I’m hoping that the Swaylocsk’s “Hive Mind” can help me answer a question - “What’s the serial number of the first Nectar Surfboards Thruster?”
A clue exists on the “www.hollingsworthsurf.com/about” page. Craig’s early career is described on that page as, “In the late winter of 1974, he (Craig Hollingsworth) was
hired to shape for “Nectar Surfboards” alongside owner/shaper, Gary MacNabb. TOGETHER THEY SHAPPED THOUSANDS OF SINGLE AND TWIN FIN DESIGNS. In 1980 Simon Anderson came to “Nectar” from Australia with his revolutionary “3-Fin Thruster” design. The first Thruster ever shaped in the United States was in Craig’s shaping room for Craig’s brother, Dean. Hollingsworth started working with Anderson and MacNabb perfecting Simon’s “3-Fin Thruster” surfboard.”
I heard that many of the early records for Nectar Surfboards were destroyed in a fire but does anyone know how many, “thousands of single and twin fins” had been shaped by the time Gary MacNabb and Craig Hollingsworth began working with Simon Anderson and shaping Thrusters? What was the serial number of that first Thruster shaped in Craig’s shaping room for Dean?
Yes! Resinbutt, that’s exactly where I started. Truth be told, its entirely possible that “0000001” is the right answer. But I started to doubt that assumption when I realized that I’ve never seen a Thruster that had a serial number with fewer than four digits.
So when I read that Gary MacNabb and Craig Hollingsworth had been shaping boards under the Nectar label since the early 1970s I was like, "Wait a minute, what if the first Nectar Thruster isn’t numbered #0000001? Could that mean there is a real live “Golden Ticket” out there somewhere? (Golden Ticket = the earliest known example of a Nectar Thruster that still survives today?) How cool would it be to barn-find one of those?
Maybe that’s the right question to ask, What is the lowest serial number you, the Swaylock’s community, have ever seen on a Nectar shaped Simon Anderson Thruster?
I worked at Nector at about the same time as Craig wasn’t around when They started working with Anderson on the Thruster. Lots of other business activities outside of building Surfboards made me very uncomfortable Lots of crazy stuff was going on. Marty Ratcliff was the manager of Nectar. Warren Brown worker there we have been life long friends from way back in the Early 70s. I moved on from Nectar due to all the crazy stuff. I can’t tell you much about the The record keeping at Nectar. Here is Hint you might try putting ina request under the Freedom of information act.