I don’t know much about surfing, but I’ve had a very old looking board in a shed for a long time. I recently thought I’d try to figure out what it’s worth potentially with the intention of selling it. I did a bit of searching and I think it was made somewhere between '65 and '69. I couldn’t find any identifying marks other than the obvious logos in the pictures. So 1. How would I go about cleaning off the old wax and sand and 2. Does anyone have any more specific guesses about when and where this was made and how much it’s worth.
That’s fantastic! Had one very similar, but was a square tail. Yours is in better condition than the one I had. Could make no determination as to the shaper. The fin is a so-called “747”. Mahogany center and layers of white opaque cloth
Well, it says where it was made right on the label. Cardiff, California. Although, the factory moved to Encinitas in 1967. So, it’s a safe bet it was built in Northern San Diego county. The Doyle model was in production from 1966 to early 1968, with the pointed tail model appearing in 1968 and continuing through that year, incuding shorter, sub 8’ versions. What is the length of this one, and can you find any numbers on it? There should be a five digit serial number roughly between 17,000 and 19,000.
It looks like someone put clear Slipcheck on the tail, and possibly blue on the nose. Hard to tell from your pics. That stuff is harder to remove than wax. To take the wax off, just place in driect sunlight when the air temp is above 80 and wait for the wax to melt. Tale a plastic spatula and scrape off as much as you can. Then, take an old towel and rub away the residue. If the blue portion and the tail seem textured to any extent after the wax is all gone, you have Slipcheck on there. That requires sanding to remove. You should take some very clear closeup pics of the nose and tail. The nose is the front, on top. The tail is the rear portion of the ‘deck’.
All cleaned up and assuming it’s water tight, it is worth at least $1500. Possibly more.
As a practical matter, Fred (Buzzy) Smole shaped all of the Doyle models. Mike shaped less than 1% of them. When I came over to Hansen in 1965, from Hobie, the Doyle model was in full swing production. The factory was on South Cedros Ave. in Solana Beach. The fin panels were made up of cloth and glass mat, saturated with colored resin. As I recall, that fin shape was referred to as a ‘‘Doyle Pivot Fin.’’
