Looking to figure out what kind of board this is. It is a ten foot board with glassed on fin. Signed “Aipa” 113 or 118 I have search internet, emailed experts, and looked in the greg noll book
haven’t really figured out what kind it would be considered.
about the Greg Noll…contact Ben Aipa on O’ahu. I know he would love to see that board. If you are somwhere else other then O’ahu, you may want to call him first and figure out a way to get pictures to him. Ben doesn’t do the computer thing. I know he likes to collect certain boards that he has shaped, and I’ve never seen anything of this era in his shop. Awesome find!
I saw on a website his number to call, but don’t feel like bothering the man. He shaped the board over 40 years ago and don’t know if he would remember much about it.
Thanks Matt
Bill,
Here is E.G. on Surfboards Hawaii looked all over internet cant find anything about shaper with e.g. initials,
Without seeing the whole board, I’ll guess that it’s a 1968 vintage V bottom. A very early transitional shape, given that it’s 10’ long. Very few early V bottoms were that big. In fact, yours is the first I’ve ever seen.
Almost definitely came out out of the Greg Noll Shop in Honolulu, which was run by Charlie Galento. Ben was doing many of the shapes out of the shop at that time.
Sammy is spot on saying that few of the early V bottoms were that long (10’00"). In those days, designs and concepts were changing so quickly, anything was possible. I look back on some of the designs I was riding and wonder what I was thinking. Of course, at the time, they were the latest and greatest of designs.
It would be nice to see a picture of the whole board and any and all laminates. The Greg Noll Shop in Honolulu usually used a “Greg Noll Surf Center Hawaii” laminate.
The Greg Noll Shop in Honolulu became a Surfboards Hawaii Shop for a time, and became the Downing Shop, which it currently is today.
Appears to be a very nice find, with some great history. Would appreciate more photos.
Given the length of the board, it may be as early as late 1966, or 1967. I'm sure you remember that by 1968 the sub 9 foot Greg Noll Bug was the ''hot'' board to be riding. Nine feet and over, was a ''normal'' size board, while 8' 10'' was classified as a ''Mini Board''. Everyone, it seemed, wanted to be on a Mini Board! By 1968 the Vee Bottom, as a viable design, was gone from the scene.
I had only been surfing not even a year when the whole “mini-board”, shortboard revolution took place. If my memory serves me correctly, that looks like the “Bug” model that Bill mentioned earlier.The most obvious characteristic of that board was the wedged tail design like the one pictured. Maybe it was custom ordered or an experimental stretched out Bug.