Interested in the Magic Sam renditions currently being shaped by Andreini and Putnam & Hilbers. Any info. on the performance characteristics of either or both of these boards from folks who have ridden them would be much appreciated.
Thanks!
i know well the board from which the modern "sam" came from. Pg- who has knowledge of sam via greenough connection- took info from that board and melded it with a yater spoon. the template was drawn on kitcken floor, where for several months PG would look at it , take the eraser make some subtle adjustments to the template until he liked what he saw.he then shaped a 9'4" board from that template.(rocker was figured out on another similar board by bondoing the bottom of board, taking it out for a few, then coming in and sanding bondo to adjust rocker as felt necessary,repeat until satisfied.).thus, when he shaped the board he had the rocker template to boot. that 9'4" was/is a ripper. the p/h and andreini are based off that "sam" model with their own, individual interpretations of course. they trim fast, nose ride, tip ride if you have got the know-how. crank turns from the tail and get up in the front 1/3 of board for speed runs in high line trim. stay in front 1/3 to make simple drops and climbs on the wave face.flick of the ankle, pressure of the big toe kind of thing. known to crank in overhead point surf, though best for mid range size-waist to head high premium....
Don’t forget Spencer Kellogg’s version, which IS the PG version. Marc Andreini looked mine over for 5 minutes and deemed it the nicest “Sam” he’d ever seen.
So there’s three “go to” guys to get one of these truly magic boards; Spence, Marc and Brian. IMHO, you cannot go wrong with any of these craftsmen.That’s a great line up!
any links or sites to check em out ?
Mollusk in New York shows the Hilbers/Putnam "S-O-S" version shaped by Brian Hilbers. Brian has some other sweet boards on the Mollusk website if you look around.
http://mollusksurfshop.com/shop/surfboards/shapers/fineline/94-brian-hilbers-phd-s-o-s/
As mentioned, Spencer Kellogg, Marc Andreini and others do similar bellied/wide point aft designs but I couldn't find any pics on the net. Jim Phillips comes to mind as a very capable 'Pig' shaper.
Here are some examples:
8’6"
9’4" x 16 3/4" x 22 1/2" x 15 3/4" x 3 1/4"
All of the spoons I shape today are direct descendents of the red spoon pictured above that I shaped using PG’s template in January, 1997.
9’2" x 17 1/4" x 22 1/4" x 15 1/4" x 3 1/4"
Spence, I keep asking the same question, sorry, but how would one of these compare to the Judge you mentioned a while back?
You can see the visual differences above. Regarding performance, the spoons are more specialized and favor pointbreaks in the 2-6 foot range. The Judge is more like a big surfboard that will work anywhere, especially the 10 foot version. It is comfortable in 6" to 10 foot surf and works anywhere. Though it trims forward The Judge isn’t meant for noseriding.
i didn't mention him because he wasn't mentioned in original post. many of us know the direct link between PG and spence(close to 20 years now) and i supposed i just overlooked it. that red spence spoon is one of the all-time rippers-i have had the personal pleasure of riding it.
the original pg one was dubbed "son of sam" , not magic sam.....
it really is a great trio of spoon and hull board builders.my wife's current favorite is her brian hilbers shaped liddle designs 9'2" spoon which is a copy of my liddle spoon(with greg's blessings of course.truly my all-time favorite long board). next on the list is a vaquero gun in the 9'6" range from marc....we have liddle's, phd's, spence's and PG's abound....
I found some images on Jim Phillips' website of pigs. Of course he doesn't call them 'Sam' but they are in that genre. His bellied hulls are as clean as any out there. Here are but two of several examples on the site...
http://www.jimthegenius.com/Jim_Phillips_Surfboards/Gallery.html#38
http://www.jimthegenius.com/Jim_Phillips_Surfboards/Gallery.html#86
Nats 'SAM " ???
Hey Afoaf here’s another comment on the differences, I own the 9’6 Judge pictured. I thought I wanted a Sam style spoon and borrowed two from Spence. They were definately fun, and I liked them best in smaller waves.
I think the Judge is more of a smooth but sensitive section connector (without all the length of some of the Frye styles) that surfs well from near the middle of the board with knee and ankle input. Sails across flat or small sections. When things are bigger or faster it still lays over nicely and buries a lot of tail rail for a fast projecting bottom turn. It cuts back ok too, the tail rail is more down and hard than the spoon. Too big to be really quick though. I think it’s a great board. I had a harder time in good conditions on the spoons, but to be fair I really didn’t have them wired.
In better surf when you might grab a hull or something else instead of a longboard, the judge might be fine but I wouldn’t reach for a son of sam if I owned one.
Ride on, Dan
Yes Pridmore, Nat’s Sam.
tudor/kookboxx has a son of sam model. only pic i could find. the tail looked wider in person. very smooth looking, especially in a more subtle color 
haha
Just found this older thread and am curious about rocker. rails(ie 50/50, down in tail, etc) fin to use and lots of other design aspects if anyone has any info. Thanks in advance. the previous "long hull" thread sparked my interest
thanks in advance
Spence lent me the red spoon for a while. Thanks! that was fun!!