My piece of crap, chinese pop out was pilfered from the side of my shed the other night. It’s my fault, I know. I left it out too long. But still, it’s not fun. It used to be 9’0", but it became a patched up, blunt nosed 8’10" by the time I (and sun cure) was done with it. My neighbor, who owns a security company, didn’t have a camera in the back so he didn’t see anything. It was gone…
“But”, he says, “my Mom wants to clean her garage out and I think there’s a surfboard in there.” Ding
“It’s been in there for, gosh, 40 years now?” Ding**Ding
"I think it’s a Gordon & Smith Hot Curl."DingDingDing?
And it is.
The first interesting thing I immediately noticed is it’s painted blue. Somebody painted over the gloss coat. With, what? Lead based paint? Marine paint? They also did a seriously heavy white job over the stringer. In the blue, there were small chips of paint missing, revealing some sort of beautiful glass job underneath (Volan?). I almost peed my pants when I saw that. I noticed the fin was a painted-over Waveset system (correct me if I’m wrong please). There was also a fixed ding in the tail.
He gave it to me for $100. He’s cool like that. Day care money, see you later.
So I have pics and questions. I started sanding the paint off with 220 grit. This is working okay. I was wondering if using a chemical like acetone or mineral spirits would be better? I’ve already found some well patched dings and one small crack I need to fix but for the most part it’s in fair condition. I started sanding above the fin hoping to find a serial number but no such luck. Anybody know where one would be on this board? The stringer looks like redwood? And seems to split around the fin box. It also appears that there is blue foam in this split? The stringer follows the curves of the (now sanded) white paint, revealing a curved stringer to tailblock. Same deal in the nose resulting in nose block. Small logo in upper right. 9’0" 18 3/4" x 23 3/4" x 15 1/2"
9 foot Hot Curl would be 1968 vintage. The stringer is two pieces of redwood that flare at both ends and there is colored foam in the flares. Not a nose or tailblock. The Hot Curl was introduced in late '67 and was continued well into the transition era. You have a second gen version, as it is shorter than the originals. The first and second gen Hot Curls had colored foam stringers as an option. Red, green, yellow, or blue. Or, just plain foam. The serial number should be on the stringer, some place close to the label. Here is the serial # on mine. I have an 8’8".
As you can see in my pic, mine has a yellow foam stringer. I got lucky and scored one that is identical to one shown in a magazine ad, right down to the matching color fin, when they first went “short”.
Composite pic is my board, second image is the ad.
You are right. It’s not a tail block, it’s the blue foam stringer. I have sanded most of the bottom off and I think I’ll do around the label on the deck next.
And the fin is glassed in. As in, it has the bolt screwed in and then that is all glassed over. Weird.
It looks water tight to me, except for that fin box.
If you manage to get that wretched mess off the fin area you will discover there’s two bolts. One in front, one in back. At least, there’s supposed to be. It has a WAVESET finbox.
One G&S ‘Hot Curl’ Surfboard - 9’3" X 23" X 19"(N) X 17"(T) - reddish/orange color bottom/rails with yellow foam insert inside flared stringers - “Another in a Long Line of Barney’s Hybrids” inscribed in pencil under glass - dings on rails faded to yellow with water intrusion - black flex fin in Waveset box.
Mysteriously ‘disappeared’ (with a couple of others) from a barn in Topanga Canyon in 1974. Please PM me if you know where it is?
Small update on the board. I finally found the serial number. It’s hard to see but it says 0343.
The logo was glassed in crooked, compared to the stringer.
It’s good to know that I am sanding through the brown gloss coat. At this point, I was sure it was going to happen. I’m wondering if it would be a good idea to re-gloss or were these boards glassed heavy enough that I could sand it to a gloss without the gloss coat? Also, would it be sacreligious if I gloss coat it with sun cure?
The board is now showing the wear and tear it got. There’s a few dings on the deck and bottom. They are all fixed well but are yellow. The left side of the nose is compressed some and yellow. It was glassed over but it might be the weakest part of the board. More pics of that to come.
Also, I’m guessing the sun probably did this but the colored nose and tail sections are purple. Not purple-ish blue, not blue in patchy areas, but full on purple. Completely different than the blue on the bottom. Pics of that coming too.
The fin. I do see both bolts available and they are both glassed over with the rest of the fin box. The white paint is heaviest here and since the box is raised up a little, it’s a pain to sand, so that is taking the longest. My main goal is to surf this thing and I’m familiar with the Wave Set fin snapping. As much as I don’t want to do anything to this board, I’m considering a fin box. Any input on that?
I’m with Mattwho on trying to salvage the original box. If you have a Dremel tool, find a bit that looks like it belongs in a dentist’s office and carefully proceed to expose the screws and the slot opening. If you can expose the head of the screws, maybe a Dremel cutoff wheel could be used to cut a slot in the top for a regular screwdriver(?) Maybe a router would be the tool of choice when removing the fin itself. There will likely be leftover resin inside the box but that should chisel out pretty easy.
I’ve seen the after market fins for those boxes on eBay and online. Not cheap, but stronger than the original molded fins of the era - here is one that looks pretty close to the original…
To my knowledge, I have never heard of or seen a Hot Curl with purple foam. If yours is blue on one side and purple on the other I can only assume it’s from UV discoloration. Same as red airbrush shifts toward yellow with age. The serial number means pretty much nothing when it comes to G and S. They were random and no help in determining a board’s age.
Okay, so I really think the board was glassed blue on the bottom and purple on the top. There’s some pretty interesting evidence that it was. Here’s the tail, it’s not the easiest to see but I do see two different colors.
There’s also, what appears to be a fixed ding done on the purple section of the nose. The purple was taken out and clear used for the repair. This shows the blue underneath.
Stringer shows a little blue trying to pop through the purple.
The fin and fin box is damaged. The box is raised up a little and it appears water did/could get in there. The screws were rusted underneath the glass so I will be drilling those out. I guess I’m going to put in a longboard box so I can ride this thing. It has a good amount of dings but for the most part, it’s in good condition. Nobody answered whether I could simply sand the board to a nice gloss shine or if I should apply another gloss coat. I think I’ll do the latter.
Depending on the condition of the surface and how you end up doing the box, you might think about fairing everything out as best you can, laminating a single layer of 4 oz cloth and progressing from there with a hotcoat and re-gloss. A bunch of pigment added to the lamination can cover ugly repairs although the photos indicate a fairly nice board under there. At the very least, do a glass-over patch on the new box.
With the right fin you’re going to have a great rider. That board represents some advanced longboard designing/shaping immediately prior to the “shortboard revolution.”
It would be fine to regloss. It would not hurt to put a layer of 4 oz on the board , just adds a bit more weight. Original boxes are still out there , you just have to track em down. They even made an insert for the original WAVE fin box so you could use a newer style fin. I wouldnt be in a hurry to change the fin box , I would search for an original. Just my preference. Good luck.
