Sunset Surfboards

I have an old board that I learned on that was my fathers. The logo says “Sunset Surfboards”. Im assuming its from the late 70’s or so. Its just under 7’, pintail, singlefin, widepoint front of center and real thick,small light blue pin line. Like I said, I learned on this board years ago and I really love the way it rides. Ive done some searching around, including here in the archives, and I cant find a whole lot of info on it. All Ive really found out is that (i think) it came from Encinitas, Ca. I was wondering, if by chance, someone knew a little more about this board? Its pretty special to me, and I hope when I have kids someday they can learn on it too. It would be really cool to know some solid history on it, or any facts at all. Any info would be much appreciated, thanks

Rob

I think some of the old Sunset guys now operate Moonlight Glassing. Quality work now and then. Hang on to it.

Back in the Seventies Sunset was owned by Ed Wright.He was the primary shaper.Sid MAdden shaped also.They were about the best boards I had ever seen at that point…super high quality.The only ones around that touched them were Channin Diffenderfer.I heard somewhere that Ed Wright made a bundle in Real Estate and is a Minister.

About 1978…My first twin fin was a Sunset Surfboard, shaped by Rusty dam good board except it had these FU fins that were made out of composite and bolted through the top, well the tabs that actually held the fins in were so paper thin that about every 6 surfs you had to go buy new fins…thet kept busting off and sinking to the bottom. Needless to say Sunset had some great shapers walk through there door.

-Jay

Rob is correct the guys at Moonlight Glassing could tell you everything about Sunset surfboards.

Perhaps you’d find this interesting…

http://www.swaylocks.com/resources/Detailed/194.html

Awesome, thanks alot for all the info!

Rob

Yeah, I have a 5’0" Sunset kneeboard of about that vintage. Single ( FU short box) 8" or so Rainbow glass fin downrail ( hard-soft-hard) flat-bottom, no vee- no concaves, knee wells, glueline blank, looks like 8 oz glass, Flagrantly Opaque orange deck and rails and a rather nice airbrush on the clear bottom, purple to vermilion shading to nothing surrounded by a nice chrome yellow pinline. Bought used around 1980, was my #1 board for about 10 years.

I may have to get another digital camera…

Well made stick. Hang onto yours.

doc…

Yeah, I can definitley tell they’re solid boards. Mines been through hell and back and is still plenty functional. I actually ran it by accident straight on into a metal bulkhead once during some pre-hurricane washing machine swell and besides an obvious gash in the nose, it held up fine. Any other board I can think of wouldve been toatalled. I was real young then and didnt have a clue about fixing a board so I just covered the gash with suncure. Other than that and a few other minor dings here and there its still in good shape. Being that this is a “vintage” board, would it devalue it at all to go and fix it up and try to rebuild that part of the nose? I would like to do some restoration work to it, but Ive never done work on an older board like this and I sure dont want this one to turn into any kind of “learning experience” if you know what I mean.

Well, the main thing is to make sure it’s watertight, so it doesn’t rot and turn brown on ya. The board is clear with a light blue pinline? Want to be sure that’s what you meant from the original description. Fairly much still ‘white’ with ( I hope) no major ugly dings?

Well then…get out your sander, set on down and I’ll take ya through the exciting world of repair. Don’t even think ( as some have, to my horror when they bring 'em in for me to fix their repair) of sawing off pieces and parts to fix it…

doc…

A guy by the name of Buzz Blodgett shaped alot of the small fishes for sunset and they were really great boards.Buzz is deaf and a third generation glass blower still in encinitas and a really great craftsman!!

I’ve been reading my old magazines from the 70’s and I noticed last night that there are a large amount of Sunset ads…