I was wondering… Did nose ridng exist before the foam era started. and if it didn’t… can a true hollow or solid board be shaped to be a nose rider
That’s a good question that I don’t have a ton of information for. The only info i can give is that a guy I surf with picked up a Balsa board in Costa Rica about 2 years ago and while it’s not what I would define as a noserider, it does have a lot of the characteristics. It’s got egg rails with a concave up on the nose, but the odd thing is it’s about 3" thick with a pretty flat rocker, if not more with a rounded deck, hence why It’s not what I would think of as a nose rider, I think of a flatter deck (Could be wrong though). It runs with a single fin and square tail. He loves it and it rides pretty smooth, however it doesn’t hold as well as some other nose riders I’ve ridden. Just my 2 cents.
Balsa boards were nose ridden, by some of the era’s best, but as a term “noserider”, they didn’t exist until late 1966
so… the act of hanging ten and nose riding was due or made possible by the advances in foam… or just shaping technology in general
to my knowledge, noserider specific boards were first developed for the Morey invitational in Ventura in '64/'65-concaves , special fin treatmaents, bricks on tails(counter balance)etc.
yea verily let the praises fly to the illustrious Morey…a fine diversion and yet odd though it may seem,the first purveyor of surf craft to go on record ,in print,recomending boards shorter…yes the Morey-Pope sticks…snub,snake, blue machine,pemetrator,etc…were to be ridden much shorter… a foot in some cases( compared to signature models) which opened the door to further shortenings ray street had a solid in his living room on Hauaalaroad that was finless with a wide nose and a bevel nose chine that board was not balsa… how old was that sucker …nose rder? Tom Morey said that…ambrose…still ill