Well guys the history is just flowing through my shop these days. Today I returned to find this board leaning up against the shack.
I got a call last week from a friend who wanted an old Hobie restored and he said it was a “Team” board. I thought for sure he meant a signature model or something, but this does appear to be a contest “Gary Propper” model and I’m guessing it’s one of Gary’s actual boards due to the massive laminates?
Still not sure what to do about this one. I actually think it would look best simply cleaned up and displayed on a nice wall rack. The damage is really severe.
Check it out and let me know what you think. The stringer is absolutely amazing. If I could only find blanks like these today! wowweeeeee
There is no restoration to riding condition in that board. Not many options that make sense.
1) strip off glass and plane down stringer.............No bueno
2) Strip off glass and fill foam with something to build back up around the stringers = Fat pig
3) both options kill the laminates, so it will never be a Hobie again.......it will be Frankenstein
4) there's not enough money to pay for the 180 hrs of work it's going to take to repair......then it's going to be an old sucky riding 60's longboard. Let's see $1000.00 / 180 hrs = $5.55. I Hope you charges the guy at least $1000.00 to get it done? Oh you didn't....humm maybe $500.00.......err $2.77 per hour? Go collect aluminum cans with the homeless, it pays more.
5) sell it on e-bay for $2,000......good luck finding a fin too.
Send it to aus, and give it to platty, he posts here occasionally. His resto's are bullshit. Or find someone like that where you are. It'd look good restored but resinhead is much more knowledgable than me
That is about as trashed as a board can get. Shame, too. The two block letter lams would indicate it is in fact a team board. It was pretty common for all team boards in those years to get an extra block letter lam, or two. I’ve seen it on Webers, Hobies, and others. More often, the block letter lam would say HOBIE TEAM, WEBER TEAM, etc.The large Hobie diamond was standard on that model. Whether it ever belonged to Propper is anyone’s guess. Tommy, you’re in FL. Why not contact Catri? He ran the Hobie team when those were the latest thing and Propper was his #1 star.
That particular model was supposedly the biggest selling board in Hobie’s history. Possibly the record holder in sales of any brand for the entire EC. So, there are no doubt a lot of them still around if you just consider percentages. It had a brief run because it was introduced just prior to boards getting much shorter.
Anyone familiar with the Hobie line will recognize that nose pinstripe outline as the one now used on “The Slug”. Another popular board from Hobie. I will withold comment on the rider associated with that model.
Hobie sold a bunch of them for sure. Seems like i can remember that even the local shops that sold Hobies could form their own Team and get boards with these big logos.I could be mistaken.
GP was a great salesman. He traveled a lot and spent time at the shops and surfed the local breaks.Sold tons of boards. Next came Claude Codgen and Bruce Valuzzi riding right behind him selling Con CC Riders. The east coast was booming. I like the board just as it is. Kind of like antique furniture…it shows it’s age. As a footnote I can remember that Propper drove a Jaguar and Claudie a Porsche. Very impressive at the time. (plus they got all the Chicks)
Hey Bill! That is a great video! I think I see my team van in there
I would say the Propper is about 9’ 4" if even that… It feels a bit shorter than my standard log, but I haven’t had the chance to measure the board. I hope I can convience the owner to leave the board as it is… I’ll make a template and shape a replica for him and me too!!! I bet Blair Foam could come up with a similar stringer?
Thanks to everyone for the great history on this board
You are not mistaken. Local Hobie franchises, along with other major labels, had shop teams that rode boards with custom team lams. Friends of mine from RI rode for Hobie, Weber, Surfboards Hawaii, and Jacobs in the 60s. Many of their boards had team laminates.
Try going to the Youtube site and searching for Balsa Bill. When you go to my channel you’ll find the clip along with some other classic surfing clips.
How about a close pic of the fin and box? Looks like an original in exceptional condition. I think you’d be hard pressed to find a cleaner one. Even the fin looks mint.
