Can any of you guys decipher this message around the logo on this old Russell? I get that that is the sun coming up over the mountains on the top, but it’s driving me nuts trying to figure out what else the writing might mean?!!! Sunshine “Oday”?
Looks to me like a "brotherhood" take.
Aloha.
thanks OPS - I remember seeing the brotherhood logo with the hands all different colors on t shirts when I was a kid - here’s another pic of the board - I’m calling it a “pocket rocket” my guess is 1971?
I would bet that is a Bruce Jones shape. He was with Russel about that time. I had one just like it that had kind of a rasberry sherbert bottom lamination. Mine actually was signed by Bruce. I loved that board and regretted ever selling it. A great rider. I bet Ghetto knows something about this board.
I am thinking 71 could be about right the term "pocket rocket" goes back further i.e. mini gun.
With the full photo showing what appears to be a glue line and lack of leash hole or plug.
The template is what some of us where riding, fin stalls and all! Also it appears to be a "downrailer" which would also put the 71 timeline as we all ripped Brewer about that time!
Nice find!
Aloha.
If the rail is like the one I had; It is a pretty refined 60/40. The only place it wasn’t modern enough was thru the nose. Could have been thinned out more and turned up to a fifty-fifty. No leash attachments on those boards. The decks were sometimes opaqued white obscuring the stringer. That may give it the appearance of a glue line in the pic.
this one has a nice semi opaque deck, a milky green… 60/40, 50/50 rails to a harderdownrail in the back, S-deck & almost reverse rocker in the tail
Wow! From the above I'll take it as (at least I called it) the "S" rail i.e Toilet set rails at the rear and turned up rails at the front, that was the norm and it wasn't easy to make a smooth transition to blend the thing together! I did some shit in late 69 by just taking a saw from the rail to the stringer making the rails a 1/2" thick all the way around, hey, I didn't make it up, it was a stoned out shaping lession given to me. But it worked good in juicy waves! Liddle called 'em "razorblades" ( he routed out my W.A.V.E. set boxes in the day). Anyway that template still screams 71.
Oh, one more thing, not many were or are into tail rocker and that may be very well why these boards worked so well !
Aloha.
That is a bunch of very interesting information OPS! - I’m starting to understand this a little better. I rode this board yesterday - in small kind of musy waves, and it really seems like it needs a “real” wave to perform! I learned on a single fin, and have ridden a bunch of them. I started inthe the very late 70s, 1979 to be exact! - and single fins must have really changed by then, much more elongated and tapered raills maybe? I was very surprised just how different this board is - the outline looks one way, but the rails make it feel pretty lively, but it really wants you to be right up in the middle of the board.
What’s a toilet seat rail?
You can sort of see what lloks like a down turned tail in this pic
The “Brotherhood Logo” was designed by Paul Huesenstam’s dad for Russell Surfboards a few years later when Paul opened Newport Surf and Sport, Russ gave Paul the right to use the logo since Paul’s dad designed it; this became the cause of much contention since part of the agreement was Russ would make and sell boards while Paul would sell soft goods right next door. Paul’s business florished, and in not much time he reneged on the agreement not to sell boards even making it the logo on the boards sold next door, and that created a fued not unlike the Hatfield’s and the McCoy’s in Newport; it was sneaky and underhanded and totally undermined the whole concept of the brotherhood of which Paul became a complete asshole in the minds of the few that know, even in his mind; years later he tried to reconcile with Russ by letter, but the damage was done… That’s what happened, and there is more to the story but, don’t feel the need to write about it now. Furthermore the “Sunshine O’day” is a reference to the shaper Mike O’day a great shaper in the long line of great shapers Russ used to have when he was alive, the story goes on.
thnaks ghetto - glad to have the Oday part cleared up - no other writing on this board, it alawys amazes me how many talented shapers there must have been down there during that time…
Mike O’ Day shaped for Russell. I had a 7’0" pintail shaped by him at one time in the seventies.
Bruce Jones, Shawn Stussy, Jeff Timpone a lot of notables were shaping for Russell at one time or another.
nice one OPS - I had a Rick just like that Magic you posted - the deck was so round, your feet sort of curved around it. That outline is basically the same - but it looks like by 71 or so, the bottom and rails were toned down so to speak. They are the “same”, but less pronounced.
I love that line in the ad about the “ultimate in speed and broken line surfing” - makes me want to go jump in the water; low tide is at noon today!
The link above is for an older post with some Mike O’Day reference.
He was a phenominal shaper IMHO and a very nice guy. Learned a lot just by observation while watching him shape boards for me.
Other than Sacred Craft - how often will a quality shaper these days let you watch him work? And when what he’s doing is your own board - what a treat it was !
Back when Russ was alive only the best shapers in the area were recruited to shape for him. Everyone else in OC sat on the sidelines in envy.
https://plus.google.com/photos/110309783589076264510/albums/5667203201785665617?banner=pwa
That’s a link to Russell’s paddleout and the celebration back at and near the glassshop. A who’s who of Orange County surfboard builders and surfers are represented. I wonder how many you can recoginize. Somehow I ended up in there a few times.
Kokua and Ambrose were close friends with Bob. Ambrose had several of his boards (brand new) in his workshop when I saw him a few years ago.
OK. After looking at your picture with a rail/rocker profile i would have said;( without knowing the O’Day connection) that Bruce Jones did not shape that board. Bruce Jones Both rail and rocker was much more refined and ahead of the time.