A brief time line history of how we got to where we are.
A wholly inaccurate explanation of our ancestors and how our past was shaped.
3000 B.C. The riding of reed rafts sitting or standing was practiced by Peruvians.
200 B.C sandwich islanders (Hawaii) are carving olo – a long wili- wili (balsa like) surfboard six inches thick through center of the board with a convex top and bottom shape so edges beveled to ½ inch all round these boards were also shaped of koa (mahogany) but normally only for alii (chiefs).
The other type was the alaia surfboard about 12 foot long for an adult and 1 ½ inches thick through the center beveling off to ¼ inch on the edge.
Lightning bolts were a common deck symbol.
1900 first imported Californian redwood and iron tools used for shaping surfboards in Hawaii.
1926 Tom Blake carves first hollow ‘cigar board’ a hollowed out olo board.
1932 Blake starts manufacturing hollow paddleboards (toothpicks) he later goes on to invent windsurfing, patent the surfboard fin.
1934 hot curl boards ‘olo’s with their back hacked off’ get surfers in the power pocket for the first time.
1945 Gardner Chaplin (Miki Dora’s step dad) meets Bob Simmons an aircraft engineer injured in an accident and introduces him to surfing. Bob promises to be surfing’s first innovator.
1947 Pete Peterson builds a hollow fiberglass surfboard.
1948 Bob Simmons builds a balsa railed Styrofoam centered fiberglass covered surfboard. Surfers everywhere say “on ya bob”
1955 Dale Velzy and Hap Jacobs develop and use router jig for shaping. (Early CNC ‘computer numerical coding’ shaper)
1957 Dave sweet starts building polyurethane foam surfboards.
Dow chemical hooks Hobie Alter up a couple of free polystyrene blanks but he deemed to light when test ridden? What?
1962 Barry Bennett starts blowing blanks in Australia.
1963 Average board is 9 feet 6 inches
1968 The short board revolution is starting, in a year boards lose 2-3 feet in length and hanging ten is nearly extinct. Australians Nat Young and Bob Mctavish lead the charge.
George Greenough on his kneeboard spoon was a major influence as he could get right in the barrel and turn hard on the face of the wave. Thank you George!!!!
Surfers leave the “sport” in droves unable to handle the short boards and unwilling to be uncool enough to stay with longer boards.
Average board is 6 foot 3 inches.
1971 July 7th Tom Morey plays around with Insulite foam and poly-ethylene and calls it the “boogie board” which goes on to become the most popular surf craft ever. Speaking of popular, the ‘kook cord’ was introduced much to the soul surfers’ disgust for about 6 months, and then it was widely accepted by all.
Cue early 70’s surf boom.
1972 First honeycomb surfboard developed by aqua jet!! (Thirty years later Salomon reintroduced this as ‘new’ technology)
1975 Renny Yater uses a computer to analyze volumetric efficiency and efficiency of template arcs and curves on surfboard design.
1979 CNC shaping for surfboards is first used.
Also Mark Richards was influenced by a board Ben Apia lent him which launches the ‘twin fin’ era, with style.
1980’s Maybe the drugs ran out cos the ideas sure did.
Apart from surfer’s starting to being influenced by skateboard style manoeuvres.
And that inauspicious day when Simon Anderson introduced what many people would later refer to as the ‘leg rope of the 80’s’, the thruster surfboard. The thruster was a direct reaction to the inability of many surfers to ride the pivoty twin fin. Suddenly with this user friendly board, surfing became as popular as tits. Thanks Simon.
1990’s saw the introduction of close tolerance foam blanks saving shapers precious time.
1991 Randy French makes epoxy fiberglass prototype surfboards promising stronger lighter surfboards, but the conservative surfing public isn’t ready.
1996 Greg Loehr introduces epoxy fiberglass sandwich ‘syntech boards’, twenty times stronger than polyester boards.
2000 In this new millennium, we can conclude that construction of our surf craft hasn’t changed much in 35 years; we just have a wider variety of board shapes.
Long and Short boarding are now on level pegging in popularity and innovation and as the construction methods for our craft finally edge their way towards being less environmentally damaging. This has been made possible with the introduction of stronger sun cure resins, quality epoxy sandwich construction and more resources being put into maintaining flex and feel while retaining strength.
Like the ancients we try to spend as much time as possible in the ocean, we thank Huey for the waves, grab what we’ve been able to craft or trade our time to buy and head out back for that beautiful ride to the shore.
I don’t give a fig what it’s made of but I try to buy locally made if it’s competitively priced and good quality.
If one day I couldn’t afford a board I’m sure I’d just go out and bodysurf it because it’s the ocean and me not the craft that matters anyway.
