Hello everyone. I just purchased an old Wardy in pretty good condition. My issue is that there is no Board # and the fin is somewhat of a modified D-fin, having some rake to it. Any help dating the board or any insight on the evolution of D-fins would be greatly appreciated.
[img_assist|nid=1074613|title=wardy top|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=24|height=100][img_assist|nid=1074614|title=wardy bottom|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=24|height=100]
Here are the images.
[img_assist|nid=1074615|title=fin|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=100|height=74]
The fin style tells me the board is mid sixties vintage. I’m surprised you can’t find a serial # on the board. From what I know, Wardy was one of the few who actually used sequential numbers. Look harder.
Nice score. Too bad that someone drilled a hole in the fin.
a well used Wardy I rode in 64’ looked a lot like this one, and believe it was made in 63’. When I ordered a custom Wardy in 65’, it came with a really graceful speed skeg set about three inches up from the tail, which based on a couple of others that came into the shop with it, seemed what Wardy had gone to on his boards at that point.
Loved that custom, wonderfully balanced board that really helped me up my game.
Wardy was/is a creative, multi dimensional craftsman and artist who after a shaping career went big in the art world.
Shaper in Australia named Ward has opened up a surfboard line and called it Wardy Surfboards - weak move, as there was only one Wardy Surfboards.
Thanks guys, I was worried someone tried to get creative and cut into the origional D-fin. So other than the hole, the fin is legit?
I am going to be fixing some minor cracks and want to repolish her up after. Maybe the new buff job will bring a serial number to light. It’s possibly in the tail block.
Thanks for the help,
Rich
the board looked like my first Wardy, not the fin…looks like reshaped D fin to me…
Hey Icc, thanks for the help. Would you recommend leaving it as is? I can def. get a better shape out of it, it looks real ugly.
Mmmm…I don’t know about that. Too much curve in the leading edge to be a modded D fin. Some of the early ‘speed skegs’ were close relatives of the D with more sweep in the front, like this one.
Sammy A may very well be right, as I’ve just never seen that fin shape before…where’s Thrailkill when you need him…lol
If original, obviously leave as is, part of the charm…and even if not, ride it, you may like it…been years since I saw an old Wardy in the water, like probably 30…
sweet find one way or the other!!
I can see that this board is from the Larry Bailey, Tinker and Tim Cousins days, laid up with Dion hot coat resin, fin done at the same time as bottom lam, hot coated, laps sanded, deck lam’d and hotcoated. With hotcoats between lam’s, you can see how the bottom lap is feathered back to the roll on the rail.
Tim Cousins was the man laying up the fin sheets, was FU’s main fin sheet guy forever
Wardy did a lot of fins like the one shown. Contact Chuck Johnston at Terry Senate Surfboards, or the Fly (Fly Surfboards); both worked there. Fly has Wardy’s last Skil and makes T-shirts from the original Wardy silkscreens.
I had an 8-4 Wardy in '65 with a very narrow cut-away fin. These fins were primarily developed for sharp bottom turns at dumping reef breaks in Laguna. Back in that day, Wardy was the only guy regularly making boards shorter than 9-10 feet, and that’s what brought me there. They had a variety of step decks and Quigg-type noses, stuff that was really different from what was common in Redondo and southward at the time.
I looked at a lot of Wardy’s during this era (owned two) and never saw a fin with that profile. D fins were prevalent, either forward or reverse mounted. Never saw a Wardy with any fin that inelegant. By the time ‘shark’ fins or ‘speed’ fins became widely available the location had moved forward. I think it’s an amateur re-shape and worth having an expert clean up. Just one man’s opinion…