Recently purchased a 9’6" longboard on craigslist. It seems 1960’s era to me, but I’m no expert. I’m wondering if anybody can provide any insight into the board, (when, where, by whom it was shaped…etc.) This is just for sheer curiosity, as its clearly and old board, and would be interesting to know the history behind it. A few key features-1" stringer, tail block, fiberglass D fin, no leash plug, new and old repairs, nose seems to have been snapped or damaged at some point and repaired. Logo says “surfboards by Graham,” but no other writing or markings. One odd feature you can see by the photos are two deep channels running on either side of the stringer on the deck on the forward half of the board. Not sure if this was an intentional design feature or and artifact of time and age. And if you’re wondering, I did try it out and it rides great! Thanks in advance!
Hard to tell from the photos, but my guess is that the two depressions on the deck are from knee paddling.
Definitely looks sixties, though I’m not familiar with the builder. A fun find, in any case.
The area you are in may help ID the board and it’s history. Dents in the deck are from knee paddling.
I purchased the board in San Diego. I’d also doubt that the dents are from knee paddling, although that is a good guess, as they begin about halfway up the board and run almost all the way to the nose.
My guess is that the “dents” are actually blank shrinkage that the old Walker blanks and possibly others suffered from
Could be. I have seen blanks shrink at least that bad. Who knows? The dents are pretty symmetric. Could be someone’s take on a Da Cat.
Shrinkage does seem like a more likely explanation, but then I wonder if the glass would shrink to hug the contour of the blank as well? Does glass have the ability to flex that much without cracking or delaminating?
I guess I’m still holding out hope that this is an intentional feature. Would make for a more interesting story behind the board. I gotta say though, it feels weird beneath the feet once you get up there. What do you mean by someone’s take on Da Cat, Is this similar to something Dora would have on any of his boards?
It reminded me of Da Cat also. Da Cat—a Mickey Dora model produced by Greg Noll in the mid '60’s that had a strep deck which looks similar to your picture of the dents.
I have a friend down in OC who has a board that looks 100% just like that. Had the board since new and I was most definitely not shaped that way. He said it got hot several times and then it just kept growing…
The fibreglass D-fin, 1-1/2" wide balsa stringer and special tail block pretty much place the board in the '64-'65 time frame.
That exact logo is on the Stanly website so its not a one off .
The depressions in the deck are from the blank shrinking. Given the dark color on the deck my guess is that it had prolonged exposure to sunlight and was maybe stored somewhere that the nose got baked more than the rest of the board. If the shaper had intended to make a step deck or dished out nose the stringer would not sit that high in comparison to either side. The glass will certainly shrink along with the foam, as it’s a very gradual process. This is not uncommon with old boards that are stored for prolonged periods where they are exposed to direct sunlight.
The board was likely made between 1962 and '65.
I wonder if it has any connection to Dick Graham, who was a major force in surf magazine publishing in the sixties. At one time or another he was the editor of Petersen’s Surfing Mag, Surfing Action Around the World, and International Surfing, which later became the more recent Surfing Magazine that folded just a couple of years ago.
If you are near SD go talk to Bird Huffman at Bird’s Surf Shed. He probably knows as much about SoCal boards as anyone. 1091 W Morena Blvd, San Diego.
I’ll agree on the blank shrinkage thing. Look, with those depressions in what would be at least double 10 oz glass on the deck, maybe plus a deck patch, the previous owner would have to be either Godzilla or a sumo, to both crush the glass where you’d knee paddle the thing and all the way to the nose and tail. Somebody that big would have a 10’6" or larger. Possibly something that needed an engine and running lights. It’s the foam.
What leaps out at me is how that red white and dark blue deck/hotcoat looks compared to the rest of the board, including the browned foam under the glass around the sticker/logo. I’ll bet the color/hotcoat is a much later addition, hiding something really ugly like very discolored shrunken foam…
Almost nobody used really dark colors like that- they would melt the wax off immediately and delaminate shortly after. You hear about thr black Dora Da Cat models? The black made them delaminate right ricky tick. I watched one do that on a hot day around 1969. Looked unearthly, bubbling up like that.
As I’m a slow learner, I ordered a board in navy blue sometime after that. I like blue, ok? It delammed in a couple of years. If that dark blue on your board was original, the board would have delammed long ago.Don’t leave it out in the sun.
That wide stringer. Note how it’s dark? Water stains? Pretty common when a dinged nose wasn’t fixed in time. Also a reason to keep it in the shade.
Surf the thing, enjoy it.
doc…
Thanks for that, I’m convinced now that the depressions are due to blank shrinkage as having tried the board there’s no way that could be an intentional design feature like the more uniform scoop out of a da cat model.
Ill give bird a try.