Board Bazaar - August 2014
Welcome to the August Board Bazaar, all the second hand sales that caught my eye during the past month. Last month's instalment of the Board Bazaar began with a McCoy Lazor Zap replete with Ben Lexcen-designed winged fin (star fin). The fin and board seemed like the complete package, yet as was mentioned in the comments to that article Cheyne Horan never rode winged fins on McCoy boards. In fact Geoff McCoy has gone to great lengths to distance himself from winged fins, even writing a short diatribe on his website about their use in his boards.
It wasn't the first time someone will attach a winged fin to a Lazor Zap and it certainly won't be the last. But why are winged fins and Lazor Zaps so often associated with each other? I believe it's the iconic value of each being fused together, and in board collecting iconography is very nearly everything. Show me two Hot Buttered's, one with the quintessential Martyn Worthington spray and one without, and I'll show you two boards of vastly different value.
In the vintage surfboard community there are a lot of crew who ride their old boards, they like to reconnect with old designs in a visceral way, yet even they would admit that aesthetics comes into play at some level. You could collect and ride a historically important plain white board, but get one of Simon Anderson's panel sprays, a Tom Carroll Byrne with red sash, or one of Peter Townend's hot pink numbers, and you've got something special, something iconic. Just make sure it's historically sound.
With that in mind this month's Board Bazaar is dedicated to classic boards - boards that could be deemed quintessential shapes and designs - that changed hands last month.
In the mid-80s Gunther Rohn, Tony Cerff, and Rob Fenech were shaping for the Australian license of Town & Country. Each shaper was well skilled and the boards were of great quality, but what caught the eye wasn't so much the design nuances as the outlandish colour schemes. Employing fluoro colour palettes, sharp linework and 3D effects, they were straight off a Duran Duran album cover. This Tony Cerff shape was in good condition and attracted 44 bids selling for $580.
If you really want an MR then what's it gonna be? An old MR singley? An early model thruster...? C'mon, you know where this is heading and the punters did too. When this classic MR twin hit eBay the crew got in a lather. Despite not actually being shaped by the four time world champ it remains a classic of the era - an icon if you will. 77 bids took it to a huge $1,047.88 causing a few collectors to look at their own MR twins in a new light.
I can't think of any label, aside from perhaps Byrning Spears, that experimented with water flow beneath the board as much as Free Flight. With Col Smith and Phil Myers (and to a lesser extent Gunther Rohn) they diverted and directed water flow via belly channels, deep clinker channels (four, six, and eight), and also step bottoms (is that the right term?). This board, shaped by Phil Myers, sports both belly channels and a step. It only attracted 10 bids but sold for a very fair $690.
Let's visit a time before the advent of fluoro paint and flashy colour schemes. By the late-60s, when this board would've been shaped, Fred Pyke was an industry veteran having shaped in Brunswick before moving to the Surf Coast. He handled the shortboard revolution well, the proof being this beautiful mid-length Tracker. He later founded Dive N' Surf, which was bought out by Rod Brooks and became Piping Hot. Anyhoo, this board has a tonne of history and is faithful to the era in colour and shape. 26 bids took it to $425.
So I mentioned the ill-fitted Lazor Zap in the intro to this article. Well, these two Zaps went for sale on Gumtree, each without winged fins. In fact there were no fins at all, leaving room to follow ol' Geoffrey's philosophy. Geoff's got his Gull Wing fins for sale on his website or you could try and chase down one of the fins Cheyne used on his 5'8" Zap at 20 foot Waimea. See pics and words here. No prices given for these boards but I imagine they were closer to a K than not.
If we're talking iconic shapes and designs, then what's a 70s Hawaiian gun without a lightning bolt on it? Totally naked, that's what. This immaculate, resin tinted Tom Parrish gun is all dressed up with a split lightning bolt and all the features of a bona fide big wave gun. I break out in a sweat just looking at it. It was listed at $1,950 and recieved no genuine offers. Maybe if it wasn't Kermit green...
...and here's where we open the floor to the readers. Tim from Sydney's Northern Beaches has a great little collection of boards many of them falling into the 'iconic' category. Check this Free Flight shaped by Phil Myers. It's got the classic 80s Free Flight spray of longitudinal stripes, and it goes without saying there's channels under the hood - four of 'em in this instance. Cost Tim just $220 from a fella who'd had it stored in his roof for 20 years.
Another of Tim's collection is this classic Nirvana from the label's golden era, back when Sanga, RCJ, the Faunce's, Bryce Ellis, Sam Chell, and more rode them. With solid red rails, label name written in Nordic font and shield-shaped spray it seems so typical of what was produced at the time. A board that aesthetically represents an era. It cost Tim $200 on Gumtree.
We'll close out on this one, another from Tim's collection. It's a Hot Buttered shaped by Brandon McDonald that's in A+ condition. Why is it in such good nick? "It had been in storage for 30 years while the owner was in Tassie," said Tim. And he sold it for $140! It's enough to have you quit collecting...or inspire you to keep looking.
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Comments
That step bottom channel combo on the Free Flight was called a hydro-tail.
Phil still shapes 'em.
Thought it may be the case, 'cept the second Free Flight also has the 'Hydro Tail' sticker but doesn't appear to have a stepped tail. Although it's kinda hard to tell in the photo.
Lotta work glassing those bastards.
I bought that yellow and orange hydro single fin free flight. Still got it to this day. It’s still immaculate.
Email from Tim confirms his Free Flight has the channels continuing past the back of the fins into a round tail shape, then it steps into the fish tail.
Spot on again Freeride, pack of Gudangs for you!
I don't reckon there would be too many of these boards around anymore in such great original condition
'But why are winged fins and Lazor Zaps so often associated with each other? '
Because people do things like this.
http://www.autospies.com/news/WHY-Did-This-Porsche-Owner-RUIN-A-Perfectl...
'Geoff McCoy has gone to great lengths to distance himself from winged fins'
No, only the Lexan winged keel fin. He made winged fins himself, with a different design concept.
The only ones I've seen are the Lexcen-shaped wing fins, which are shaped like a Spitfire wing. There much smaller around at the same time, designed to be the rear fin in a thruster config, but it certainly ain't them.
Just had a quick look around but couldn't find anything. Got any links/info Uplift?
No, but you can check with him, and plenty of people saw my winged gull fins that he made me. Nothing like the Lexan. I wished I'd kept some, but I haven't kept any of my old boards. He hated making them, so much work. As I said before, Roger copied them for me, I really liked them and dreaded not being able to get Geoff to do more if they got damaged. I tried to get Punk/Weasel to do the same, but too much work, the price was going to be radical.
Can you clarify that McCoy didn't use the winged keel fins only or did Cheyne Horan use them on another shapers boards? I can't recall where, but I'm sure I've seen pics of Cheyne riding winged keel fins and on boards that weren't necessarily Zaps but boards that looked like McCoy shapes.
The legrope plug on the Hot Buttered is that the correct one for the era or a later one ?
I've got an early 80's hot buttered not in such good condition but has same plug
I'll try to describe them better later, I have to work till late now.
Easy enough to 3d print those fins these days uplift, some interesting stuff going on swaylocks with 3d printing, inserts for futures boxes to use fcs fins with some adjustment etc a whole lot of stuff. search over there uplift someones probably already reproducing them.
udo I think the board is less than 30 years old. It looks more like early nineties to me.
Blindboy/Udo - that HB was shaped in '85/'86 and was in storage for 27 years to be exact... 30 yrs just sounded better! It is in all original mint condition and is being saved for that elusive perfect day... The bloke I bought it off lived in Lakemba (not too many waves out that way!) and returned from the remote west coast of Tas last year. The board was ridden twice before being packed away until it was posted up for sale - safe to say the real value was underestimated somewhat...
@Stylerfoam can you post some more pics of it.
Wow, up in the rafters I still have a pair of custom Gunther Rohn's that he shaped for me over 20 years ago. I know that the 6'10 will be in great condition still. It was only ridden less than a hand full of times. I guess I will hang on to them a little longer, just in case.
Udo these gems are all in storage together now... If I get the chance to drop in sometime soon I'll get the HB outta it's cover and get more pics. Also got a mint early 80's Bob Brown quad shaped by Nev Hines with a rad multi colour spray on the underside... And a Town and Country by Gunther Rohn - yep I'd hang onto yours Greg B! They are keepers!!
Stu has a pic of both - u can try hassle him to put em up if u want ;)
Are 80's or earlier the current sweet spot on values? Anything from the 90's considered collectable these days?
To a degree that's true Kaiser, and for a few reasons. First, there were less boards around at that time so the value of each increases. Secondly, boards made prior to (approx.) 1990 had heavier glass jobs so last longer. Third, there was more variety in the designs so collectors could seek out particular boards or shapers, it wasn't all plain white 6'2"s as what happened in the 90s. Lastly, collectors are mostly of middle age or older so the 80s or earlier are their own golden years. Collecting, to a large degree, is driven by nostalgia.
All that said, there are still boards from the 90s and beyond that are good to collect. In fact I bought an early-90s Channel Islands - thin, rockered out, deep concaves - on the weekend just 'cause it was a faithful representation of that era. Get hold of a Webber rocker ship or any other shape integral to that era and you've got a good collectors item.
Of the post-1990 shapers there are a few that are likely to become collectors items. Early to mid-90s Greg Webbers, Maurice Cole, Mitchell Rae, Jed Done, Mick Mackie, amongst others.
I had a quick look/search there thanks udo, but nothing came up, other than his contemporary gull wing, or lexans. These fins were similar to a contemporary gull wing but with 'wings' mounted on top. The wing was like a big round swallow tailed zap plan shape, a bit like this:
but with wider, rounder swallows. It was about 2.5mm thick with a flat and hard top/bottom edge all round. That flat with hard edges also ran down the trailing edge of the fin, and a very small way from the wing down the front edge. They had more trailing edge in the base than the contemporary gull wing. He made me big ones for my small boards and little ones for my big boards, ie 7' plus. I loved them. It was way before nuggets, and he was really good to me, and used to make me all sorts of different boards for testing at blacks. A couple of deluxe ones were based on Larry Blair's Pipe boards. They were all insane, but one favourite was like a finer nosed, semi drawn out zap, 7' 4", tons of rocker, planshape curve, but deceiving, almost flat to look at. One little one, 6'6" I should have kept, it was with one of those fins, and I guess it was a bit like his new zots, but thinner, narrower in the nose. So slippery and good in the barrel, because it would slide/stall and grab/accelerate so easily, at will, and fitted into the shape of blacks perfectly. I went up to NW WA for a while, and blew it, thinking I would need more size, so sold it to get money for the trip. It would have been perfect.
I think those fins I'm describing would need a real heavy back foot approach, as you got even more lift than normal in his boards then, when unweighting, as the thickness/width of the tails already did that. I deliberately had all my boards from him needing constant back foot pressure to accelerate/pump, without it they would bog forward, and stop, no drive, but put your foot down and the harder you could push, they loved it.
Not sure if you are asking me Zen, but Geoff and Horan drifted apart for a while, from memory around that Kerry guy era. And then Horan was doing lots of different design stuff, Ie Lexan, boards too. I spoke to Geoff almost daily for years, the Lexans were totally opposite to his ideas, and as anyone that knows him knows, he expressed things kind of all or nothing bluntly.
I was asking you Uppity and cheers for the response. I remember some of the boards those fins were on were kind of similar to what some would call a 'pod' or 'egg' shape these days. I may be confusing them with McCoy shapes as by appearence alone, that was the kind of shape I associated McCoy with in addition to the Zap. Cheers.
Are these boards all from eBay Australia or eBay US as well??
Oz.
Here are two more of Tim's boards. Fella's got a great little collection:
T&C thruster
Bob Brown quad
Very nice!
Considering the convo above RE Cheyne Horan star fins, I just bought one on eBay to muck about with:
Had a few Free Flight Hydro Tails as a young fella and they were awesome boards . The 5'10" (yellow board) I had was amazing as it felt like I could put it within 1 cm of where I wanted to go on a wave. The feel of it was fantastic; quick, smooth and graceful. Sold it under the haze and hype of the thruster revolution mid eighties, which I regret now. Still got the 6'4" Free Flight 6 channel pin tail gun circa 1981 that I believe Col Smith shaped. Possibly a museum artifact now??
Awesome photo and boards Fred! Love the jet fins on the board furthest away, but the pintail gun is incredible. If you're ever looking to sell I know of a *ahem* very willing buyer .
The 6'4" is under the house these days; which is sad. Still in good nic. Because of my dodgy back, I very much doubt I'll ever ride it again. In sucky 6' hollow barrels it comes into it's own. I don't know if I'd like to sell it per se but I would be happy for it to be appreciated in some way?? because it was a one-of-a-kind.
That's OK Fred, thought I'd try it on just in case. Putting my self-interest aside I'd recommend you hold onto it.
Channells on the pintail start a the mid point of the board,is that different to other channel bottom shapers ? seem to think they started in the last third of the planshape.
Viking surfboards have a deep single nose to tail channel "cat bottom" 5'8 model different looking thing..bit of astro dot look to it.
The Free Flights as well as a '79 Fluid Foils (Jim Pollard shaped it) channel board I had, both had their channels starting mid point. Gotta say that Fluid Foils board I had was pretty special too. The channel grooves on all my boards were more subtle with a rolled edge, but my Free Flight gun had quite deep accentuated channels with a more pronounced edge right through to the narrow pin tail. That's why in sucky conditions it just got better and better; the drive from it was phenomenal.
Check these channels Udo. Photo taken from an interview I did with Phil Myers about Col's boards.
Length of the channel is dependent on depth of the channel (and Col Smith/Phil Myers did the deep clinkers) and also the rocker of the board.
Good stuff nice pic.
' If you're ever looking to sell I know of a *ahem* very willing buyer .'
Don't do it Fred, it will end up with that plastic keel pop rivetted on to it.
6'2 Maurice Cole single fin $165 Gumtree Byron Bay area.
I'm curious, will a 6 channel bottom go any good in average east coast conditions?
Maybe. Red or blue?
If by 'average' you mean 6'-8' long period groundswell, then yes, it'll go great. Anything less than that and it'll struggle.
Cheyne Horan puts his personal Southern Cross McCoy up for sale:
http://www.boardcollector.com/
Poor Geoff.
For those looking to add to their collection ,111 boards going to action and they are not rubbish
http://www.mckenziegallery.com.au/Surf%20board%20Auction.htm
Jesus H! Those boards are incredible. Thanks for the heads up a360.
Wow, where have they come from, someone break into a surf museum?
Al Beans relative here down south WA
Great collection.
Those Laser Zaps look putrid to surf. Anyone got any experience with them ?
Yep, ridden 'em a couple of times. Have written about it, with an accompanying interview here:
https://www.swellnet.com/news/design-outline/2011/06/16/whatever-happened-lazor-zap
I like the feeling, though only for their point of difference and not for their performance. Even got one in the shed I haven't ridden yet. Might wax it and get reacquainted.
Thanks for the link. From what I can ascertain it's like I suspected- putrid. Why would a board designed strictly for performance, that appears to have failed comprehensively in this regard and may have even prevented its main proponent from maximising his potential , be so revered ?
Ha! It's one of the mysteries of surfing's history, though I suspect it has something to do with the Zap representing a great period of design experimentation.
Blowin' I always found McCoys a bit strange to surf and this goes right back to when he first went into business for himself. They suited some people really well, Mark Warren and Bruce Raymond come to mind immediately but there were a stack of others too, but also plenty like me who could never get their heads completely around them. I surfed a few times with Cheyne when he was still a junior and he was the epitome of the McCoy style. My point is that he was an extreme in terms of his technique in that era and while the direction he took turned out not to be mainstream, it still put him ahead of the pack for a while. I think something similar happened with Terry Fitzgerald also, they both found design directions that gave them a temporary edge but, in the end, did not suit most people.
Cheers for the insight Blindboy.
Lazer zap , have a look at the lazor zap copy on ebay, what a pig.
I surfed them for quite a while. I like back foot surfing, and they suited me well. Plenty had shots on mine, but didn't like them. Mine were made to suit 100kg though, and I could squat and deadlift well above bodyweight, strict form, for reps and sets. Combined with a 4/3, which back then mean't a lot of extra weight wet. If you liked moving around on your board they were the opposite scenario. Designed to surf from one spot, and resist being buried, made to accomodate as much force as you could generate. The Horan thing is pretty funny, in a way. The guy could surf rings around most. That zap era, and on his McCoys, if you've seen him surf much, was the best he surfed, despite him trying thrusters, other designs etc. Geoff rubbed a lot of people the wrong way with his blunt observations, that effected Horan's success more than anything.
Larry Blair was the prime example of what Geoff could do. Those pipe boards he did got two masters for Blair at pipe, in a range of conditions, including pumping, against the best of that time, in their prime. Should have been 3, if it was up to pure surfing. It was an embarrassement to the 'legends' that Blair could just show up and dominate. So, they did whatever it took to stop that happening.
MR regularly cites Geoff as a huge influence on his surfing, and shaping.
Roy Stuart recently received a legal letter from Mccoys lawyer re the gull wing fin.
Roy , good reply to the lawyers letters. very good !
Roy, can you post the exchange up here ?
For real?
yep stu ,realsurf
Just read it then. Entertaining stuff.
Classic! You tell 'em Roy.