When did resin swirls really begin?
The reason I ask is I don’t think I’ve ever seen an old board that had them, even though they look like they belong to the late 60s.
Groovily,
C
Ask Donnie Mulhern. He either did it first or knows who did.
The work he did with Takayama and Brummet(sp?) in the '60s is legendary.
I talked with him back at Christmas time and posted something about it on the
‘‘resin tints and patterns’’ thread.
Thanks, Mike. I was hoping you’d reply. I guess I just haven’t seen boards from the 60s with resin swirls but I knew they probably existed.
I’ll do some more searches here.
C
I wish we could get Mully to come on here, he’d be hilarious. It wouldn’t be G-rated, though.
There’s enough stories about him to fill 2 or 3 books. Just an absolutely classic guy.
I’ve seen late 50’s Velzy & Jacobs balsa’s with resin streaks. Not really the swirls you’re thinking of, but I have definitely seen late 60’s boards with acid splashes and swirls. A good friend of mine has a really clean '67 Hansen 50-50 model with a resin sun emitting resin rays. A lot of the Hobie, Corky Carrol Mini models had resin swirls in the late 60’s.
Mike,
Where does he live? I have a board by his son that I absolutely love, which I bought in Puerto Rico.
I’d like to meet his father. You must be a character to decide to mix colors together like that, especially when most boards from that period were inspired by crew cuts and hot rods (judging by my dad’s old pix).
Regards,
C
Lance,
That’s really interesting. I guess I just don’t see enough old boards or maybe I just don’t recall the more subtle applications of tinted resins from the olden days.
Or are these boards very rare? I presume your friend’s Hansen is worth some money to collectors.
The reason I started this thread was I was thinking, like I told Mike, that it was a genius who decided first to go Picasso on his or her board rather than do straight color and pins. Like most things, it was probably many people who did this “first,” all of them geniuses.
Thanks.
C
Donnie Mulhern is from California but has lived in Florida since about 1970. He glassed for Weber in the early
60s, then formed MTB with Takayama and Brummert. They were like an all-star team of boardbuilders. In the
big industry disaster of 69-70, Donnie ended up owning the MTB name but little else. He came to Florida and
in the words of Larry Pope, "showed everybody how to do it right’'.
In the mid to late 70s, MTB had their own all-star crew at their factory on US 1 in Melbourne. Shapes by
Bobby Strickland and Johnny Lucas, glassing by Bob Keller and Fred Grosskreutz, airbrush art by Phil Roberts
and Gary Philhauer, sanding by Larry Pope, etc. Patrick Mulhern was a teenage phenom at the time and was
blowing minds everywhere with his highly futuristic surfing. As you probably know, Patrick is now the most
energetic shaper in Encinitas and still flat-out rips.
Donnie opened a retail store (MTB Surf Emporium) in Indialantic circa 1980. He can still be found there when he’s
not fishing or raising hell.
Sounds like a guy more people should know about and I’m surprised I’ve never heard of him. Maybe I should fly out to the shop and start taking notes for the book! Seriously though the day is coming when no one will be able to remember where this stuff came from–even though we’ll be up to our ears in resin swirled boards–unless we put it down on paper. That’s the cool thing about Sways.
You should write the book, Mike. I’m sure you could fill it with all sorts of characters.
And, yeah, Peter’s shapes are excellent. The thing I love about my board is I’ve never been able to pearl it no matter how late I dropped, and it still paddles good. Perfect rocker for hollow waves.
Regards,
C
Ummm…I would say the late 1960’s for the resin or acid swirls and patterns…the swirls may be made of (tinted or colored) resins but it ain’t about the resin…if you get the drift…
I guess another interesting question would be why the transition from resin swirls to airbrushing? A chemical change in the “air”?
C,
I can’t write that book until I’m really, really sure that the statute of limitations has run out on
all episodes in the subject matter. Meantime, the surfboard part of it goes on sways.
Nels, the reason spray color took over was two-fold: first, clear free-laps are faster than color cuts
and therefore more production-friendly, plus they don’t zipper-ding; second was the graphic and fade
look was deemed ‘contemporary’'at the time. It took most of the 70s for resin color to (almost) completely
go away.
Maybe some of the other people who have vague recollections of the 60s could jump in here on the
origin of the splash?
I can remember when MTB was the best board on the East Coast.I started a factory with Bill Hixon in Jacksonville Beach in the early 1970’s.I met a guy named Jeff Martin who was from Santa Cruz and one of the MTB crew.He was in some kind of trouble and had to leave Melbourne.I hired him at our factory where we were building Fluid Visions,White Star and Miniard surfboards.Jeff (know by his alias “Martinez” showed us Lot of stuff and our quality jumped.He was an old Haut glasser.I also hired Phil Roberts to some airbrush work.Those were unreal times and boards were progressing at a rapid rate.I never met Mulhern but I do know he was key player along with Catri.Greg Loer was the clark foam delivery Guru.I first saw resin swirls on boards in Hawaii circa 1964.I think they were Inter Islands being glassed by Chris Green.Seems like yesterday.I could write a book on this stuff.Maybe I ought to. R Brucker
Hey Mike I was just kidding about a book.Go ahead and write one.I’m too lazy anyway.
Quote:
Nels, the reason spray color took over was two-fold: first, clear free-laps are faster than color cuts
and therefore more production-friendly, plus they don’t zipper-ding; second was the graphic and fade
look was deemed ‘contemporary’'at the time
Ugh. Commerce and fashion took out a beautiful artistic element. 'Twas ever thus I guess. I figured they were elements but seeing it in black and white makes their influence plain.
And the surfboards too.
I don’t really recall any acid splash/resin swirls by, say 1973, including the used racks…a little bit on the label on my W.A.V.E. Hollow, but I don’t recall any on regular boards of that era of manufacture. That was soon followed by single color or clear boards…I don’t remember a whole lot of fancy spray jobs in the Rincon to Malibu area in the 70’s (yeah yeah Zephyr), but that might be a factor of the places I surfed and the shops/builders I frequented. Maybe others had different experiences. Australia seemed to produce a lot of good airbrush art then, I do remember that.
You guys who know the stuff ought to write “the book”. Right now there’s money enough to get publishers to bite. If there can be books about surf movie fliers and “the surfboard” a full-scale art book featuring this kind of resin work is a natural, with colorful stories and careful illustration of the process only adding to the interest.
Quote:
He was in some kind of trouble and had to leave Melbourne.
I can’t imagine that happening to anyone who knew Mr. Mulhern, but if you say so…
Actually I think the problem originated in California.He married a girl from Mexico and moved down there.A classic character and amazing craftsman.
I started doing simple airbrush work in 1969.Mainly it was cut out stencils.We were using leather dye from the Tandy Leather Company.As a matter of fact I can remember a dude that did leather work actually tought me the basics.The dye faded in the sunlight.Speaking of resin work I have to say that the best I ever saw was done by Brummett on Surfboard Hawaii boards.This is when they were being built in Encinitas.Dick Catri had the east coast shop shop in Cocoa.These resin fish were taped off and done on the sanded hotcoat with all sorts of amazing tints,abstracts etc.Someone posted a picture on Sway’s several years ago.Sandy Forsythe at Aqua East Surf Shop in neptune Beach has one hanging on the wall.I do tend to think that the Australians were doing airbrush work first.Not sure.It’s an interesting subject though. RB
i have a KENN board from 66-67. they were made in Brisbane. this one is a Gary Birdsall model. Gary was and still is an artist. he was a good enough surfer to have a model named after him. when i obtained this board as a trade in, i tracked Gary down and he dated it approx 66-67. he said it was the first or very close to the first board he painted with a spraygun and carpaints. the board has a taped and stenciled sun on it. according to some surfing historians here Gary was the first guy to paint boards on the foam before glassing.
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I do tend to think that the Australians were doing airbrush work first.Not sure
It’s easy to forget just how far the distances were back then…thinking back last night I remember that there was a lot of airbrush work coming out of Hawaii/Honolulu in roughly that '71-'73 era that I was directly aware of…seemed like the best of Town guys had day-glo sprays…while my part of California went black wetsuit/clear board boring. Hawaii closer to Australia than the mainland…makes sense.
Did Australia have a lot of resin swirls back then? Parallel developments?
Is Chris Green still around? 1964 is way earlier than I would have thought.
Great info here.
It’s wild to consider how much farther Australia was from Cali was from Hawaii back then without the internet and daily flights between them. And yet it evolved in all three places.
Nels,
All my boards look better on acid. Way more symmetrical. Don’t surf as well though. Too many flying lizards.
Take it easy,
C