I thought it good for a laugh and some fond memories indeed…It reminds me that we do take our making plastic toys deathly serious.
Yeah, my dad tried to stick mine back together with bondo…
The first real board is utterly magic hey. Aged nine in 1979 I watched my cousin shape my first board from an offcut of one of his EPS racing paddleboards…
I remember the Lorne surfshop full of shiny pintails, layered colour fin foils, resin tints. Tom Petersen, Dick Van straalen, McCoy…
I restore many an oldy, matching the sunburnt dings with shellac in the resin, and I’m shocked by Bills first shot:- What, yes, they were in fact white!
This board that was posted on Ebay a couple of years ago belonged to a friend of mine, Kyle Chu about 30 years ago. Its a 6’4" Hawaiian Spirit swallow tail shaped by Gabe Garduque. Looking at the board you could see a definite Ben Aipa influence (he did go on to ghost shape for Aipa too). How it got from Pearl City HI, to Long Beach CA is beyond me, but Kyle’s name was written along the stringer along with Gabe’s signature and dimensions. Back then, there were two backyard shapers in Pearl City where most of us would get boards from, either Gabe or another slightly younger shaper who lived just up the street from Gabe, the label was called Maranatha Surfboards, the shaper Eric Arakawa. I have a board similar in shape to this one, also by Gabe, that was half buried under a pile of dirt under my friends house for almost the same amount of time. By luck I happened to stop by his house one day and saw the board sticking out of the ground. Almost like finding a long lost friend. After Surfline folded, Gabe went on to be on of the main shapers at HIC for a long time, shaping the gun that Brock Little had that almost all time tube ride at Waimea during the Eddie.
Josh - that single wing pin looks so much like a 6’8 shaped for me in 74’ by an obscure big Island shaper named Bobby Bodeaux who later dropped out of surfing to live the big mountain ski life.
To this day, stil on eof the few truly magic surfboards I’ve had the pleasure to ride…
Call me… I will step you through it. Let me know the kind of computer (Mac or PC) and scanner. It is way easier then you are probably thinking. If you call me when you are home in the evening, I will be near my computer at work and can help. 808-637-7700.
One of my friends is your new rep in Ireland (http://californiadreamin.ie) and I saw some of the boards he’s after bringing in and was absolutely blow away by them. Iv been tormenting myself recently over what to go for next.
Man, I love seeing this stuff… And every now and then something comes along that flat out humbles me. I stand in awe Bing!
I was about 26 years old when I made those Lightning Bolt boards I posted, but your craftsmanship in wood at only 24 was awesome. What is even more amazing though, is you had the good sense to take pictures!
I am looking forward to more from you and others. Don’t anyone be shy.
Boy this thread should really be about how to post photos. Anyway here’s todays attempt to show a gun that I built in 1960. I was 24 years old.
Hi Bill - Do you stil have any of these boards in your shop?
Aloha Epac
While I do have some unique collectables in my shop, I sadly don’t have any of those like the ones pictured. I have restored a couple like them for collectors though. A green tint one and a blue one. I think I posted photos of them before, I will try to find the photos and post again.
Contrary to what my past fame might imply, I never really made that many boards. I was never a huge commercial producer. As a rule, I only made a few boards per week. Most were custom boards for friends and team riders. And I did a few per week for Lightning Bolt. Later when fame and then the Japanese boom struck I did a few more and hired glassers etc. Even tried some ghost shapers for my Japanese accounts. But I really didn’t enjoy that whole commercialized production, business model, for making boards. Surfboards are a crappy business but a great craft!
My boards from the 70s and 80 are extremely rare, primarily because there were very few produced. And those that were, were mostly for pro level surfers in extreme North Shore conditions. As you can imagine, few boards survived more then a couple of seasons.
I do have a few actual boards though and some photos of others. I will continue to post some here as I have time. But I was really hoping this thread would inspire others to post their boards and I am very glad it has! Keep it up guys. I realize Bing really raised the bar, and that it great, but don’t be deterred. We all started at some point and that is what is so fun to see. Vintage stuff in the raw or flawlessly created. It is all good!
But now I am off to Waikiki to race my new (actually used, but new to me) sailboat! I will post more photos soon.
