Howzit TonyM,
I know from where Peter’s nickname originated. When we were kid’s, Peter’s skin was very dark, and that is the nickname all the Waikiki Rat’s labeled him with.
I just thought Kokua would be enjoy hearing that from Peter, and was trying a bit too hard to stay “PC” on this forum.
Here’s what Pete says about that photo, and the board:
"The pic was taken @ 22nd St in Hermosa, April 13th,1963 just after
doing the first Hang Ten ad in Palos Verdes.
The board was 9’4" had green rails, yellow tint panels and a blue
stringer w/ 32 assorted sized stickers, rails turn’d down hard at
the rear, flat bottom … “babygun”. I also,
just for fun, turn’d the “Joe Hurley” multi-wood laminated skeg
“backwords”, meaning, I did a 180 degree turn on the skeg so it
was pointed …backwards ( forwards actually )…and quite
surprisingly, it work’d VERY well… and was loose…in the
azz …but very strange for other surfers to look at… perhaps
a bit ahead of its time."
I can remember those Daytona Surf Shop boards.I went to their showroom in the mid sixties.It was in Daytona Beach.Back then Daytona was kind a surf city.Those boards were really high quality.Seems like the shaper was a guy named George Miller???I think he later went to Glass Research in Jaxville and shaped Land-Miller boards.Thats where I met Wayne Land.Man that was a long time ago but it seems like yesterday.
Howzit Keith, Wow, what threw me is his face, he doesn't resemble that at all even with his shaved head and his face seems longer than in the pic. Gonna have to tell him about this. Peter told me how when he first came to CA he slept under the Hermosa Bch pier for the first few nights then met a guy who let him sleep on the couch til he got himself together. He is our emcee for the Pine Trees Longboard Classic contest every year. Before I lost my shop I did all his ding repairs and would tell him no charge, then he'd slip me a fifty. Best guy you could ever have for a friend.Aloha,Kokua
Tony, I take it back. Grannis is the Dean of surf photography and I need to be respectful. So, not “stupid”. Maybe " a goofy moment" for Mr Grannis. And hey, we are all guilty at some point. I know you won’t believe this, but I use to wear bell bottom pants and once I voted for Jimmy Carter. I know, I can’t believe it either. But I thought it was normal at the time.
So, here is one of the goofy pics. Unfortunately, I pitched the really goofy one. But this one is of the same ilk and conveys the point:
Now, this one is priceless. A treasure. Look at the poise of Eddie. Out of 365 pic’s, this caught my eye and I will save it for my bulletin board. Thank you Mr. Grannis. Eddie at Waimia:
Ok. I just Hijacked my own thread.
Thanks everyone. These details are just what I was looking for. I need to build one of these babies. And I will. Pics to follow.
So, here is one of the goofy pics. Unfortunately, I pitched the really goofy one. But this one is of the same ilk and conveys the point:
That is Marsha Bainer. She appeared in a few Jacobs ads, and I belive an ad for Walker foam, too. Chances are, that’s an
out-take from an ad shoot for Jacobs. Damn, she was gorgeous.
Would you happen to have the outline dimensions handy for either the Phillips or the Velzy? Nose, tail, mid and wide point width and location? Many thanks.
Sweet looking board.
Thanks
Would you happen to have the outline dimensions handy for either the Phillips or the Velzy? Nose, tail, mid and wide point width and location? Many thanks.Sweet looking board.
Thanks
The 10’ Velzy had a 16.5" nose, 23" wide, 16" tail. The 9’10" Phillips has a 16.5" nose, 23" wide and a 17" tail. I’m not sure on the exact wide point. It’s probably about 18" behind center.
Very fun and cool boards. I just got a 9’4" spoon made by Spencer Kellogg from Ventura. It is based on a Paul Gross’ version of Nat Young’s “Magic Sam”. It’s called the “Son of Sam”. Wide point is pulled back about a foot. Rides quite a bit differently than the bigger boards. Less walking required of course (since it’s shorter).
Here’s a pic of it taken just after it was glassed (it’s the light blue board):
http://www.swaylocks.com/forum/gforum.cgi?post=365646;#365646
The High Performance "Lunch box" shape. Dims: 12 x 10 x 4.5...
Handles set at front @ 2" rear @ 10"
Having the hips low allows for a bit more curve in the tail. I think that style of board rides very well. As far as that shot of the new Velzy pig, the tail may be a bit too wide. I think board with the widest part just below center to about 1/3 of the way up from the tail work well.
As far as “pope” goes. There’s a small berry that Hawaiians call popolo, it is a very dark purple color, almost black. The nickname for black people was popolo. It was used as a dye by the ancients. Any Polynesian person spending enough time outdoors will develop a tan that gets very dark. Add to that the wavy or even kinky hair and well, they look just like a black person.
Years ago, I was talking to Dane Kealoha just after he came back from South Africa. He didn’t have a very good time down there. It was still during the apartheid and they didn’t like him using the bathrooms for white people. He told me he would tell them F— off and just use them.
2 Hawaiian nicknames you’ll hear are Pope, or Popolo for dark people, and pupule, or sometimes poop which means crazy. Dat bugga stay Pupule. There’s also Papa’a which is black, but burnt black, over cooked like black toast. When we were kids growing up in Ewa, our neighbor was a black man. He used to call me Peewee, and was always a fun guy. I remember him telling me once that instead of people calling him Pope or Popolo, the called him Poop which was short for Pupule.
I used to be Popolo, a Papa’a kind of Popolo, now I’m just Pupule.
OK, that’s the Hawaiian lesson for today.
My second board (circa 1961) was a Weber “pig” shape similar to the one Iggy is holding it the PIC, and that’s exactly what it was: a pig. Terrible board! The nose was narrow and way too thin, so it turned well, due to the reduced swing weight, but it was the crapiest noserider I’ve ever been on: pearl city. All the meat was aft of center. Weber’s shop at the time was on Lincoln Blvd. just north of what later became Marina Del Rey and those guys (and their customers) spent a lot of time riding beach break at spots between Torrance and Santa Monica, which is likely why they gravitated toward a shape that pivoted well. I upgraded to a G&S standard shape in '63 and my surfing improved by leaps and bounds.
pigs…in space.
Greg,
The first shot was from a Weber ad in Surfer Mag in the early sixties. On the right Harold Iggy and on the left, Donald Takayama. They were shapers and team riders for Dewey.
The boards were standard boards of the era, hips and ears.
Here’s one I used to have.
The shot of the guys looking at the board instead of Marsha Banier is a Jacobs ad which appeared in Surfer Mag in the early sixties. The ad was for the “New Shape”. “No ears, no hips” read the copy.
Duke Boyd used to travel the coast selling his Hang Ten surf trunks to the various shops in the early sixties. Back in those days surf shops were places where they “made them in the back room and sold them in the front room” as Floyd Smith once said.
Duke said that every guy would say that he had the best rails. That’s what they had to sell. They all used foam from one of two or three suppliers. All boards were glassed the same. Wood tailblocks.Same stringers etc.The outlines were pretty similar. Check out the old Con ad that was posted on here a while back. Same deal. Hawaiians (shaper/team riders Ernie Tanaka and Tak Kurahara) in the photo and the boards looked the same. Wide hips narrow noses.
Then Jacobs came out with that ad announcing a new outline. It was a big deal. He talks about it in a recent issue of Surfer’s Journal.
Other shops also had their “speed” models or “point break” models with more parallel rails. The hippier models or pigs and semi pigs were called beach break boards or simply beach boards.
Interesting coincidence: The guy in the photo above holding the old Weber, Steve “Slugger” Thomas, had the first Jacobs “New Shape” on the East Coast. Today he rides a Jim Phillips shaped copy of the same old Jabobs “New Shape”.
There seems to be a lot of interest in hippier “pig” styled boards now too. What went around seems to come back around again. And again and again.
You forgot “olopop”. It’s the slang/semi-polite way of calling someone popolo.
Olopop, I never heard that, but then again I’m a youngster, only 51. I know there are others including “Royal Hawaiian” which is one my dad used.
Trivia fact: Peter “Pope” Kahapea won the Makaha contest in 1963.
Junior division
Howzit Dropknee, Peter is a good friend of mine and he won his age division a few years back at The PineTrees Longboard Classic Contest. He is also an emcee for the same contest. Aloha,Kokua
PPK was in the movie, “Hawaii”. Based on the Michener book. He plays a guard at the city of refuge, as I recall. I have it on tape (yes, tape). I should watch it again when I find time.
He can also be spotted in an obscure mid 60s surf flick called “Blue Surfari”. Here’s a frame grab from that one.
