I found this GEM…lol, last Friday hiding in my friends backyard. I’am sealing it up now and plan to see how she rides. Hoping I like it, and will restore it to use once in a awhile. Not sure what the huge black patch is on the nose…was this original, can I remove it. Board is 9’-8" X 22" x 3 3/8". No markings numbers are evident at all, I have looked and looked, maybe they are buried under repairs at the tail if I were to remove enough material.??
Seems to me to be fairly early Hansens, maybe early sixties? What years was Hansens actually in Cardiff ?
I have not asked my freind what he knows about it’s history yet, but I will.
Bill T will chime in . Alot of those earlyboards would have no shaper Id. The Hansens sometimes have a single letter or small unique mark known only to insiders that identified the shaper. I can’t tell 100% from your pic, but the black stuff looks like “Slip Check”. An anti slip product. Sand it off. See what’s under it. If there is no damage under it, the board will look better without it. It’s a good example of what was around in the early to mid 60’s. Lowel
Tailblock? If not, I suspect it dates from 1963 or 1964. Pre 1965, in any event. The fin appears to be a reshped D fin. Hard to tell for sure. A board number would be very helpful in pinning down the age a little better.
Did not appear to have a tailblock, I will find out for sure this weekend as I clean it up, and will dig deeper looking for any markings. I’ll up date you with what I find.
Okay, I ground her down a bit more, definately a tail piece in there. Also “maybe” someones scribble on it, but nothing I can read. If you think it is the intended marking, I’ll go deeper to see if I can make sence of it. I would be neat to know who shaped it and when. Skid thing came right off, who the heck liked those things back then,… lol.
Well, there’s something written there. Perhaps some sanding with 220, or 320 grit paper will help make it more visable. Also wetting the sanded surface will help with the clarity.
There is now a office building where the Old Hansen Factory sat on 101 in Cardiff. It was just a old tin building right on 101 across the Street from Georges Sea Food Resturant. Now the site of the Cardiff Chart House. The Factory became a Beer Bar with live music Called the South Cardiff Lodge. There wasa place on the beach south of Cardiff Reef where people parked their Hobie cats. That was the South Cardif Yacht Club.
Slip check was mostly used on the nose of a board to improve traction. It was a course spray on material, but it was not a substitute for wax. It was so rough that it would chaff your skin. Some guys would spray the whole board to add color, then wax the slip check where they would lay to prevent the chaffing. Some boards had very colorful designs since it came in a variety of colors.
Slip Check was hell on surf knots. Especially the ones on tops of my feet. Never failed if I surfed a board with a full Slip Check deck that my knots would bleed… Thought it was cool on the used MP Eliminator I bought. Wasn’t too long before I figured that $#|t out Canning paraffin could play hell with surf knots as well. Lowel
Slipcheck was most certainly a wax substitute. That was the whole concept. It was mainly used on the nose and quite often the tail, as well. Given the abrasiveness of it, most folks did not use it where they knelt or lay while paddling. Some did fancy color designs on the whole board and waxed the areas where skin contact was frequent. Another product of the same type was called Grip. I believe it was from Con Colburn’s company.
