strolling around the website.........here...........and found this...........would love to ride it !
http://www.quivermag.com//boards/rainbowbridge-surfboards-long-beach-ca-1980
have fun!
herb
Ah, if only it concluded with..."free to good home"!!!!
1980 Rainbow Bridge Surfboards Long BEach Ca. 5.8" 20 1/2" wide wing swallowtail Ray Spitzer Signature Twin Fin Fish Model
Rainbow Bridge Surfboards custom built in Long Beach while Herb and Ray Spitzer operated " Rainbow Bridge Surf and Skate" In Long Beach Ca. at 7th street and Bellflower next to the 49er Tavern.
Board was glassed at South Shore Glassing in Costa Mesa Ca. Fins were custom made by Herb Spitzer.
Board is 3" thick with slight down rails hard slightly soft hard to the tail. Low rocker no vee or concaves. Has a beveled wing into a 8" swallowtail. Board is amazingly light yet strong with 1 6oz. and 1 4oz glass with white color and sunburst airbrush with a few pinlines.
A rare surfboard from 1980 Herb Spitzer wrote on the stringer "Spitzer Shapes 1980 And Into The Future. " Look Mom No Hands" Shapers are just now trying to make a board in this style. The rails, fins and rocker all shaped by hand.
Herb would get a blank, cut it out with a hacksaw, lay down the templetes, cut the outline, shape the rocker and rails and tails wings and swallow. Reshape the rails by hand with a screen to have the thickness under your chest but not have the rails boxy especially in the nose area. This board proves that Herb Spitzer was way ahead of his time in 1980....
Howzit huck,For a board that is over 30 years old it is in fantastic shape and just goes to show that the quality is unreal and you don't come across a board like this very often and kudos to Herb and his brother Ray. Aloha,Kokua
I like the fins, but to say Herb was “way ahead of his time in 1980” comes from someone who wasn’t there. That style of board was standard issue back in Southern California because of someone named Richards, who took the idea from my friend Reno. South Shore did some great glasswork back then, but so did the other production houses like Fibrecraft, and Pro Resin Works to name a couple that did boards for anyone off the street. The guys in that area at that time leading the charge were Russell (Stussy and Timpone), Lance Collins Wave Tools (with Heywood and Hurley), Schroff, Kazanas, and Fuller who was the production guy at SS. I would call this the best time for surfboard production in Northern Orange County, and in my opinion it ruled. Pautsch should be mentioned over at McCoy, but wasn’t doing many twins because of Cheyne.
http://www.markrichardssurfboards.com/boards_retro_1978twin.php
MR had a vee bottom.
Cheers
mooneemick
actually rat,
this was a late production board of mine.
i was building quad fishes not unlike today's versions in 78-80'(ask jerry mowe)
thanks for the comps on the fins.
herb
thanks mike,
a few of my boards from that era pop up from time to time,but this one looks in great condition.
herb
joey thomas up santa cruz way should get the credit for the first modern twins.
herb
Hey Herb, of course I was there, and know or knew all the guys I mentioned pretty well. Test me, if you must, and I will pass. I don’t give much credence to your braggadocio, nor to your timelines, but I guess if it makes you feel better. I don’t like being wrong, so I am calling BS on you. Nonetheless, those fins look bitchen. So what your saying is you invented the modern twin, and quad.
.....lol.
herb
Howzit Herb, You are welcome and I must say that I believe in giving kudos when they are deserved and that board and its builders deserve kudos for sure. Wish I had been around when you and your brother had your shop since I know I would have stopped by and checked it out,but by then I had been in Alohaland for a while already.I know the area where your shop was since I made the drive down Bellflower ave. or Lakewood many times when I still was in HP and before the 410 and the 610 were there and connected with the Long beach Freeway. I remember there was a big lot on the sea side of 1 and in the middle was a little fish/bait shop and out side they had a big board standing next to the front of the shop. There may have been some diving products for sale also.Back in the " Tin Can Bch Days ". Aloha,Kokua
Howzit Herb, You are welcome and I must say that I believe in giving kudos when they are deserved and that board and its builders deserve kudos for sure. Wish I had been around when you and your brother had your shop since I know I would have stopped by and checked it out,but by then I had been in Alohaland for a while already.I know the area where your shop was since I made the drive down Bellflower ave. or Lakewood many times when I still was in HP and before the 410 and the 610 were there and connected with the Long beach Freeway. I remember there was a big lot on the sea side of 1 and in the middle was a little fish/bait shop and out side they had a big board standing next to the front of the shop. There may have been some diving products for sale also.Back in the " Tin Can Bch Days ". Aloha,Kokua
K
Hey buddy where were you? Lance used to come by Herb's surfboard shop and look into the windows after operating hours all the time to see what Herb was shaping! Did he ever tell you this? Probaby not so let me tell you about that little fact of knowledge as I see that you could use some.. Let me tell you once and for all Herb Spitzer ( Rainbow Bridge Surfboards ) was shaping / designing several different styled surfboards more than any most surfboard shops around at that time ( As I remember most shops during this era stocked only mass production surfboards, as you would walk into a shop and each had the same type of surfboards in stock. On any day you could find in the Rainbow Bridge Surfboard Shop: Stingers with stright or vee step bottom with or without beveled rails,Twin Fins / Quad Fins Fishes with or without double concave bottom, with or without beveled wings, Standard rocker or flat ( Terry Martin / David Nuuhiwa Rocker ) Modern Longboard designs which were shorter, thinner and with more rocker from 7.3" to 9.0" with fins set as single / twin / quad fin designs. With or without wings, with or without double barrel concave or channels and with boxes! Not to mention standard round pin, swallows, double winged roundtail with double barrel concave in the tail ( my favorite which was stolen.) I believe that Herb gained some of his shaping knowledge for these designs from Ben Aipa, David Nuuhiwa, Steve Lis, Les Pronier and Rick Mchale as he personally hung around with these surfers when he was young. Aipa even asked Herb to shape boards and to put his label on them but Herb declined. This was over 30 years ago! " You're still Not There!"
I really don’t care, I never shaped a twin or four-fin, back then thinking I am going to so this like Herb. The thought never entered my mind, and that’s not meant as a strike against him. Nonetheless, his statement that he invented the modern twin lacks credulity. I am sure Herb is a nice guy, but I am not buying it. You lost me when you put down the name shapers in the area as mass production boards. What a bag of hot air. I find self-promoting as boring and odious, especially when it can’t be substantiated. First the board in question was shaped by Herb’s brother, and second winged swallow twins were commonplace in 1980, with the best work in my opinion done by Shaun Stussy back then, and as a shaper back then that is who I was trying to emulate, even when I was cutting out his fins in Laguna canyon.
g boy,
i never said i invented the modern twin.............can you quote me on that ?
i was definately at the forefront, thanks to guys like ben and randall kim,and others.
i did try and convince others in the industry that vee in the modern twins was the wrong way to go.
i didn't vee my bottoms.........a lesson i learned from steve brom,and thru my own surfing.
i don't see a 30+ year old board of yours here.
and as far as proof...............who really cares...........lol.
those who know..........know............those that don't..............so what !
don't feed into it so much........ and things will come around.
they do for me.
herb
mike,
i think it was called sim's bait and tackle.
red building right..........sat alone by the swamps.
use to collect frogs and snakes back there.......... in those days.
now it caters to a gated,overly expensive dockside homes.
progress?
hope all is good with you.
herb
WOW! Now that I’ve got the hip waders on to get through the hubris —
REALLY NICE SHAPE HERB! That board is beautiful and I’d be a happy man to ride it today!
***edit - I’m NOT sorry to have stepped on any of your delicate toes; Herb shaped a beautiful board, period. Get over it. Appreciate it, copy it if you have the ability.
I find self-promoting as boring and odious, especially when it can't be substantiated.
Haha classic comment there dickhead!!
lockdin,
thanks for the comps.
i know the owner of the board.
he's a friend and former rider of mine.
i would like to see and hold it again.............like seeing an old friend that you haven't seen in awhile.
i can always build another one.
thanks again..............hope you get some waves my friend.
herb