Don’t know much about this, but I picked it up recently with the goal to patch it up, clean it up, ride it a little, and put it up for sale. Seems like it would have value to somebody, I don’t come across too many of these.
Its 8’ 2", 22 1/2" wide, 3" plus thick, its got a boatload of volume, subtle V through the whole board, a bit more pronounced in the tail, and a big belly in the nose.
Has been the subject of some dubious resin work, and an ugly leash plug addition, but overall pretty clean and good shape.
I’m assuming this is a 70’s board, but you guys are the experts.
Would like to know about the fin / box, and if there is a way I can upgrade to a better fin that will fit the same box? It says “ventral” inside but my research indicates it may be a Guidance G fin setup. Pops in without screws.
Aloha Huck, What you have there is a VERY late 1969, or early 1970 board. Hansen decided to abandon his in-house system, and tried several of the available systems at the time. The board you have was shaped by Mike Holideck, long time sander at Hansen, who moved up to shaping. I’m not sure how long he lasted as a shaper, I’ve only seen one or two other boards shaped by Mr. Holideck. He was known as ‘‘Holly’’ by the Hansen factory crew.
At 8’2" I would guess it’s more like late 1968 or early '69. But, as Bill said Hansen had their own fin system and that carried into the transition era. The fin is not a Guidance System, from what I can tell. Guidance had a tapered dovetail setup and the base wasn’t notched. Pretty sure it’s a Ventral.
For comparison, here is a Guidance ad. Quite different.
Well, as the saying goes, ‘‘Size matters.’’ But, board numbers matter too. And in 1968, and early 1969, I was still shaping for Hansen. Holly was still in the sanding room. He did not do any shaping until after I had left. The outline screams 1969, and that style of board was still popular in very early 1970.
So researching a little further, I believe this is a SuperLight, or at least uses the same template & shape, sans the 3/4 length stringer. The fin system is different, and the fin is tranlucent orange not opaque black, but the fin looks to be the same shape.
See below: comparing my pics to the similar size 1968 superlight I found online.
Its taken me awhile to get to this point, but I’m seriously considering putting a standard fin box in the board. I really wanted to keep the original Ventral box, partially because it so firmly fixed the date of the board, and furthermore, it seems like a good system. But after searching thoroughly, even running “wanted” ads on internet, I have gotten nowhere. I ordered some G 10 to make my own, but…
The more I work on fixing the board up, the more I think it could be a viable shape, and not just a wallhanger as a transition era midlength. With that thought in mind, a standard fin box, and options that come with it for trying different fins, makes more and more sense to me. I know, I was told this from the beginning. But I really didn’t think finding a few extra fins was going to be so difficult.
My current thinking is to patch it up and make it watertight, then try it on a few waves with the fin I have. If it seems to have potential as a rider, I think I will switch the fin box before I complete my restoration work. Or maybe I’ll just do it - doesn’t seem like it would affect the value of the board much one way or the other.
Thnx unclegrumpy I hope so. My g-10 came this is my first time working with it. Blades better be carbide, tough stuff.
The base works! A little tricky to get the castle crenellations just right, but not too bad with a table saw
Now just gotta shape the fin, and I’ll have 2. Maybe I won’t need a modern fin box, we’ll see how it goes. Def won’t be spending 150 bucks on an old plastic fin.
I’ve built the edge up just a little at the tail - will add a bit of an edge here with fiberglass and resin. Its a tiny modification, but should make the board a little more user friendly for me, and I justify it because my goal is to get the board back out in the water. And it could be sanded off if someone was a real stickler for original condition. But these midlengths don’t seem to be so passionately sought after by the hardcore collectors anyway, so I doubt anyone cares. And I think a minor modification like this was probably done a thousand times to boards like these, back in their day.
Its crazy how much volume this thing has. 3 1/2" thick!!! Like longboard volume in an 8 - 2 board. Which is right up my alley, although I would def have foiled the nose and tail a little more. The rocker is a bit different too, indicative of the time period, flatter through the board with all the rocker in the nose. I know it will take a little getting used to, but I’m hoping I can still get some fun rides on it.
Pretty happy with the fin I made. The phenolic panel seems very strong. And visually its a good match for the original plastic fin but I like this shape better. Its based on a shape I liked a lot on my 9’ single fin rounded pin, that really loosened the board up.
I may foil it a bit more, but thought I’d try it first. Its a little thicker than the standard surf shop stilletto, but its foiled nicely, and tapers to the tip.
Agreed. The board is pretty generic, so it would not be very desirable among collectors. If it was a specific model and had fancy color work, etc it would be a different story.
The current trend in the collector market is showing big interest in 80s boards. Prices on 60s logs have fallen off drastically from what they were 15 years ago. Some 70s boards also have high collector value but those are usually stuff like Bolts and Aipa stings. Transition mid lengths don’t seem to be garnering a lot of interest unless they are unique or have a connection to a specific shaper.
I like your G10 fin a lot. Nice outline and foil. Reminds me of some of of the early fins done by Hynson. Sort of a “Dolfin” but a nicer foil and a little more rake. The vertical in it makes a bit of a pivot. Should be a much better choice than the original. Well done.
So at this point I have patched the rotten nose area, filled a lot of dents and dings, removed the ugly leash plug (will do a leash loop) but unfortunately you will always be able to see where it was, at least it won’t jump out at you, added a layer of glass to the deck area and tail area, added some color to the rails and tail, made a new fin, and built up the tail area at the rail so that I could square the rail back there a bit.
I have a light spot on the deck where there used to be a decal, about 2" by 3", so I haven’t figured out what to do with that yet. Also working on a second fin for the funky Ventral fin box. And I plan to add a leash loop.
Haven’t ridden it yet. Thnx on the fin, need to polish it up a bit more. And working on a second fin made from the original.
I’ve had this project a few years. Got packed away due to some personal life changing trauma, but slowly trying to get back to some of these unfinished projects. I always thought this board had potential.
I got it pretty cheap cuz these transition era boards are just not widely understood or appreciated. But its a solid piece of the history puzzle of how surfing & surfboards got from the original “longboards” to where they are today.
And this one didn’t have quite the “elf shoe” rocker that a lot of boards from this era did, nor the overly domed deck, or the exaggerated “wide point forward” plan shape. Plus, I had been shaping some very thick high volume midlengths at the time, and finding them a lot of fun once you get past the learning curve of riding them.
Here’s the other fin. Was kind of a fluster cluck. I built it around the original cheap plastic fin as a core, so that I could utilize the base with the tricky castle crenellations. But I didn’t look close enough and after I built it I realized the original plastic fin was lopsided, kinda flopped over to one side, so my new fin was cockeyed to the base.
I ended up cutting it open and re-attaching the fin to the core paying attention to keep it straight with the base. It was an ugly mess because the original core fin was so crooked that by the time I squared my new fin with the base, the old fin was coming out the middle on one side, if that makes sense. So I cut the middle out & filled it with some eps packing foam to make it float if it comes out (these snap in but no screw to hold them in).
So now its all good, but cosmetically don’t look too close, just needs a few coats of resin & sanding / polishing.
Finished pin striping (acrylic artist’s paint) and put a thin coat of resin over everything.
The white pinstripe on the bottom is new, the yellow rails may have been original to the board but just faded, anyway I added yellow tint & applied a thin coat of resin to the rails, the black pinline on top was original but got sanded through in several spots during the repairs.
If you scroll up to the opening post you can see pics of what I started with.
Hi Huck,
Sorry to hear you’ve had a rough time. The board looks incredible and the fin is a work of art, you have far more patience than me!!! I’m looking forward to hearing about that first ride, they’re always the best!!! Keep it up and keep the pics coming …please!
Here’s the original fin as I got it. Some kind of weird plastic, cheap looking, and it deformed a bit over time, but very tough stuff, not ordinary plastic.
I just ordered some more Resin Research epoxy resin, wow, that stuff costs an arm and a leg now. Time to sell a few boards for some cash to even out the till. Next up is the leash loop using what little resin I have left, while I wait for my resin.
