There was a girl that used to surf 2nd Avenue in Bradley Beach on a long Challenger Eastern with a coke bottle tint and a Jewish star on it.
She used to wear one of those macrame string bikinis and caused an awful lot of wipeouts.
tomp,
Yep, there are lotsa ways to make a board look good! 
Randy
shutterbugg55,
Oh m’ ga! we would have freaked out too if you hung with a bunch of “long-haired hippy, dope-smoking sufers”.
Randy
HAHAHA --
Randy, my dad was anti-everyone!
SB55
Hello Hartson. Gary Robbins here. Humm, If your Rible was made in the chicken coops on Belmar Blvd. I'm pretty sure that I shaped and laminated it as you may remember. By then most every one had deserted Bob for greener pastures, like Jimmy, and later Bill Albert who taught me the finer points of glassing. I was having much too much fun to leave Rible.
You, I, Steve and Gary Thompson, Carl Mertens, Charlie Cotugno, etc., were the locals at 19th. Steve had had a heart transplant, but is enjoying life in FL. We are in touch.
One funny story: While doing boards in the coop, Rible lost the lease and Tinker was taking over the building. We held on to the last minute. One day I was glassing a board and from the other side of the wood wall that seperated me from Challenger, a sledge came crashing through, I guess it signaled it was time to leave, which we did. From there we made some boards in Seaside Park, till Rible called it quits.
From there I worked a year or so for deGroot and Mason, in Pt Pleasant with Gene Cottrel and Dean Ward, mostly glassing, but also shaping when Gene wasn't available. That was '69.
PS Rible still owes me money. At a dollar an hour god knows how much!
Jim or Randy or whomever: What would be the minamum Temp. you would attempt to glass without resorting to chemicals to kick it off ? I;m doing a project out doors. and it’s finally warming up here so it’s been a long time since I did glassing in cool wheather . Thanks, Frank
Gary!
So good to hear from you. I actually watched Rible shape my board, so I know you didn’t do that one. I do remember you covered with foam dust all the time. You may well have glassed my board as I have no recollection of the glassing at all. Now that the snow is gone I will get the board out and take some pictures. I do remember that the board was made in the dead of winter, as I mentioned, so cold that it was touch and go whether the resin would even react with the hardener. I remember something about cobalt, or acetone being handy in such situations, but that might just be my mind playing games.
I also still have a Challenger that I bought off of Donnie Clayton (one of those boards that couldn’t decide whether it was small or big) and a Bahn, the three boards pretty much speaking to the time line of long to short in the late sixties, early seventies. I never did make the transition very well, and in fact, this was about the time I took to the dirt bikes (Rocky’s fault). Reminds me of one of the few times I actually had a conversation with Tinker. It was under the boardwalk at the USO beach in Long Branch. Tinker was actually being interviewed by someone, and he was going on about how dirt-bike riding was having a negative impact on surfing (being very Tinkeresque) and I piped up that I was into dirt-bike riding, but I was still dedicated to surfing as well…..he said that was just not possible, and that I would end up going one way or the other. Of course he was right, and I spent the next 20 years riding in the woods given any spare time I had.
I now belong to the First Aid Squad that took Rible out of his house on New Bedford Road for the last time, so I can attest to the fact that they did indeed have to remove some wall to get him out. Ironically right across the street from where the coops were, and about 200 yards from where I live now.
Randy. It's been a long time, but I used to have a chart ( temp to a specific volume of resin) for the volume of hardner to get that perfect set up time. 7 minutes for me. Catalyst went up greatly when the temp was under 70. It's scary I know. I used a volumetric flask. It's kinda trial and error. Too slow and you drain. Too fast and you have a disaster. I'd lean a little to the slow side. One trick if it turns out to be too slow is to quickly squegee on a very hot coat which will set up the resin underneath. It has worked for me in the past. Hope that helps a little. Gary
Hartson! Funny, I used to live on Harrison St, about 2 blocks from you. (till the bitch took my house). Ha! I traded way up! I sent this thread to Steve. He'll enjoy it. If your board was made in winter, that was a scary time for me. Believe it or not he had me glassing in a poly enclosed no ventilation room, with open buckets of acetone and an open flame kerosene heater! A bomb waiting to happen, but I lived through it.
Yeah, cobalt was an additive to make the reaction with the catylist quicker, but very unpredictable. I stayed away from that. Styrene was a sort of thinner for the resin, but I never found the need to use it.
If Bob shaped your board, I appologize. So how square are those rails? Jim showed me how to, and he even (almost) gave me a kinda sorta complement upon feeling up one of my shapes after he left for greener pastures. Gary
Frank,
It looks like Gary is the scientist here.
I did boards like girls ... feel ... I was one of the good hands folk.
Seriously, Gary is correct.
The brand of resin, humidity, temperature, and some other things can alter the timing.
It might be good to call the representive who sells the drums.
In the absence of that, Gary's formulas seem sane to me.
later bro,
Randy
Gary,
Yes, been a long time. Glad to hear from you!
I passed it on to Frank, who in his day was a glasser of the utmost ability and quality.
later bro,
Randy
Frank. Looking back, I see that I responded to Randy on your post. Sorry about that. Oldtimers, Anheusers, whatever. Hi to you too Randy. Good to see you again.
One more desperation move if you must glass in the outdoors (not recommended), when you are done and not setting up, move it into the sunshine. The UV can work wonders, but move it again inside when it goes off. Hate those leaves and such sticking to your masterpiece.
Gary
No problem Gary, I think I’ll just wait til it’s about 65 . I feel comfortable with that . I know what you mean about cobalt . we used to make pyro bombs with that stuff . You know how boring glassing shops can get sometimes . Thanks also Randy, Frank
Fletcher got on the incorrect path too, Brendan just disappeared off the experience around the planet, h did gallager for many, but had to provide up that item of “property” to his x in a splitting and divided, now he features Carrot Top and still does show promotions
wow... that was an interesting read guys... i love to see that some of the same things i experienced going from rockaway,ny to mb, sd were happening back then too..good stuff.. i miss mission beach, but i had to leave back in 2004 and now im busting my ass for work and surfing in the freezing cold. also i was in those same gila bend az. jail cells someone mentioned, only i was on a few hits of acid, watching my friends face melt thru the small rectangle window, while my other fkd up friend was being interrogated in the sheriffs office... ill never forget that.. haha. "Lupe..I Love You!" is all i remember hearing screamed the whole stay there..anyway... any info on this board would be appreciated... i bought it from a guy for 275 dollars who was storing it under his porch... its a yellow tint, trip stringer, and the eastern challenger logo shaped like a star, with a nice big black skeg, and a pulled in nose... thx in advance for any info about it... ill look for a serial # but i dont think there is one... i plan on fixin her up a bit... peace, Glenn.
Hi Hartson . good to hear you .and old times greetings from FL. Steve T
Hartson, Rocky Zimmerman wants you to get in touch, melbourne, fla. in the phone book rockysurfs@yahoo.com
Im in Mass. just said goodbye to me mum,God bless her
hey fellow monmouth county-ers! I wish I had something constructive to contribute to this thread, but unfortunately I wasn’t even alive when most of this was happening. I do however want to say thanks for making the history that you guys did and shedding light on the history of shaping in the area… good luck to you all!
Hey Glenn,
It would be extremely difficult for anyone but Jim [photographic memory] to remember the board without more info … can you get info from the guy you bought it from, numbers, poetry, cuss words, etc written on the blank, or dates?
Also it does look like a rails-sanded type of glassing job … which would be pre-68, pre-67 I think.
Nice shape.
PS … have they put the sand back on the beach in MB?
later,
Randy
Jim,
Very sorry for your loss. That is one goodbye that trumps them all.
Thanks so much for the info. I have already written to Rocky this morning and will try to give him a call later today. I still hold him personally responsible for getting me started on dirt bikes, a passion that largely took me away from surfing for many years.
All the best,
Hartson