish from an unknown label.
Simo swore it was a San Diego shop. I paid $213 including tax for both of them.
I found the receipt stuffed in a drawer years later and couldn’t believe the prices.
I don’t remember him having a ton of clothing or other stuff in his store.
ohhh man! sooo much information all at once! Thanks guys! Im gonna be seeing a guy down in bay head sometime soon about the board. Ill keep you posted! thanks again! 
Here’s the info on the Dusty Rhodes cut and pasted from the beginning of this post. This is it. All of the info there is. Anyone telling you anything else is guessing.
I was there. I worked for Keller’s Surf Shop. I put the deal together for Simo to buy Keller’s. We met at Joe’s Bar in Seaside for the negotiations. The piano player was so bad we tipped him to stop playing.
We had suspected that the Rhodes were built by Keith Hackamack in Hermosa and Simo confirmed it that night. We had a good laugh.
Dusty Rhodes surfboards was a private label brand sold only (to my
knowledge) by Joe Simonello (RIP) at the Custom Surf Shop in Lavallette,
N.J.
It was made up name.
Simo, as he was known, sold hundreds of these boards in the 1966-68 time period.
Simo told me one time that Keith Hackamack, a fireman in Hermosa Beach, was building the boards for him.
Hackamack was a great craftsman and the boards were very well built. I
was somewhat familiar with him prior to the Dusty Rhodes brand since we
had bought a few of his boards under his “Hack” label at Keller’s Surf
Shop, also in Lavallette.
Here’s a little more to the story:
In 1964 it was hard to get product. The custom board builders in So Cal could not keep up with the demand. Popouts, though plentiful, were out. Everyone had become educated and wanted the brands they saw in “The Surfer” (magazine): “custom” (hand shaped) brand name boards.
A surfer from California had visited us around '64-'65 or so and maybe he rented a board or something. Nice guy can’t remember his name. We were talking about how hard it was to get enough product to sell and he said he had a friend, a fireman in Hermosa Beach, who built a really nice board. Keith Hackamack. We ordered a few. I still remember them. They were very nice boards. My girlfriend at the time, Sue Miller, got one and I got to ride it a few times. It was a clear 9’6 with a balsa stringer. We had a couple more. One with red rails and one with green rails. We used him for custom orders too since he was quicker on delivery than Noll or G & S or Con our other main brands at the time. Our official shop gremmie, Russ Petersen got one too. A small one, 8’6" or so.
In general it was a tough sell because the other brands we had were supported by ads in Surfer,
Simo had trouble getting product because most of the brands were tied up. Hobie, Weber, Surfboards Hawaii, Greg Noll, G&S, Con. All tied up. Simo did get a few Gordies I think but there wasn’t much left for him. He got in touch with Hackamack, made up the name “Dusty Rhodes” and being the marketing genius that he was (“Simo Lives” t-shirts were everywhere) sold hundreds of Dusty Rhodes boards. He would have Hackamack make whatever was popular shape wise. In some cases he would accentuate the design characteristics. If concaves were in his were a little longer and deeper, if wide boards were in his were a little wider etc.
He actually had many locals, mostly summer people from North Jersey, beliving that it was a real brand when actually it was his own private label in house brand.
He was able to do this because:
-
The product was excellant.
-
He put some hot surfers on the boards. (Ronnie Concata, Artie Henderson) He pretty much sponsored the South Shore Surf Club.
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The prices he was getting the boards made for was way below the prices from the other brands so he could cut deals when he had too. Although the price mentioned above of $189 was right at the top of the list for the time.
As I said he was a marketing genius.
As I sit here typing this early in the morning I’m wearing my “Simo Lives in Technicolor” t-shirt that one of the Simonellos sent me as a gift last year.
A few years later I got to visit the shop in the South Bay where the boards were made but that’s another story…
Thanks guys! im headed out there tomorrow! we’ll see what nick has to say once again thank you so so much for the over whelming info on my board! it was alll wonderful to read just to know a little bit of info about it. take care
I’m not sure, but I think Simo had something to do with Pro wrestling at one time and Dusty Rhodes was a pro wrestler, he could wrestle your money out of you.
I was dropping of boards and a couple of looky lou’s walked in and out, Simo ran outside and litterally drug them back in the shop and told them what ever they were looking for was in the shop some where.
kind of a Seaside Heights Don Redondo, Corn Flake
Nice obscure reference, Jim. Did Simo ever market a brand of hot sauce?
I just started reading this thread. It was great to hear of all the local shops and some names, like Brian Fitzpatrick, that I hung out with. Poor Brian. I knew Simo in the mid 60’s and often hung around the shop…what a character. I lived in Seaside but went to CA in 66 and stayed with John Boozer (RIP) and Kent “Goose” Geiss in Huntington Beach and often visited the Plastic Fantastic shop. My first Dusty Rhodes was a Love model that I got from Simo in Aug. 1969, I think at the Lavalette shop. It was a 7’10" and I paid $139. I was home on leave before going to Vietnam, and only used the board for a few weeks. I still have it in Seaside Heights. It’s in pristine condition as I never really used it after 1969. I was used to a 10’2" Dewey Weber and never really got used to the Love. I always thought it was kinda like a cork…a bit unstable. I liked much thinner rails. I was thinking about the board and googled this site…loved the stories by Jimthegenius and the others. Too bad many of the people are gone.
Bandit, sadly Brian fitz has left the building also, the first guy I knew of that had anything to do with blow, it would be his undoing, dead and blue in as NJ turnpike bathroom stall. “H” ain’t doing much better in Mel Beach,Florida, it was window in how to NOT do life
While sitting here visiting friends I ran across this thread and thougt I would add these pix. I do not have internet and am currently using a friends computer. I’ll try to check back later and thanks for thinking about me!
I had heard that he died shortly after it happened. I had not seen him since the late '60s. We hung around the J Street shop in Seaside Park in the winter of 65-66. We partied and often slept there as it was closed at the time. Do you remember Billy Kuntz? He has also left the building. He was friends with Brian, too. We grew up together and started surfing around the same time…even swapped a few boards.
I don’t remember Simo having Dusty Rhodes boards in early 1966. I moved to Huntington Beach in 66 and first saw the Dusty Rhodes boards in the Summer of 1969 when I came back for a month. That’s when I bought the 7’10" Love. Prior to that I rode Weber, Jacobs and Harbour boards…called them sticks back then but don’t really use the lingo much anymore…lol.
So I knew this board was old but how rare is it? This chapter in Surfing Long Beach said he constructed around 300 boards. Surfing Long Beach Island - Caroline Unger - Google Books
Keith hackamack lived in Manhattan beach california. He built surfboards by hack out of a small shop in Hermosa Beach. A man from the east coast flew out and approached Keith requesting he shape boards under the name Dusty Rhodes exclusively for him. Keith made the boards and shipped them to the east coast for several years. As best he remembers this was in the fifties, and possibly into the sixties. Does this help?
Sounds like a case of “oldtimers’ disease”.
The time frame would be 1960s and 70s. The first Dusty Rhodes I saw was in 1969, on Cape Cod. That label did not exist in the fifties, and certainly no one would have bothered with such an arrangement as you describe during the fifties because there was no market for surfboards in the East until the mid 60s.
When this thread popped up again, I went back and read thru all of it. I remember seeing a few Dusty Rhodes boards on the West Coast back in the day. Always thought they looked well done. Reminded me of Doug Roth boards. Another story in its self. Lowel
Well SammyA it may be old timers but Keith did make the surfboards under the “Dusty Rhodes” name during the sixties. He stopped production somewhere about 1970 and since he has “old timers” he can’t remember the exact date, but if you have ridden a board made during the sixties with a “Dusty Rhodes” label you can bet it was made by Hack! (That’s what he was called, his name is Keith Hackamack). I don’t know if joe got any one else to continue the line into the seventies!
I live in the area where Custom Surf Shop was located. Dusty Rhodes surfboards sort of left the scene in '69/'70. The last model that I recall seeing was the “Love” which was 1969.