Picked up this board for $30 on Craigslist. It’s a 6’ Unity shaped by (I believe) Redman. Any and all info is appreciated. I love the airbrush work on the deck. The plan is to fix the dings and ride it. The red bottom is a tint so any advice on what I should do for the dings is appreciated. I’m tempted to reglass the whole bottom with red pigment but then again, I like seeing the dings. More info about Redman below.
If it is shaped by the same Redman, I have found info about him shaping for many brands but nothing about Unity.
"South Bay, CA, transplant Robert “Redman” Manville was a big part of this boom. An immensely respected production shaper for top craftsmen like Weber, Takayama and Stewart, Redman’s remarkable work ethic was matched only by his knowledge and contacts, not to mention his stacks of modern templates which past and present WRV shapers still use to this day. With Redman helming a dream team that included shaping partner-in-crime Jim Fuller, glosser-turned-factory manager Patrick Herle and esteemed laminator David Rohde, WRV was soon shipping boards to Hawaii and beyond for big-name chargers who swore by Redman’s big-wave guns – while the Friends of the Porpoise logo was quickly becoming the sticker du jour for the air-boosting, tail-sliding contingent, most notably Noah Snyder, the Outer Banks’ first professional surfer. Aside from WRV, Redman routinely moonlighted for Randy Hall’s Rodanthe-based Hatteras Glass label, even after he was diagnosed with a terminal illness. Redman was determined to fill his orders while passing down as much insight before he passed in 2004… and perhaps after, as well. Unexplainable phenomenon, including CAD malfunctions to tools flying off shelves to a suspiciously routed tornado, have rattled U.S. Fiberglass’ corrugated cages ever since and nearly every employee here insists that Robert Manville’s ghost still haunts the factory.
“Redman forgot more about shaping than most guys learn in an entire career,” says Jesse Fernandez, a Florida pro surfer/ longboarding savant who moved to the Outer Banks in 1990 to work for WRV as a shaper beside Redman, but settled for a glassing job after getting leapfrogged by VB transplant Tommy Moore. “When he died he had hand-shaped close to 50,000 surfboards. There are only a handful of guys in the world who’ve done that before getting on machines.”
As the story said until he passed away Redman was also shaping some boards out of Rodanthe Surf Shop under the Hatteras Glass label. I don’t know if they did glassing there or if the boards went up to New Sun/Gale Force Glassing. There was a very talented airbrush artist working out of there who went on to open The Pit surf shop. That could be his work. I never heard of the Unity label but it almost looks air brushed on. Maybe a promo board. Worth fixing.
1977 dates Red living and shaping in the South Bay. UNITY Surfboards was located at 422 Pacific Coast Hwy. Hermosa Beach CA (old Jacobs Surfboards shop). The board was probably manufactured at one of the factories on Valley Drive in Hermosa Beach.
Nice, thanks for the info. That’s interesting he was in CA during that time since I got the board on the east coast from a lady that said her husband bought it in Rhode Island.
I think Tom Stanton or Matt Calvani both of whom airbrushed at SHORELINE GLASSING in Hermosa Beach could best Id’ this board. I worked with Red at Weber in Hermosa 1981-83 one of the greatest production shapers of all time. I believe there is a FB in his name.
Okay, I got in contact with Matt Calvani and he said “There’s a good chance Jeff Myers did that airbrush. He currently is still airbrushing surfboards some were in San Diego.”
That’s all I got. Anybody have any info on Jeff Myers in San Diego? I know of a Jeff Myers on the east coast but I don’t think he was old enough in 77 to be the same guy.
Monk---- Thanks for posting this up. Nice slice of Surfing history that I knew nothing about and had only heard the name thrown around a couple of times. I think that it is a board worthy of restoration and an inquiry to Surfing Heritage in SAN Clemente might yield some info as well.
That definitely looks like Jacks style of AB. Jack passed away about 10 years ago. Jeff Myers was working until recently at Diamond Glassing in SD. Diamond went out of business last month.
Just spent the last hour reading up on Jack and even watched his paddle out memorial. Seemed like a nice guy and very talented. He moved to CA in 1972 and one article mentioned he first started working with Channel Islands. The only pictures I could find of his work were all OP boards from the mid to late 70/80s. Interesting as this board is from 77.
I have started the restoration of the board. The tail is filled and all dings on the bottom are repaired. I’m going to redo the entire bottom with a red pigmented layer of 4oz. Obviously I’m going to leave the deck alone, which is in pretty good condition minus a bunch of heel dents. I’m tempted to lightly sand down the gloss coat in hopes of removing some of the yellowing, however, I’m under the impression that the air brush job was on the foam and the yellowing is actually in the foam itself. Can somebody confirm that this airbrush job is on the foam? Any opinions on whether to regloss the deck or leave it alone? I’m not much of a pics person but I’ll share some soon.
The AB is on the foam. it’s a good example the freehand AB / hand held stencil work that common to that era. JM did much of that OP work at South Shore Glassng. Maybe that board got glassed there.
This is a free hand I watched Jack paint in about 20 minutes. He came up to Weber in Hermosa Beach to spray a few production boards in 82’. He had been working in Dana Point earlier in the day at Hobie.
