as always thanks for any and all info and I really have been enjoying the hot seat
my buddy has a Joyce Hoffman with the wishbone fin and was wondering specifics and history
hes had it since a teen in '78.
The Sunshine is my fathers recently recovered 1970. Was stolen three years ago and a buddy found in a pawnshop the other day! Still has the fin too! At any rate I’ve heard that the first year or so Codgen didn’t shape out of Fla but that mike Eaton was shaping them from Bings factory Any help would be great on either or both boards.
Any photos would be a great help on either or both boards.
The Hoffman is from roughly 1966-67. I believe the Hoffman Hobie was the first signature model that bore a woman’s name. They were produced for a very short time, and I doubt there are many around. So, a pretty rare board as Hobies go. They might have had a two year production run, at most. Killed off by the “short” board in '68.
The Sunshine? Built at the Bing factory from 1970 to '72. 1972-74? Gordon and Smith had the contract.
This is a Hobie ad from 1968. Cover date on the mag is July, so the issue would have been published in May of that year. Note the slight V bottom in the tail of the Hoffman. I’m not sure if earlier versions had that. The ad mainly touts the “Mini Model” and the new “short” boards. I couldn’t fit the whole ad on my scanner as it’s a double page foldout of the front cover.
Sammy so far so good! Looking forward to whateveer else you can figure out too!
The Hoffman seems to be the one pictured. Only piece of info Im wainitng for is my man to give me the length but as you can see it look like the one in the ad.
Also have included pics of the Sunshine including fin. Also was curious about the slight downward tip of the diamondtail and also a more pronounced vee in the tail behind the fin
Really lucky to have that fin. I had a GP Wedge (as shown in the ad) and the fin was mangled and brittle. Wound up with little more than a stub. The fins were made from polypropelene. Not resistant to environmental exposure like UV and such. They didn’t like really cold water, either. A few friends snapped them just doing turns in sub 40 degree water.
That funny bevel was typical in the early Hobie V bottoms and other shapers did a similar thing. Just a novel way of doing a tail on a deep V.
The fin system on the Sunshine is a Guidance. One of the worst ever and they weren’t around very long. For good reason. That alone dates your board at about 70-71…72 at the very latest. Might be from the Bing factory, as they were using Guidance around that time.
Awesome! A couple of last pieces of info and questions before letting this go-
Ive read online (so of course its true) that T Martin shaped all of the Hoffman boards (literally all of them) and also (my buddy wants to know and Im curious) and of course depends on all other factors - what do you thinnk a fair market price for the Hobie would be? Sunshine will never be sold be it 1.00 or a million… Also Ive read about the Guidance system - is there a good link online or in sways to their history? Who was the parent company? I figure maybe I can ask the folks at Bing if they have any old records on the other brands that were produced or history of the shapers doing them. I have emailed Hobie to no avail (but probably got sent to a general hullabaloo box of millions of emails that they get). And was Codgen actually doing board design of the Sunshine models or was this just what was happening and working at the time?
And as an aside Sammy, this was the last board my pop bouht in 1970 (the first year he was married). He stopped surfing in his mid 70’s because of mac d treatments for his eyes (afraid to konk his head and do unforeseen damage) but he still bodysurfs and turned 87 this year. Thought you guys would like that. He’s my hero.
I cannot tell you who shaped the Hoffmans. Hobie had so many guys drifting in and out or even ghosting back then. Once he got a foothold on the East Coast production went through the roof. Hobies were the shit in the East for a few years. He knew how to market a product.
I know little about Guidance Fins. Search the Sways archives. They have been discussed at length but the details escape me at the moment. I just know that the fins fell out easily and they sucked. I had a Guidance box in a Weber Pig around 1971. It was an annoyance.
The downward tip on the bottom of the Sunshine at the diamond tail looks like foam shrinkage to me. Looks like the fin box area is raised in comparison to the rest of the tail. I know that Walker blanks experienced this, but not sure what blank Sunshine was using at the time.
Thanks for the reminder guys, old age and the things that come with it, get in the way sometimes. 9’ 9" L, 18" N, 22 3/4" W, 14 3/4" T, 5 1/2" square tail. Aloha
So, yours would most likely be a first gen Hoffman, before the V became fashionable. Are you the original owner, and in what year did you acquire it, if so? Nice to see the original fin on it. Those fins didn’t last long. Polypropelene was a wrong turn in fin material, for sure.
