Dawn Patrol: Test your knowledge of Surfboard Makers

For some reason this week I started thinking about surfboard makers. Maybe it was because of the fog and prolonged lack of surf, but I thought about those who have been around for a long time like Russell, new ventures like Almond, and one of my favorites, Steve Bohene at Infinity whose boards I’ve been riding for the last 20-some years. I thought about how the materials and designs have evolved from the time I started surfing into the great boards we have now.

Then I decided to see how many different brands I could remember that were in business back then, using 1965 for my benchmark. I wouldn’t “cheat” by using the Internet or calling anyone. I wouldn’t count pioneers like Bob Simmons or Tom Blake, or garage shapers — just active surfboard makers circa 1965 with a shop/showroom, T-shirts, decals, team riders and the whole works.

Not knowing much about surfing in the rest of the world during that era, I focused on Southern California.

OK, starting from north to south, let’s see ... Yater in Santa Barbara — his boards all seemed to have incredibly sharp knife rails. I don’t know how guys rode those as well as they did. Morey-Pope was in Ventura, I think. I remember the “John Peck Penetrator” model that had a bizarre turned down nose. South Bay had Dewey Weber, Jacobs, Greg Noll, and there had to have been some others. Weber had the “Performer” and Mike Tabeling told me about the “DNT” model. Jacobs had the “Lance Carson Model” and of course there was “Da Cat” that Gregg Noll made for Mickey Dora. That was another strange shape.

Moving into Orange County, there was Harbour in Seal Beach with classics like the “Banana Model”, “Trestle Special”, and “The Cheater” (Remember the step-deck craze?). Gordie and Chuck Dent were two shops in Huntington. Newport had Surfboards Hawaii and Joe Quigg, but I don’t know where his place was or if he was still there in ’65. Chuck Moyer was another Newport guy. I don’t recall if he had a real shop or just worked out of his shaping room but he made two of my favorite boards.

Continuing south there was Wardy in Laguna Beach. I saw very few of those boards. Hobie was in Dana Point. That was my first board. He had the killer surf team with guys like Joey Cabell, Phil Edwards, and Mickey Muñoz. Then there was Hansen in Cardiff. Didn’t he have the “50-50” model? Gordon & Smith was somewhere in San Diego. Skip Frye was one of their riders.

I thought of some more names but I don’t know where they were or recall much about them: Vardeman, Dave Sweet, Con, Bing and Ole. I also don’t remember what Dale Velzy was doing at that time.

Now this is all from memory so I’m hoping some of you will e-mail me and let me know what I got wrong and who I left out. I’m counting on my friends like Homey the Team Rider and Big D to help me out here and I can talk about the responses next week.

JOHN BURTON’S surf column appears Fridays. He may be reached by e-mail at [email protected].