Anybody know about John Kelly “Hydroplane” boards from the early 60’s? There was one hanging on the wall at the Strong Currents shop in Haleiwa. These boards have a raised section at the tail on the bottom, and the fin is set about 18" in. I have photos of an ancient magazine article, but the file size is too big to upload as an attachment. If interested, PM me and I’ll mail you the article.
John Kelly had shaped these very differnet surfboards at Inter Isands factory, I had the chance to ride several of them in the early 60’s and even if the boards were greatly over sized for a flea weight gremmie like myself, I still was able to turn them is the small surf that I rode them in.
In the later 60’s I made about a half dozen of the hydro’s for myself out of cut down pop outs, pulling the plan shape to the nose and getting the needed thickness out of the near middle of the blank.
I will be corrected if I am wrong, but I think it was Town and Country that made a modern version of the Hydro and ran several ads in the surf mags showing them in the mid 80’s ?
The theory behind the Hydro was to ride them longer and as they got to planing speed the “Scorpion tail” with its kicked rocker would rise up and plane on the very flat hard edged pin tail bottom plan shape ahead of the kick
Howzit Jim,
I remember the Kelly Boards, a little unconventional at the time, but they did work. Just the mention of the Inter Island Shop brings back great memories of old Honolulu. The IISS was a great shop with a crew of talented people, almost a who’s who of early 60’s Hawaii talent. Wish Sparky would finish his Hot Rod and do some shaping again.
Ben Aipa was the one who did a variation of the concept in the 1980’s. during his stint with T and C. Ben shaped me a few, and they worked great. I think he called them the “Star Bottom” or something like that.
Radford?
Puamana, Radford 1964, home room 264, wouldn’t trade it for anything
Hi Jim,
Y’know, by a funny coincidence I ran into a buddy of mine who had a board very much like that around 1970 or so, a kind of pintail with a sort of cove mold above it to a wider, longer tail. Nose was, if I remember right, pretty conventional for around then.
Funny board, dark purple singlefin with a graphic of the Incredible Hulk on the borrom of it. Made in Rhode Island by…
mmmhm.
Heh- I guess the cut down popouts were not the only ones?
doc…
Doc ! that was one of my personal boards, I many a fun session on it, one particular day at Coast Guard beach
Haaa! I figured you’d remember it, it sure was distinctive. Purple board, green Hulk, and that tail.
Meanwhile, Coast Guard is still alive and well - http://www.morebeach.com/Cape_Cod_Beach_Cam.html
My home break, about due for summer flatness…
doc…
My kamaina buds are comin’ out in Sept. And they want to shape some kneeboards while visiting.
Here’s the kicker during our discussion on making longer kneelo’s the hydro hull came up as one old charger is currently using a 7’-4” Stewart hydro. Me thinks O.K. not too much, then they brought up the “scorpion tail” (both knew John) and mentioned he was so adamant about this design he patented it.
Boned up and researched the “scorpion tail” WOW heavy stuff basically made up my own mind and then searched Sway’s. Really don’t want to beat a dead horse here. IMO for the design to work you need board speed and me’s sayin’ big waves, not so good in everyday stuff.
OPS just loves this kinda stuff and my buds know it! Really thinking this is a poor idea, however considering the test ground (Maalaea) me thinks achieving speed won’t be a problem (old age might).
Sway’s had varying options and me agrees with “if it worked it would have caught fire” BUT Velzy’s “bump” didn’t exactly bust loose until the “Flyer” came along.
Keep it cool eh! **I **have the utmost respect for Mr. John Kelly. A pioneer
http://www.swaylocks.com/groups/kelly-hydroplane
https://swaylocks7stage.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/J%20Kelly%20#1.png
https://swaylocks7stage.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/J%20Kelly%20#2.png
Pretty nice article on the SHACC site
http://www.surfingheritage.org/2010/05/john-kelly-hydrofoil.html
Google “scorpion tail” Surfing Heritage did a super job worth the read! Thankz unca.
I saw one once in the MP Shop on Front St. in Ventura. I think somebody had traded it in. We were a bunch of very impressed 17–18 year olds. We were definitly trippin’ on it. Lowel
I’ll bet that was the Kelly Hydro that was owned by Dave Allison, (aka, Hydro Harry, at Windansea) he was from Ventura. I suspect that you saw that board around 1966 or 1967. He replaced the Hydro with a 10 foot 10 inch ‘‘Lysergic Lime’’ gun, shaped by Bill Thrailkill.
Bill
Yeah, a friend has one, got it from a mutual pal who I think got it from his cousin who drowned at Sunset many years ago. I’m told they ride like cr$p, don’t get up and plane, could well be.
As a land locked rider that has to travel 4 or more hours to get to a good swell I have learned to ignore the inner Hippie and ride the odd boat wake to scratch the itch. That shape may very well be what I seek for a wake surfing ride… so little time, so many shapes.
Bill----- Those boards are so rare that it was most likely the one and the same. I had heard of them at the time, but never even seen a pic. They had been described to me, but I really couldn’t envision what thy looked like… I think Dale Herd was working the counter and clued us to what we were looking at. Anyway That would have been the time frame; 66 or 67. Lowel
I have been fascinated by this design for a long time until I eventually I asked Steve Boehne at Infinity to shape me a version .Because of the waves in UK it became more of a Step Tale rather than a Scorpion Tale . It is 9’6" , with the hull including Fin ending 10’’ before the rear of the board . Like Johns it is super thick back there . I love it and it catches everything very fast on trim and not difficult to turn .Its thick but it does surf a lot shorter than its length . I stored it at a mates who lives by the beach . Bad mistake . After a sceptical visual appraisal-so much conservatism among surfers- he took it out a few times and now it has been his board of choice for the last couple of years . So much so that i gave it to him for his 65 birthday to stop the sulks when I turned up . He’s the oldest guy in the line up and he keeps up with the young hot shots ,who give no quarter regarding age on the wave count I may add ,to such a degree that one of the young locals asked him to slow down . Put him on a longboard of equal length and he’s struggling along with the rest of us .I am really considering getting another made once my surf piggy bank gets full . John Kelly made a great contribution with this design.
Mpcutback
Here’s your chance to get one, only $7500.00.
http://honolulu.craigslist.org/oah/spo/4411547999.html