My wife picked this up for me at a yard sale. 6’ 11" by 20" single fin. 1981 Steve Coletta Natural Curves, also says Randy Elwood on the stringer. Rocker about 4.75" in the nose and 2.25" tail.
Some delam on the deck near the tail, but overall pretty good shape. Single concave to a lot of V in the tail, with subtle channel near the fin. Bevel rails on the bottom, like a tuck about 2" in from the rail, that blends into the V in back. About 3" thick and a flat deck that carries the volume out to the rails kinda like the old Brewer boards. Slight wing, and the tail area needs some remedial work.
I like the old school plan shape and single fin, a little smaller than my usual but kinda looking forward to taking this one for a spin after it gets some TLC.
BTW, sorry if the pics appear upside down, they do on my laptop and on my Samsung phone but not on my Apple I-phone, I’ll fix them when I get to a regular desktop computer.
Anything from any time frame by Steve Coletta is a good find. If from the 80’s; it is hand shaped and is part of the progression that many shapers were working thru to get to the highly refined designs that come off of CNC these days. If ever in Sant Cruz, there are usually a few of his shapes in the Billabong Store on the end of 41st in Capitola. He used to post here and was always interested in what he had to say. Has had health issues. Hope he is alive and well. His son carries on the Family biz. Lowel
I noticed his son was in a shape-off awhile back, and Steve was in it the year prior. A fairly recent video shows him still shaping and still surfing, his website shows him out in some sizeable surf not too long ago. The board has a fairly relaxed rocker, and with the volume and planshape, is really appealing to me. Looks like it would be perfect in 4-6’ point break surf. Kinda bums me out about the deck de-lam tho, cuz it wont look as nice once i fix that.
If you have access to a vac pump, the delam can be taken care of with super minimal damage. A small hole or slit, fill with enough lam resin to spread well inside the delam, place your oversized patch, turn on the pump and… presto. This is the least invasive and longest-lasting delam fix that I have found. The pressure really forces the resin further into the foam creating a better bond and the expanded fiberglass will, suprisingly, reform to it’s original shape.
Now Gene’s thread has me wondering if you could pull this off with shrink wrap, especially if you used a slightly-larger-than-the-delam block or “step” that would increase the pressure. Just thinking low-tech for a moment.
Or, hold it down with bricks and wax paper after squirting the resin in. Shrink wrap idea was brilliantly simple. That’s a really cool board, Huck! I want it! Mike
For a clamp in fixing a de-lam, I use several plastic shopping bags filled with beach sand. They are pretty heavy, so lots of pressure, and the soft sand/bag combo conforms to the shape of the deck and rail, just put some painter’s tape and wax paper down in between the board and the bag. Low-tech! : )
The problem I’ve had with some delams in the past is that any water damage to the top layer of foam leaves it too unstable to remain intact with the rest of the core once the delammed area starts pulling on it again.
Any delam that is bad enough to allow water intrusion will leave salt deposits in the foam even after it’s dry. So the salt is quite likely to cause adhesion problems. Salt attracts moisture, so it may never be totally dry under the glass.
Really nice board. When I lived in Santa Cruz Coletta’s shapes stood out from all the rest. His lines are some of the cleanest I’ve ever seen. I tried to get a board from him during my last month there, but he was hard to locate and I wound up with a John Mel shape instead.
Lay out a flexible straight edge like a batten(sp) on the board and mark the delam an inch or two outside the loose glass. Mark straight lines and then cut the glass out along the lines. A deck delam usually doesn’t come completely loose at the rail or lap so I cut along the rail lap. I use a new blade in a Stanley knife. If starts cutting hard I change the blade. Blades are cheap. If you any good with a Roto-Zip; the cut could be made with that. If I’m reusing the old glass, I preferr the knife as it removes less glass and leaves a cut line that can be hidden easier. If done properly on a painted deck this procedure can be done so that one would never know it happened. Lowel
I tried to take the delammed glass off carefully but once i got it off i kept finding more area around the perimeter of my cut that was detached. So i gave up on putting the same glass back, and just covered everything with a fabric lam.
Thanks Mike.
I didnt give it much of a chance, paddled it a little but felt too small for me so I handed it over to a competent test pilot for a few weeks. So far he seems to be liking it. Its very similar to what I’m planning for my next 8 footer.
