Anyone know where to get their hands on more of those Star Fins?? - I have an old school twinnie Nomad that I restored and from the looks of it the same fins as above… I only have one and would not enjoy paddling in circles.
Hi, holy crap that board may have been mine. I worked for Larry Gordon at the PB surf shop and G & S Sports from 1981 to 1984… Gayle fired me for sitting around. Anywho, I bought this or it’s cousin off the rack for Christmas … Many of these were done with nearly the same work up as rack boards for the 3 shops in SD at that time. G & S sports in El Cajon and La Mesa and the PB Surf Shop. I had it for a really short time and traded it in for something else cause I hated the twin thing. I think this model was for that Wes Dude in Fla. that was the king of the G & S stable at the time - they grooved on the twinnies more that this coast. The nose is pulled in from the MR templates and I’m pretty sure the next model would’ve been the Lazer Zap thruster. Honest to god, that may have been mine.
[quote="$1"] holy crap that board may have been mine. I worked for Larry Gordon at the PB surf shop and G & S Sports from 1981 to 1984... Many of these were done with nearly the same work up as rack boards for the 3 shops in SD at that time [/quote]
well there we have it! cheers Mikefish, now we know the era for sure. I'm glad you held off until now though - its been fun figuring it out for ourselves.
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The early 80s was the crossover time from twins to thrusters and I think there was some narrow nosed thruster influence in this g&s shape
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The nose is pulled in from the MR templates... [/quote]
so the nose is narrower, although an exact measurement would be nice Chilly.
Surfboard evolution tends to make some steps forward and then regress when either a concept is taken too far or fashion sends design towards the less functional. Then the errors are realised and design moves forward again. I think this board was influenced by the narrower nosed thrusters that were emerging and while it produced pleasing aesthetics for the fashion of that time it would have been a performance regression due to the widened tail and narrowed nose exaggerating the already pivoty twin fin design. I think the earlier MR design would have worked better.
Chilly, although I consider this design to be a regressive phase in the evolution of the twin-fin, it should in no way detract from your great find. Its in mint condition and one of the last of the twin fins, that marked that transition time when the masses were moving to thrusters, with a few recalcitrants such as myself persevering with twinnies. I forgot to post a link to the old ads page of the g&s site, its here
http://www.gordonandsmith.com/adgallery_parent.htm
the ad with the similar design is page 4, last column on the right, 5th row. I remember seeing that in the magazines.
And then of course how much is what I’m saying worth anyway, I’m just a hobbyist with the tiniest amount of industry exposure, but that is my assessment and while I in no way claim that my personal twinnies were gold standard I do believe that with some of them at least I got the basic formula right - narrow tail, forward planshape with wider nose and/or wide point forward, fin positions aft of thruster but forward of keel - thanks to MR and others who developed and popularised that design. In the little shop I worked we used to measure or template everything of interest that passed through it, particularly the foreign designs. It was an interesting era, I first saw the thruster concept as a picture in a US surfing magazine. I can’t remember if this was before or after Simon Anderson won Bells on one in 1981. I thought what a bizarre looking thing! I imagined it to be a cross between a twinnie and a single fin and therefore not as fast as a twin fin but faster than a single - but its not quite like that of course.
the nose measures 13 1/2".
mr.j thanks for the link to the ads. i think i found an exact match. the last page has an ad for surfwear. it shows a guy in the short shorts of the day on what appears to be an exact match. board has the same logo and channels. the ad is dated 1982 which would match mikefish's timeframe. clearly an ad for the clothing but i'm sure they would grab the props from what was on the rack at the time. check it out.
http://www.gordonandsmith.com/adgallery_parent.htm
i think that solves the mistery. time to get it in the water after 27 years. thanks for the interest and the input!
We called em Twin Spins, spot on re the width in the tail. Those guys in Fla. were all about foam ball 360’s to progress to the next round / heat. After I left ( or was asked to leave 
G & S I got on Caster’s up the road that were more or less the same but with star thruster sets. Those were fun, like skateboards that always stayed under foot. In the ads you found you can see J. Hogan, great surfer and the last guy that G & S pinned all their hopes on, shortly after this period the industry TANKED much as it is today. The New Wave Fashion end of things quickly looked dated and gay as did the surf style of the day. The LB revival in the 90’s pulled it out and G & S was in a pretty good spot to jump that train… I got my first Thinman Egg from Skippy in 1983 and turned all soul, never looking back to those wide assed stances and length of ride stylings. Fun to think back though, thanks for the post. Btw, that big twinny if indeed mine, was too thick for me generally, I was 165… sigh… back then.
Beautiful board.
It seems like your questions were all answered, but have a look at http://www.boardcollector.com/ for more late 70's early 80's goodness.