a while back, I bought a board from Raymond Turnipseed for $175 because he needed the money. Before I bought it, he went on about how it was made from a blank that Diff had up in the racks collecting dust for a while. It had a two in balsa stringer in it, and I guess they both agreed that it would make a good "border board" for smuggling what-not to and fro on trips to Mexico, France, and other places that were being discovered in the 70's. So he talked Diffenderfer into shaping a nice downrailer out of it. It's about 7' with a rounded diamond tail. the rails are turned down hard, and it has a substantial amount of vee in the tail. I was expecting to see a hulled / Bellied nose area because all the diffenderfers I've seen have had this characteristic.There was a repair done on the tail which I was asking about, and that's how the smugglng conversation was started. Raymond said that various people would use this board (He and Diff being two of these people) for loading up their stash. I guess they would break open the tail, stash their contraband in there and would reglass, sand, and polish it so no one could tell the difference. Then they would proceed to come back over the boarder with it. I thought it was a cool board and a good story, so I bought it (the board). I was still skeptical about the story until I asked Bill Thrailkill to come over to route two FU Box slots on each side of the original box. Bill routed the twin 10.5" box slots on each side of the original, and when he left, I proceeded to clean them up and prep them for the box installation. I felt a weak area in the balsa stringer and broke open a little hole about the diameter of my finger. It was hollow. I shined a light inside and could see that it was hollowed out and definitely the work of a skilled artisan. I slid a pencil in the hole, tilted the tail up , and it slid all the way to to nose, and back down to where the hole started (right at the leading edge of the box). I called Bill about this, and he agreed that most likely this board was made by Diff, and was used as a smuggler. I thought this was pretty cool board lore, and thought you guiys would get a kick out of it.
If anyone knows more about these "smugglers" or "border boards", or may know more about the story of this board, please feel free to elaborate!
Thanks!
[quote=Kawika]
a while back, I bought a board from Raymond Turnipseed for $175 because he needed the money.
R.I. P.
Raymond Turnipseed is dead?!
a while back, I bought a board from Raymond Turnipseed for $175 because he needed the money.
easternpacific wrote:R.I. P.
Raymond Turnipseed is dead?!
What???? I just saw him a few weeks ago on Ocean Street.
cant find that news story.... woops
Thats an interesting story, probably a lot more common than people think, I can imagine back in the day with less stringent controls and effective policing that would have easily worked, not too much attension was paid to small time contraband smugling and bribes were easy to pass.
But that was then and this is now, and smugling anything is a bad idea these days, unless you like spending time in jail.
I would say Customs have definately wised up. As a ding repairer I get a lot of busted boards that come through customs with certain patterns of damage that were definalely done on purpose, even with surfbags that were locked being cut open, padding removed and the tails busted open, more so with expoxy boards with solid pigments/paint as you can't see whats inside.
I would assume either very vindictive bagage handles or that customs actually bust boards open to see if anything is hidden inside. I guess its already in the book of old tricks which meen that over the corse of history atlest a few have been caught trying this.
I was young and innocent in the '70s, but I remember quite well all those stories of boards being used to bring back to France from Morocco (via Spain) all kinds of exotic substances... Early honeycomb hollow boards were supposedly the tool of choice for this... Long after those smugglings had ceased, surfers as a whole continued to appear as drug addicts in the eyes of the public.
sounds cool and romantic...but i know a a guy from brazil who is going to get his head crushed by an elephant for smugalling..also met a guy in BAJA who did time in INDO for seeds...foreign jails are full of surfers...be smart...ALOHA
I think telling stories of such adventures is fine, but attaching a well-known name to the story and posting it without reeaalllyyy knowing what was going on is not cool
Well, Raymond was at Donnie Hoefer's house a little while ago (two doors down from mine), and I confirmed two things...
1) No.... Raymond is NOT dead, so I don't know why anyone was posting RIP about Raymond... I agree that that's not cool at all. I was shaken up a bit when I read that and was franticallty searching the net to find an obituary notice... didn't find one, and ran over to Donnie's on my break, only to find Raymond right there alive and well.
2) Raymond once again assured me that my board was shaped for him by Diffenderfer, and it was definitely used by them to transport "unmentionables" back in the early 70's and even into the 80's before he threw it in the garage on Ocean Street.
So, there's your confirmation.
Probably the same bunch of guys that think Derek Ho is dead too?
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