My brother called me this morning, as excited as I’ve ever heard him about a board. He first did ding repair on this 9’6" Hansen Superlight for a friend maybe 25 years ago… and its the only vintage board he’s really been into. At any rate, the board is his as of today and he’s looking for a bit of information. Bill, if you could chime in? Original fin and tint. A leash loop’s been added, obviously. She’s a rider!
Sorry for the lousy phone photos.
The serial no. looks to be 81481 with what is described as almost an infinity sign just after. Would you have an idea who shaped it?
I’d guess it’s from 1967. Looks to be in really good condition and whoever did the leash bridge did a fine job of it. Has the fin turned brittle or grainy, yet? Those old polypropelene fins suffer from environmental breakdown and are pretty rare. You are lucky to have that board, moreso since the fin is still with it.
The number appears to be done with a rubber stamp. Also is probably 14818. The symbol is not familiar to me. The number, and solid color glass tailblock, makes me think this is a 1970 or 1971 board. While I was at Hansen, nobody was using a rubber stamp, to mark the boards. Wish I could be more helpful.
Bill, don’t you think the fact that it’s a 9’6" would make it older? That’s why I guessed at 1967. If it was a 70 or 71 it would likely have been a special order as you’d have been hard pressed to find a 9’6" on a shop rack by then. Also, when did Hansen stop using their own fin system? Did they switch to WAVESET for a while?
In 1967 tailblocks were standardized, with two colors. White with a brown base, or white with a black base. When I started shaping there, boards were numbered in the mid 3000 range. That was 1965. As I recall, some time in late 1971, Hansen converted over to the FU box. I think they did use Waveset, for a short period. Just a few months, if that.
Bill and Sammy, thanks for the feedback (Grasshopper too, stoked about covers it).
I would have thought '67ish as well, but hadn’t considered a later special order. The fin is definitely polypropelene, and is rough but not brittle. Very surfably solid. Other than a few old dings, the board is clean.
The number does appear to be 14818 with what what is said to look like an infinite sign or maybe a tilde before it. I asked Steve, that’s my brother, if it looked stamped and he thought penciled.
One thing with this new format, photos are a lot easier to insert.
Okay, the mystery (been watching too much Scooby Doo, I guess) thickens. Here is a shot from a 1968 SL with the serial number 16548. If my brother’s is 14818, could we be indeed looking at an earlier date? That’s if their numbers run consequtively… lord knows mine never did for longer than six months before I’d “loose” the notebook I was keeping records in for a while.
Not that a 70 date is any better or worse, just fun to figure it out and it beats working on what I should be doing.
Jeffrey! The board with the number ~16548~ was shaped by Richard Templin. The ~ symbol was how Richard signed his boards. Board numbers were sequencial. So, the board number 14818 was produced earlier in date. I just did not remember the board numbers getting that high, so early! We were shaping more boards than I realized. I’m still mystified by the ‘‘infinity’’ symbol. The only candidate I can think of is Richard, again, because the numbers on the two boards look so similar. The glass tailblock is atypical to the standard boards, so may have been custom made for one of the other factory guys. Or perhaps a ‘‘team rider’’ for one of the many Hansen dealers. Those two kinds of ‘‘customers’’ would frequently have custom touches, or diviations, from the standard models. (color work, extra stickers, etc.) It HAS been 45 years, so while my memory is very good, it isn’t perfect. Both you, and SammyA, did some good detective work.
Do you happen to know who was glassing there during this period?
45 years… I’d say your memory is hanging in there pretty well.
By the way, a friend of mine recently picked up a '62ish gun that you shaped, apparently from the original owner. I’ve seen the board but don’t have a decent photo. That’ll be the subject of anohter thread.when I do!
Bill, any chance that the last digit in the serial numbers indicate the year? Seems like a hell of a lot of boards in a short time span if both those Superlights were built within a year of each other. Simple math would yield 1800 + boards.
Sammy, in that time period, I was shaping up to 10 boards per day, five and six days per week. Don was always pushing for production during the ‘‘season.’’ We had a ‘‘staff’’ of four full time shapers, and one fellow that would come in part time during peak season. So, those kind of numbers were easily obtained. Those two boards were probably made within two or three months of each other, if it were at peak production time. The East Coast was still driving the market, as far as numbers of boards ordered was concerned.
Now that will be interesting. I’m curious who the owner/seller was. Most of the guns I made for other people, were for regular surfers in the lineup at Windansea. One day at Windansea, around 1965 or '66, it was 8 feet, with 20 people out. Out of those 20 guys out, counting me, there were 11 people on boards that I’d made. Made my day!
