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Custom New 80′s Twin Fin

August 14, 2009 by · 2 Comments

retro twin fin surfboardsRoss Byrd who runs the Goodtimes Surf Camp in Rodanthe brought me an old board that I built probably in 80 or 81. He said it is one of his favorite boards and rides it a lot in the summer when the waves are small. This one had a pretty boxy rail and even had a little bit of deck concave in the tail.  His request was to copy it but update it also and he thought he would like it a little thinner.

The new one doesn’t have the concave deck, not quite as thick and we updated the nose.  It doesn’t have the old school thick down rail nose. Color wise as you can see it was very similar.  Fun to do as I don’t get to do those kind of color jobs to much these days. It’s glossed and polished just like the old one and Curtis said it was a good one to polish because it really made the bright colors pop.

The old one I felt had some really small fins on it for a twin so we increased the area of the fins a little bit also. Dimensions are 5′ 7″ x 20 1/2″ x 2 1/2″  It has a 13 3/4″ nose and a 15 3/4″ tail.  The wing is up 10″ from the tail and across the tips of the swallow it is 4″.

By the way they do a good job at the surf camp in the summer if your looking to send someone, check them out at SurfHatteras.com

old and new noseold and new bottomold and new tailold and new nose 2

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Joey’s New Red Fish

July 4, 2009 by · 1 Comment

Joey's Green SurfboardHey this board is not red, it’s green. It’s a surf shot of Joey Crum on his old green fish.  We built this one for Joey about 5 years ago and last year he finally retired it “last” summer. Many hours were logged on the green fish and it has seen all sizes of waves and all conditions. Some days it was well overhead and closing out, not a fish type wave at all but Joey would take it out and still surf it well.

If you have been to Hatteras any time in the past 5 years and there was a swell of some kind you probably saw Joey out on his green fish.  Joey  rides short boards also but likes his fish designs done old school.  The green one was glassed with all 6 0z glass ,  Green resin tint, cut laps, glass on twins, gloss and polish – the works. I think he rode it so much that it had been delaminated twice and repaired twice gaining weight each time and it was never a “Super Light” to begin with. Last summer he ordered a new fish and this one was to be a little different than the old green one. This one had the old school nose but a modern tail with a tri fin, not a twin like fish usually are done. [Read more...]

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Old Velzy Surfboard

April 14, 2009 by · 4 Comments

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Eric Holt from Michigan came across this old Velzy and sent it down here for us to fix up and refurbish. When we saw it there was something that puzzled me about the board. First off I had never seen this particular Velzy logo ever on a board before. I also noticed that this board was glassed with a matt cloth and displayed all of the characteristics of the old popout boards.

I am sure Dale Velzy had hand shaped everything at that time so why would his name and logo be on an old popout?  I looked for a couple of board collector sites but didn’t find any that seemed like they could answer my question so I fired off an email to Steve Pezman at the Surfers Journal.

I figured he had to have seen many collections and growing up in that time in Southern California he might possibly know the boards origins. Here is the email I sent him,  Maybe Steve Pezman could give me some info about a board someone brought by for us to restore.  I’ve never seen this Velzy logo before and upon inspecting it I feel for certain it is a popout and not a real Velzy.  It looks shape wise exactly like the old Cutlass and Duke Kahanamoku’s I used to look at for sale at Sears when I was a kid.  It is also built with matt glass and as you can see the bottom has the stringer covered up with gloss work making me believe that it has the fake redwood stringer on the deck like the old popouts.

Could anyone tell me what the deal was with these?  Did Velzy lend his name to be used on pop-outs? Did they do it without his consent? Is it worth anything because of this or is it just like any of the old pop-outs?   Any info anyone could give me would be appreciated. I felt like someone at the Surfers Journal might have a clue about it’s origins.

Thanks,

Scott Busbey
Natural Art Surf Shop/ In The Eye Surfboards Buxton,  NC.
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He sent me 2 replies.

Hi Scott,
I never seen that logo either. When Velzy went out of business, closed by IRS, this guy named Bernard took over his name and built some boards in like 1960. That could be what that is.-Steve   Hobie: “There was a thing in Velzy’s book about him going bust in the early ’60s. He’s pretty accurate on that. We couldn’t figure out how he survived. God, he was giving boards to everybody and he’s got all these Hawaiians down in the shop—they were good guys—the Patterson’s and that (when they came up we got them: Bobby, Ronald, and Raymond) and he was driving that 300 SL. Then, this guy Bernard, he came to me first and I sold him 50 surfboards. He was going to take them to Hawaii.

I was to ship them to San Francisco C.O.D., freight collect, and when they got there he wouldn’t pay the freight. I said, “Oh, shit, that wasn’t the deal.” He said, “Well, I changed my mind!”  I said, “OK, just pay for the boards,” because I didn’t want to ship them back again. Well, right after Velzy went broke, Bernard got into Velzy, took the shop, Velzy’s name, and he proceeded to screw Velzy, royally.”  So anyway this is where I am on trying to find out about the origins of this surfboard.  If any of you out there know or know someone who might know, send them this link or send me an email.

Thanks Scott.

PS: Eric is interested in selling the board.

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