I know bits and pieces of the role of the wood board in the history and progression of the modern surfboard. Since there's such a wealth of surfing knowledge and history here on swaylocks, I thought I'd put this out there.
I know the ancient Hawaiians rode wood boards called olos and alias, and these were the original surfboards, when surfing was the sport of the kings. The influence of the missionary prohibition (19th century?) on surfing during western takeover of the Sandwich Islands put surfboard building and riding on a back burner.
Later, with the modern resurgence of interest in the sport of surfing, due in large to the influence of Duke Kahanamoku, wood was once again the surfboard material of choice. Hot curls and kookboxes were the surfcraft of the 1930's. Wasn't there a place in L.A. that made the swastika models? Balsa, redwood, koa, ulu, wiliwili. This was the era of Tom Blake, Dale Velzy, Bob Simmons, Joe Quigg, Matt Kivlin.
Once the foam revolution hit (1950's?), wood boards became a historical novelty, no longer able to compete with the lighter, more specifically suited foam and fiberglass boards. Still, guys like Pat Curren and Greg Noll did make occasional boards out of balsa or redwood, and wood remained a mainstay for stringers, showing up occasionally also in fins, nose blocks, and tail blocks.
In recent times, there has been a resurgence of interest in wood surfboards. People like Paul Jensen, Brad Tucker, Lon Klein, Chad Stone, Rich Blundell, Jack Young, Roy Stewart, Tom Wegener, Roger Hall, Gary Linden, all have contributed in their own way to the modern adaptation of the wood surfboard. I think Tom Wegener was largely responsible for the rebirth of the alaia. Tow-boarders like Laird have chosen wood for its dampening qualities in rough seas and high speeds. The compsand homebuilders and professionals like Sunova have adopted wood as the skin of choice, and I think (but not sure) that some form of wood is used in Surftech and GSI composite veneers.
At the recent Sacred Craft Ventura (honoring Yater) trade show, wood's presence was definitely felt.
While gaining in popularity among a "splinter group", wood is not considered a high performance material (the exception being compsand), that is still the realm of the foams (pu, eps, xps). Nevetheless, wood has been proven to be a rideable and fun alternative to the far more prevalent and generally lighter foam boards.
Got any pics or history to share? Be interesting to hear.