When I was a teenager in the early 90’s, the local shops would often have a Spectrum on the rack at any given time. I loved the way they looked and felt in my hands. Never owned one.
Just curious who they were made by and what happened to them (for nostalgia, nothing more).
I had a Spectrum longboard about 10 years ago. It’s one of those boards I should never have sold.
Might be worth asking about or searching on Second Light.
http://www.2ndlight.com/fusetalk/forum/categories.cfm?catid=3&entercat=y
It appears the Bobbit brothers went out of business around 2011.
Ask Mike Daniel. He shaped for Spectrum.
Mike, you out there?
It’s very hinky trying to post on here now, I just wrote a response and it vanished…
Here goes again: Spectrum was huge in the 80s and 90s, but the whole industry changed around 2000 when the imports and big consignment labels came on strong. At one time in the late 80s Spectrum probably built more boards than any other company on the east coast.
I only shaped for Spectrum for about a year around 94-95. When I started working for WRV in 96, they wanted an “exclusive” on my crappy old shapes so I had to drop all my other accounts.
Hey Mike,
I figured you’d know something and hoped you might chime in (though I didn’t realize you shaped for them).
Thank you.
Here is the only picture of the Spectrum I used to have. It was a longboard that could do it all. I’ve had several longboards since and none have been even close to as fun as this one.
Craig Bobbit started spectrum. He kinda retired and turned it over to his kids. I was building longboards under the Sea Island label and he bought everything I could build.
At one time the place was huge and he built hundreds of boards. He would load a truck load of a few hundred boards and head up the East Coast selling to surf shops. It was a classic for sure.
I stumbled on this thread because I was trying to track down the back story on the board I have here. It is actually the first board I’ve ever owned.
The Mike Daniel that commented earlier, are you the one who shaped my board??
-Rob
Yep that’s one that I shaped. My signature should be on the bottom.
I owned several Spectrum shortboards over the years, quality boards
always enjoyed going into their shop in Melbourne (across from Longboard House basically)
I remember being very surprised it closed when it did, it was a substantial store w imo lots of loyal customers
At the time it was one of those “staples” of the area that always made you feel at home when you saw it (for me at least)