Aloha Bill,
As head docent at SHACC I’m always looking to learn more about our history and the other day a thought occured to me.
Who was the first guy with a “shaping room” with sidelights?
Lots of historical pictures of guys making wood boards outside or in garages and plenty still do but who had the first legit indoor & sidelit shaping room?
My guess would be Velzy.
Any Idea Bill?
Aloha Grumpy,
In about March of 1965, when I started shaping for Hobie, there were no side lights in use. There were eight sets of racks in ‘‘The Pit’’ with an overhead set of lights over each rack. We were paid piecework, eight dollars per board. In May of that year Don Hansen made me an offer I could’t refuse! Ten dollars per board, and a ‘‘private’’ shaping room with both overhead and side lights. Prior to that I had not seen side lights in use. In 1965/66 Dale Velzy was not involved with surfboards, that I knew of. He was selling Meyers Manx dune buggys at a place called ‘‘Pepper Tree Automotive’’, which was a basic dirt lot with a big Pepper Tree in it. In 1957 and 1958 Velzy&Jacobs, and other shops, had overhead lights only. When I was hired in 1960 to shape for the Velzy shop in San Diego, we did not have any side lights. Overhead only. So, I don’t think Velzy has a influence in bringing about the use of side lights. In those early to mid sixties days, I did some ghost shaping for at least four other well known labels, when their ‘‘name’’ shapers were out of town. None of them had side lights, at that time. If I had to guess, I’d think someone like Billy Caster, Carl Ekstrom, or Duane Brown, might have been the first, at least in the San Diego area. Duane was a shaper at Hansen, when I came on board., so may have been the source. Or for that matter, it may have been Don Hansen that came up with it. I just don’t have certain knowledge, of the origin. I do know that most shops had then in use by 1968.