Hansen CardiFF 9'8" - Buzzy Smole - #.14089. - 1967 - 1968??

General Discussion
1

Hi there. I bought this Hansen CardiFF 9'8" (Mike Doyle design) in San Diego mid 1980s when I lived for 8 great years.

I got an inkling it was a pretty special board as every time I went out for a surf people kept trying to buy it off me.

In 1992 I returned to New Zealand with my treasured board.

My son and I have enjoyed tracing its heritage and are still trying to figure out when and where it was built.

Thanks to the insightful comments of shaper (since 1958) Mr Bill T on this forum, we have figured out that it was shaped by Fred (Buzzy) Smole 

and we are guessing around 1967 or 1968.

The serial number is .14089. The logo has the vertical surfboard going thru the middle of "by Hansen CardiFF". Mike Doyle design.

Also the number 851 is displayed (not sure what that relates to). It is a pin tail with a dolfin fin.

The board is not for sale but we would be interested in knowing its approx value as I guess I should get around to insuring it, as we have

had a bunch of pretty bad earthquakes down here recently (Christchurch). Thankfully the board has remained intact.

If anyone could please help narrow down the age of this board, and its approximate value (it is in pretty good shape) that would be really helpful.

Many thanks. John G

2

 

Incorrect. Hansen’s proprietary fin system (bolt through the deck) was around 66 to 67. By '68 they had switched to WAVESET fins, along with damn near everyone else.

I’m sure Bill can verify this.

3

Duplicate post deleted.

4

Pictures would help (A lot)

5

Photo's of the fin/fin system would help pin down the year of construction.

6

Does it have a screw thru the deck at the fin box that secures the fin?  If it does that will narrow the time frame down to very late sixtys.  '68 or  '69.  Bill will be able to tell you for sure.  "Cardiff "  is Cardiff by the Sea, Calif.   Doyle took credit for pretty much anything with the use of that lam..

7

Yeah Bill's the expert on Hansen.  All I''ve ever done is own a few.  Still have a very nice one that Bill shaped and a "lightweight" that Buzzy shaped.  Both with bolts.  Got rid of a Doyle with a 747 a few years back that was a nine on a scale of 1--------10

8

Does anyone remember when Hansen got in to the blank business? Around 69.

9

It may have been a little before that. It seems to me I remember driving to Ventura with Larry Gordon around the Spring of '69 and he was talking about the lawsuit. We were going up there to see Karl Pope and Tom Morey. We’d stopped in to see Hansen on the way up. Hansen had been sued by Clark and the suit was either ongoing or had just been settled. Clark didn’t prevail. Larry had plans to blow foam but he wanted to see how the lawsuit turned out first.

I think we started blowing Pacific Foam blanks at G & S  sometime in late '69 or '70.

But in Spring of '69 we were still using Clark foam as you can see in this photo from March of '69:

Clark Foam truck

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

10

I was working for Jim phillips in Rhode Island and he was using Hansen Blanks. They came split and we glued them up. The following year I had a factory and we bought Hansen blanks from Ted James (Fox) in South Florida. . These blanks were glued up. They were really thick. By the end of the year we were using Clark.    ( Sorry to Hijack the the thread. I hope we get to see pics of the Doyle Model.)