pods
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streaks
and slugs
1971 - 1974
1970
Speed Board : post World Championships
(Johanna,Vic) standard settles at 6ft 2" to 7 ft 2" X 18 - 19 1/2", foiled
template and deck with down rails at the tail.
Mostly pin noses but down rails, tails
and fins appear in a multitude of designs.
1970
Down Rails
The most significant design development
resulting from the 1970 World Contest was not a return to longer board
lengths, but the introduction of the down rail.
Indeed, US surfer/shapers returned to
the States and expanded the small wave riding capabilities of the shorter
board with the application of Twin fins.
A feature of the Side Slipper, by 1972
the down rail was adopted by the worlds major shapers and its use continues
as of 2006.
Low rails
are a new thing and they are working really well.
Eliminate
rolls as much as possible in a low rail board.
Use a slight
roll if any, as too much roll on the bottom or top shape and it will make
you fly away and spin out.
Flats, curves
and straighter lines are essential.
The low rail
board eliminates paddling problems and this to me is a breakthrough in
design.
We can paddle
as long as we like once again.
Faster re-entries
from top to bottom without bouncing.
Everything
is combined into one; you're tighter, your inside further and your moving
faster, when you feel like it.
You're skimming
instead of slapping.
It's a freer
feeling than before.
Average length
for this board, depending on your age, build etc. is from 5'8'' (mainly
young children), 6'3'' (older than young), (Aust. design).
Peter Drouyn: Drouyn
(on design)
Surfing World Magazine Volume 14
Number 4 circa 1971 Page 13.
1970
With the reduction in board volume, experiments
continued to attempt to reduce weight.
Many manufacturers used glue line stringers
in their blanks and glassing techniques became more refined.
Developments included 'dry'
laminating, a minimal filler coat, textured decks, elimination of the gloss
coat and a reduction in the width of the rail overlap.
"A resin glue-up
is the rough blank cut in half, resin applied to both sides of the cut,
then clamped back together, this method considered to have a slight advantage
over the completely stringerless because it will hold the turn-up shaped
into it for a useable life-time.
... a dry glass
job ... the resin ... is sparingly worked out with a squeegee leaving only
enough resin for proper saturation of the cloth and securing a good bond
to the foam, here the glasser has to be very careful of drain-outs (little
air bubbles in the weave) which becomes weak spots when the resin has cured,
sometimes the cause of stress cracks, drain-outs are more noticeable in
tinted glass jobs.
Another way
to save a couple of ounces is, a small rail lap, you may have noticed over
the past three years the decrease in the size of rail laps, once anything
up to three inches was quite standard now three-quarter inch is normal
with some manufacturers using the diminishing lap on the bottoms of their
boards."
Steve
Core: Surfboards
Today
Surfing World
Magazine Volume 14 Number 4. Pages 69-70. circa 1970.
1970
Backyarder:
similar dimensions as above but with a lack of commonly accepted design.
Easy access to materials and sixties creativity
turns every second surfer into a designer/shaper.
In Victoria, forced by limited finances,
Ronnie Goddard shaped and glassed his first board in 1970.
A single fin, 5 ft 11'' x 17'' with
slight belly concave and flat in the tail.
The board featured a Gun template,
reflecting some influence from the visiting US/Hawaiian surfers.
The blank was acquired cheaply by
stripping and re-shaping an osbsolete Malibu board - a common method of
the period. ("Backyard Butchery").
On returning to Maroubra in late
1970, Ronnie began manufacturing a small number of boards for friends and
locals.
Simply signed ''Goddard'' (ink on
rice paper decals) the materials were purchased in kit form.
The supply company, in Day Lane,
Kensington, also offered suitable shaping and glassing bays.
1970
Pop Out
5ft 6" X 20" Egg adaptation that used
glassed blanks with minimal shaping to reduce prices by about 40%
Fins usually have no rovings.
1970
Fabric Mat 4ft 6" X 24" popularised by
George Greenough (USA).
Early model by Hodgman (USA).
Suf industry models by Rip Curl and Merrin,
economy model by Pama.
1970
Twin Fin I
US import (Corky Carroll, Mike Eaton , Rolf Aurness and David Nuuhiwa)
by Tom Hoyle at Bennett Surfboards.
Quickly dominates 50% of the Sydney market,
notably McCoy Surfboards and Terry Fitzgerald at Shane Surfboards
(The Shoe).
Usually sub 6 ft x 22" with 10" diamond
pod. Glue line stringer. Surfworld #
Mark
Warren and McCoy Twin Fin 1, Narrabeen, 1971
Photograph : Uncredited
Surfing World
magazine,
April 1979.
Volume 27
Number 6 page 34.
Originally printed
in Surfing World magazine, 1971. |
 |
1971
Fish short twin fin design with long base
fins and wide fish tail, credited to Steve Lis (USA) and used primarily
as a kneeboard.
Continued underground use through the
seventies till adapted to Twin fin 2 by Mark Richards 1977.
1971
Tri Fin Further multifin experimentation,
a central standard fin with two small 2" fins set forward on the rails.
the original idea possibly concieved by
Reno Abelleira (Hawaii).
Examples by Bob McTavish at Bennett Surfboards
and Bros. Neilson.
"In 1970 there were three groups
of designer/shapers who were working on the three-fin idea," says Duncan.
"Bob McTavish in Australia; Dick Brewer, Reno Abellira and others in Hawai‘i;
and my brother and I." - Duncan Cambbell, quoted in
John Wythe White :Surf Wars :The Bonzar,
June 16, 1999
http://www.honoluluweekly.com/archives
/coverstory%201999/6-16-99%20Boards/6-16-99%20Boards.html
Film
On Any Morning
Morning of the Earth |
 |
1971 Nat Pintail heavily
influenced by Joey Cabell (Hawaii) this design featured a compressed pintail
gun template, 2nd phase concave bottom, soft box rails with a hard edge,
large nose lift and a small Greenough single fin. Early models for Bennett
Surfboards, Byron Bay models often featured grey/blue pigment laminate,
later Sydney models had sprayed blanks.These boards were manufactured till
1980. F Morning of the Earth.
1972 Swallow Tail
not a board design in itself, but this tail design became extremely popular
at this time. Also used in the Fish tail format.
1972 Keel Fin
a long base shallow depth, 12" x 5", fin usually fitted to a plus 7 ft
gun pintail shape.
Emphasis was on high speed stability and
increasing length of turns, particually in long walls. for example Bells
Beach.
Pat Morgan Surfboards designs for Wayne
Lynch and Nat Young.
Example on display Yamba Hotel, Yamba
NSW. Reported by Ken Grieves, with thanks.
Film : Crystal Voyager -
Nat Young 8ft Pat Morgan Surfboards Pintiail, Green laminate.
1972 Nat Backhand
a shortened and squared version of Nat Young’s pintail design with asymmetric
rails and a chamfered pod. F Morning of the Earth, openning Victoria sequence.
1973 Winged Pin early
use of flyer/wing feature, probably designed by Brunker Spreckles (Hawaii),
in conjunction with Dick Brewer (Hawaii) gun templates and rigid wide base
fins by Terry Fizgerald at his Hot Buttered Surfboards. Early models were
highly prized as much for the spray art, notably by Martin Worthington,
as for performance. Also winged swallow. ANMM #00001490 and #00001327
Surfworld #
1973 Hollow Wave moulded epoxy honeycomb
skin hollow board designed by Karl Pope (USA), continuing the development
of the Morey-Pope Co. Nineteen models in various colours and tail shapes
from 5 ft 10" to 7 ft 10". Australian use by Peter Townend.
1973
The Campbell Brothers came to international
attention in 1972, when they introduced their highly variant three-finned,
concave-tailed Bonzer in the American surfing press. - Surfer ,October/November
1977.
1974 Hawaiian Speed Shapes adopted
by Australian manufacturers, models by Reno Abelleira and Barry Kana (McCoy
Surfboards), Jeff Hakman and Gerry Lopez (Bennett Surfboards). Lightning
Bolt logos appear on all shapes and brands much to the licence holders
displeasure.
1974 Fang Tail multi
pointed tail using flyers set behind the fin by Nick Daly at Henri Surfboards.
Similar in design to the less common Bat tail.
surfresearch.com.au
REFERENCES FOR THIS SECTION
BOOKS
1992 Stell, Marion K. :
Pam Burridge
Collins Angus & Robertson Publishers
(Australia) Pty. Limited
A division of Harper Collins Publishers
(Australia) Pty. Limited
25 Ryde Road, Pymble NSW 2073, Australia
1997 Warshaw, Matt : Surfriders
– In Search of the Perfect Wave
Tehabi Books, Inc. Collins Publishers,
10 East 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022
1978 Warwick, Wayne
A Guide to
Surfriding in New Zealand Second Edition
Viking Sevenseas Ltd Wellington, New Zealand
1979 Young, Nat ; Photographs by
McCausland, Bill: Nat Young’s Book of Surfing
A.H. & A.W. Reed Pty. Ltd. 53 Myroora
Rd, Terry Hills, Sydney.
1983 Young, Nat with McGregor, Craig
: The History 0f Surfing
Palm Beach Press,40 Palm Beach Road, Palm
Beach NSW 2108
FILM
1985 A History of Australian
Surfing Nat Young.
MAGAZINES
1971 Modern World
July Shane Steadman/Terry Fiztgerald (possibly) : 'Surfboard
Design' pages 30 to 36.
WEB SITES
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