hows it going i just picked up a old 6’2’’ single fin close to 20’’ wide and around 3 1/4’’ thick pretty flat bottom with a little V in the tail… my original thought was to just to put some resin over the dings and ride it for the summer… however looking into the surfboard’s brand “surfboards australia” i found out that floyd smith from gordon and smith bough the license from barry bennet back in the day so im thinking maybe i have somthing interesting that i should spend some time on doing a nice repair
anyways does anyone have any clue on the brand or history? theres not much online there’s no signature just a serial number
o…and by the way do you think a 8’’ flex fin is too big for san diego summer slop?
Surfboards Australia was a short-lived subsidiary of Gordon and Smith. Late Sixties, early Seventies. Even had the same address- 5465 Gaines St, San Diego. If that fin box is the original one, then it must be one of the last from that label. Looks like a standard FU box, which didn’t exist until about 1972. Fins Unlimited changed their whole box system about four times, with the one still in use being introduced in the very early 70s.
I have some old SA magazine ads. I’ll see what I can dig up.
Not to be confused with the Chinese fakes currently on the market. No connection, at all.
You’re not gonna contemplate ripping off the old glass or something. That’d be tantamount to setting it on fire. It’s got some bad ding repairs on it, the tail and that cobby solid resin deal in the deck, those need redoing, but beyond that it seems okay.
So, fix 'em, polish it up and you have a ‘user’, pretty quick in the pocket, oughtta hold the line pretty well though then you’re balancing fin size versus stiffness. We are not talking about a rarity, really, or a particularly notable board, it was just a pretty good board, contemporary to the Weber Australia and a couple others. They were built inthe G&S factory in San Diego, when they did everything in-house, and they did a pretty good job.
An Australian made one below shaped by Alan Blyth (he worked for G&S at Caringbah, NSW, Australia, mid 70’s), must have decided to change the logo for ones made in SD.
