Got out of the water today, and a guy walked by with a short, retro stubbie. Reminded me of some similar, albeit cruder shapes we were building out of longboards in 68’ - stripping the glass off for a reshape because their weren’t any short blanks available at the time, and after witnessing the new lines being made on the waves, we had to get on this NOW.
A buddy and I stripped down and reshaped a year old Hansen Master and an older Harbour Trestle Special into 6’ stubs. Another one of our tribe did the same thing just a few weeks later to an almost brand new Dewey Webber Performer. Within a couple of months what had formerly been an impressive collection of longboard thoroughbreds stacked by the warm up fire had morphed into a motley collection of short stubbies.
You had to be there to understand the excitement, and for those that were, do you remember what 'today high end collectible" you butchered to advance the Revolution??
I never butchered any longboards back in that era…I didnt have that desire to shape back then (I did though cut down the nose of a 9’4" G&S down to 8’6"), but I do remember a friend of mine stripping down a 9’6" Bing Nuuhiwa Noserider down to an 8 foot evolution roundpin. Had we had known what the future held back then…It was a really unique era that I’m lucky to have experienced…I don’t think there will ever be another period in surfing history that had as much impact as the shortboard revolution did.
Not exactly a sacrilege as the board I butchered was a french Barland, not a Weber or Velzy or…, but I see such boards being considered highly sought after “collectors” today… Even though this particular one was covered with dings, had lost its original fin and was basically a log…
Here is a shot of said Barland with a much younger Balsa (twelve y.o.):
Same Balsa (with hat), in the middle of the butchery job:
The very questionable result (left), together with a very questionable swim-suit: (hey, Coque, that’s Esteban to my right, holding a british Bilbo)
Against all odds, the new board worked good enough to make me a much better surfer… I remember getting tubed for the first time ever on it…
I to am guilty as charged. I can remember a mate and myself got hold of an old log. Can’t remember the brand. But I do remember it being in good condition. We stripped it and had a local shaper “Nigel Coates” rough out one of his pintails. We finished the shaping and glassed it. This board was as flat as an ironing board. If you made the drop without pearling you got the ride of your life. Boy was it fast. Big concave.
This was in the early 70"s. I can also remember riding some of these old boards to their graves. There was a bunch of old v- bottoms and trackers left in the bush at our local beach and we would go out and just trash these things. Considering what I do for a living now I feel quite guilty. But it was the 70’s, we were mere teenagers and didn’t know better.
I was only talking to a friend about this yesterday. He strarted his shaping career at this very time. He was saying that things were happening so quickly that manufactures were caught with a stock pile of redundant boards and were letting them go for a song. I wonder how many people bought these cheap logs took them home, stripped and re shaped them. platty.
