Tiki Surfboards- Early 1960's

General Discussion
1

Hey Guys,

I’m currently working on another restoration.  This one is for my Aunt’s surprise 60th Birthday.  The board was purchased for my Aunt around 1964 by my grandparents.  We live on Amelia Island just north of Jacksonville, Florida. 

In those days, the only place to buy a surfboard locally was at the May Cohen’s Department store in Jacksonville.  The board appears to be some kind of pop-out or mass produced board.  I haven’t had a chance to investigate to heavily, but I believe the stringer is a veneer and not all the way through the board.  

 

The other odd characteristic is the turquoise resin hull is seamed along the vertical rail line?  Wondering if this is original to the board as I remember my Aunt telling a story about the board being dinged pretty bad in Hurricane Dora ('64) and a local guy doing the repair…so the resin panel (which looks more like a gel coat, as there is no gloss coat over the color) may have been added later?

My Aunt was one of the Island’s first surfers and this board is really special to her.  Any information on this board will be greatly appreciated.  Thanks so much and here are a few photos I took today.

 

2

There was a Tiki thread just a few days ago. It is a 60s popout. No question. Made by Pacific Plastics in Ventura, CA. Same factory made Stingray and Ten Toes popouts. I think Morey might have been involved (plug shapes). You are right about the stringer. That’s why all those popouts had solid pigment bottoms. Good way to disguise a routed faux stringer. And, most popouts had that seam around the rail because they did not bother to sand the ridge left from taping off the gloss coat.

3

What the lam would have looked like when new.

 

The other person who asked about a “Tiki” back on Apr 11 never
bothered to post pics, or even reply to the many answers he got.

I wonder why folks bother posting at all, if they don’t follow up?

4

Thanks Sammy!  That’s it for sure…wow the contrast of the original laminate was really nice.  She always said the board was a very light cream with a bright turquoise hull. 

I’m not sure how to go about this restoration.  The deck is spotted, but not really de-laminated.  I could fix all the dings, pigment the hull and re-gloss/polish -or- maybe tape off the “stringer”/tiki logo and pigment panel the deck cream?  I know the depth will never have the same look as the foam, even with a clear gloss over the cream pigment.

5

Would you like a high res scan of that lam, so you could print up a new one?

6

That would be great!   I was just checking out the existing laminate and it’s pretty deteriorated.  If you get a chance please send it to thomas@lotusearth.com

Thanks Sammy!

7

 

No problem. Name a size, you got it!

8

A neat and worthy project.

As you said, to repigment and polish out the bottom seems like the best way to go.  For the deck… a harder call.  I used to do more “full color” work on restorations but towards the end of my glassing life I started really appreciating just how much character the boards had.  Thus replacing color with color, and leaving the decks (in most cases)  repaired and clear but reglossed.

On a board with no real “collector’s value” - I’d go with whatever would make your aunt happiest.  Will she be stoked to see it looking like, or better than, new?  Or is she going to see those years of sun tan and remember a bunch of good times? 

Keep us posted, I love the restoration threads!

9

Hey Sammy

 

Got any Stingray logos?

I was able to find my old Stinray from the 60's and was about to restore the thing...

Any Ideas?

 

Jim

10

Hey tommyrocket,

i recently bought a tiki surfboard…the logo makes me think the board is older because it has no color.  Also the fin is made out of wood too.  The resin on your board might be stock ,my board have red on the whole bottom stopping like the teal has.  My boards deck is almost as sun beaten as yours. will post pics soon once i fix everything.

-evan

11

I have a Dealer’s Price List from Jan of 1965 and quite a few invoices from 1964 from Ron Jon, the “franchised representative” of Ventura International Plastics, Ventura, California.

The invoices are to Keller’s Surf Shop.

When we got low on stock on the brand we represented, Titan Plastics in Orange, Ca. I would drive my 41 Dodge pickup down to Ron’s house in Manahawkin where he kept a pretty good stock of boards, under the porch, scattered through out the yard, in the attic.

We’d pick out some boards to fill in to our stock, load them in the back of the pickup, bang on the starter and make the trek North to Lavallette. Usually we’d start at 10 pm when we closed the shop so this was a midnight run.

The price list shows a retail price of $102 to $122 depending on size. The wholesale price was $71.60 t0 $90.30 depending on size and quantity.

Other boards shown on the price list are the Shark, which had no stringers and had no guarantee. They were either clear or solid color. The Tiki, one routed stringer top and a solid color bottom. The Stingray, which had a routed stringer top and bottom and a color tapeoff… Ventura, as did Titan, offered a top of the line hand shaped with stringer all the way through. For Ventura it was the Ventura with a Ventura Surf Shop label. The Titan had the Windansea Custom. The other boards had mat blanks which would tan in a day or two in the sun. The selling point on the hand shapes was that the foam wouldn’t tan. We didn’t think it would. And actually it didn’t for many years.

The colors available for all boards according to the price list: Red, Aqua, Orange and Blue.

I don’t think Morey shaped any plugs for them. He once told me he knew the guy who did the Ventura’s but I can’t remember his name. I’ll email him and see if he can remember.

I think Ventura Plastics also had an office or showroom of some sort on Ventura Blvd. in Sherman Oaks. Which was about four blocks from where I lived in 1961. Never saw it but it seems to me I have a flyer somewhere with that address.

12

Why does Bill’s last post keep bumping this to the top, with a new date on it?

The post doesn’t appear to be changed/edited.

13

Good question. I did make a minor edit this morning after receiving an email from Tom Morey. I didn’t know edits caused a bump and frankly I don’t really care one way or the other. At any rate. When I get some time later I may post some of Morey’s email to me which gives a lot of insight into the whole VIP operation since he knew eveyone involved. I’ve sent Tom a link to this thread but he’s not registered and I doubt he’ll log on here. Though he may. 

I will check with him, as I usually do before I post any of his email to me.

14

Just saw this thread and I gotta laugh. I worked at the Hobie Shop on Kapiolani fixing dings in the mid 60’s and when someone would bring a Ten Toes or Tiki for ding repair we’d always try to pass it off on someone else. ‘Fixing’ those boards was a nightmare. As you sanded into a ding you just kept going deeper and deeper hunting for solid foam you could build on. I think the guy who wanted to restore that board is REALLY going to have his hands full ! Good Luck !

15

Hi there.

 

I just found this thread and can’t believe that it is current.  I have been meaning to look up this old board I have with this exact TIKI logo and this was the first thing to pop up.  

I also have an old TIKI surfboard that was bought in the late 1980’s in NJ.  Mine is in a lot better shape and has a wood fin.  I need to take photos to post but would love to hear some more about the history of it.  It’s interesting to find out that the wood up the middle is just a veneer.   Mine looks like redwood and is quite wide and the bottom of the board is red.  The only really noticeable problems are on the nose of the board where there have been a number of repairs.  I’m not looking to sell it but was always curious if it had any value.  Any info about the history would be greatly appreciated.  I’ll post some pictures soon.

Thanks.

16

Actually I was able to take a few quick pics.  Hopefully I attached them the right way.

 

 

 

 

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One more try posting the whole board.  Sorry for all the posts.

https://swaylocks7stage.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/Low%20Angle%20#1%20small.jpg

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Well, you should be able to tell by reading this thread that Tiki Surfboards were mid 60s popouts sold at hardware and department stores. Built by one of the many companies who tried to cash in on the surfing fad of the era. Generally considered low quality and poorly designed by those who actually surfed, back then.

As to value… not much. Some collectors will pay a few hundred for one in very good to near mint condition. Biggest problem was the cheap foam and resin used on those. They turned brown really fast. Some in just a couple of years, depending on UV exposure.

 

Essentailly crap when new, now just old crap.

19

Thanks.  I’m glad I found this thread.  I had no idea what the history of this board was.  I actually like it a lot.  I don’t really surf on it but it’s a pretty nice looking board.  I kind of like the history despite the fact that it’s considered a piece of crap.  Thanks for the return post.

20

 

Do you surf?