Came across this one on the net. The lam looks nothing like that used by the well known brand associated with Price, Brewer, Galanto, etc
Can anyone say for sure, whether it’s from the same company? Bill Thrailkill, can you shed some light?
That may well be one of the pirated/ bogus Surfboards Hawaii, produced by Charlie Galento. Never saw that logo when Brewer had the brand, or when John Price had it. When we (Surf Systems) bought the brand from John, I continued to use his existing lams, and had John Bredin design a new lam for the Gemini Twin Fin, that we produced circa 1971. Frankly, this is the first time I’ve ever seen that logo. That said, all it means is that I had not seen it before. It is the correct letter font. Board size would seem to indicate mid/late 60’s.
Bill, a silly question perhaps: what are the chances of the length being written on a board from the mid/late 60’s? I wasn’t there, and I know that the boards that I’ve seen/had don’t represent all of what was done, but I don’t think any of my pre-transitions boards have ever had a length written on them. The one possible exception was an 8’8" Hobie Gary Propper vee bottom, but then again we’re into the transition phase… An honest question.
Further research reveals this label was by Warren Cornish in Byron Bay, OZ. The name “Geoff” is written on the stringer. So, an Australian board with the same name.
I can answer this. Not very common, at all. Once in a while a custom board would have something written for the rider, or some kind of “in joke” of sorts. To my knowledge, dimensions and signatures on off-the-rack boards did not become common practice until the 80s. Late 70s, at best. The rare exception was that you’d sometimes find the length or year included as part of the serial number. such as “3214-88” with the last two digits signifying an 8’8".
Thanks Sammy.
That confirms what I thought. I have a few early seventies boards with the length, but earlier that that I figured it was pretty exceptional voir non-existant. On those early seventies boards (all G and S in my case) the number was indeed affixed right after the serial no. I think that was the same case on the GP model Hobie.