I just bought an old Chris Cahill (one of the original Z-boys) 5’8" retro-fish board and had it re-glassed to get it watertight. It’s probably made in the late 70’s. Wondering if this board is worth anything.
it’s worth getting wet and telling us how it rides :O)
I lived in Malibu in the mid/late 70’s…I was aquainted with a guy who got a Chris Cahill kneeboard somewhere around then. It was a fish as I recall. It might have been as late as 1980-1981.
Given the pedigree with Dogtown tie-in the board would probably be worth a fair bit. As people of arts and science it would be fun to see a photo and hear how it rides.
Thanks for the reply. Here’s a picture of the board. It’s an interesting design. Almost no rocker. It’s in pretty good shape for a board that’s around 30 years old. I may try it out this weekend. I usually surf anywhere between Sunset (Will Rogers) and Ventura Countyline.
How are the fins mounted, looks interesting…
That is an interesting board. If that is an “N” logo on the nose it may well be an old Newport Paipo board - perhaps one of the “Shoe” models - that has been reshaped by Cahill. I’m not sure if Newport made any fish shapes but there would have been plenty of foam in a Shoe to create that tail configuration. That might also explain the fin setup. If so that also might be the type of project that would have been very early in a board-making career, which if you are interested in collector value might really ad to it.
The fins are mounted with screws from the deck side. The fin box goes all the way through the board.
I think it is an N on the board. At first, I thought it may have been a sideways Z for Zephyr but the N makes more sense.
Something like that?
Maybe Tom from Red-X could confirm if those are a later retrofit using his system? Hard to tell from photo… I don’t remember any “through the board” systems like that from back then.
The N looks exactly like that.
Hi Everyone
Very nice old board
The fins are not a RedX retrofit. The boxes in that board are the first through
the deck fin system invented by Bill Bahne in the late 70’s. We have a kneeboard/
fish with that same system. I can post some pic’s if anyones interested.
Paulie
Here’s a pic of the fin, the fin setup from the deck side, and the N logo.
Would anyone want to guess what a board like this would fetch (dollar-wise)? Thanks.