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tumak · Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2004 3:54 pm Post subject: 60's Bellyboards

Well, what I want to know is: where are all the 60's "bellyboards" that were plastered all over the surf mags of the period? I checked E-bay...no dice. Some years ago I saw one at the Longboard House...I wasn't smart enough to pick it up at the time (doh!). That "Orange Rocket" on the League of Lamaroos site is an example of what I'm talking about...a classic Jack's bellyboard. Others of the period would include Hansen, Val Surf, Dextra, etc. Where are they? Are they so cool that no one's coughing them up?

doc · Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2004 4:06 pm Post subject:

the old bellyboards from the 60s? They were not all that great....

trust me on this one.....

tumak · Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2004 6:33 pm Post subject:

Really? Hmmm...that three-stringered thing in the photo looks pretty cool. Who's the manufacturer? I acknowledge that you speak truth, as the serious energy in that era was all put into what the public was gobbling up: standard surfboards. Perhaps the best examples of 60's prone surfcraft were the product of backyard wizards. I know that, as I grew up looking at Val Surf and Jack's ads in magazines, all those bellyboards appeared to NOT be the product of any design Einsteins. But with El Paipo and Newport, serious efforts appear to have been made, and cool boards appear to have been produced. So, all of those boards were just thrown away? I think that they must have a certain degree of collectability; I know I'd like to have a #10 condition Hansen, for example, or even a Dextra in good condition. Many were probably popouts, but still it'd be cool to have one.

rodndtube · Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2004 6:59 pm Post subject:

rodndtube · Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2004 7:05 pm Post subject:

doc · Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2004 7:26 pm Post subject:

What is it? Beats me, as far as I remember it had 'bellyboard' on it. As a paipo...it sucked, frankly. Round railed just-like-a-retro-surfboard (%@# that they could peddle to the gullible. The Newport Paipos were far and away better.

Those two birds worked for me, way back when. One is now an instructor ( photography ) at Mass. College of Art and the other is a hockey coach. The instructor is the one holding the Squirt micro bodyboard, the coach is the one in the chartreuse Aqua-Lid like a da-glo sixties version of the Red Baron. Amazing, what you could sell to a wanna be surfer in the seventies.

I was the guy behind the camera.

Dextras - there was something called a Dextra Custom Surfboard- which was two lies for the price of one. They, along with the fraudulently named 'Hawaiian Customs', the Healthways and the Velzys and a few others were all popout junk, better consigned to the scrap heap. Third rate glass, fourth rate foam and the shapes were...ahem...rudimentary if you were feeling kind.

My opinion of the Hansens and etc of that era is that I wish I had a garage full of them - I'd sell 'em off at top prices to whatever collector whacko would pay the most $. They were heavy, they were ugly, they were the past and I was very, very happy when I discovered paipos.

Why don't the El Paipos show up on eBay, or the Newport Paipos or that ilk? They do. But as there were only a few hundred of 'em made, compared to thousands of 9'6\"s and that ilk, I'm not surprised so few show up. I see some very odd items come through the surf shop I run - and every year I see a board of the 60s that has been stashed in somebody's attic since then, often never having been in the water.

Unfortunately, they are usually 9'6\"s - last year, it was two boards, that size, popouts both of them. One, oddly, was an Abercrombie and Fitch....

and I gotta run, bread needs to come outta the oven

doc.......

Poobah · Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2004 11:47 pm Post subject: Vintage Boards

I've had a couple of really slow Hansens. Little kids on boogie boards would go flying past me. I liked the ride of many of the El Paipos, but I didn't like the way they paddled. More flotation in the nose makes you pull yourself far up on the board. Then your thighs hit the board when you kick. I suppose kneeboarders just learn to live with it. I'd rather ride a shorter board with a wider tail. Never found a vintage one that suited me just right. I've owned a Newport Concave Vector and very similar Petrillo twinfin. Both very cool in a good wave. Optimum fun if you only weigh 105 pounds. That's a problem with a lot of the vintage boards. And why I'm so interested in the new bellyboards that are still being made.

Birdie · Joined: 20 Jan 2004 Posts: Location: so cal

I have a Dextra "Sea King" (everyone go " Oooooooo, a Sea King!") - Popout. All the Dextra's were popouts, as I understand it.

It's *very* heavy. Perhaps truly the tanker of all the bellies. As I recall, it is 4' 6".

Someone tried to loosen it up by filing down the skeg into a cutaway that comes to a sharp point....it just sort of screams KEEP THAT THING AWAY FROM ME!!! If you know what I mean.

Has nose, corner tail damage and some delam bubbles.

Is that really scary holloween burnt orange....with the "racing" stripes on the deck.

I am going to take my boards over to a friends - who has a digital camera and get pix...in the next few weeks.

I'm booked solid with work for the next 10 days.

I have a Newport Paipo. It sort of looks like a "Shoe". Has a carved deck, thick nose, and a V tail. Single fin. Lime Green "N" on the deck and this rainbow resin pin job from the nose to the tail. Fiberglass rope handles. In excellent shape. 5'.

In the late 60's, I had a very cool bellyboard. Made by a shaper who lived in Hermosa Beach. It had a round tail, that was maybe 3" thick and beveled. The board got thinner and thinner as you went towards the nose, and the nose was, while narrower than the tail, it was also round, more like a longboard nose, but smaller. It had a multi-colour acid wash resin job on the bottom. Single fin. Basically, a Tear Drop Paipo bellyboard. The fin used to get me in the leg now and again.

It was truly unique. My mom got it for me for $10 bucks when I was about 9 years old. We drove up to his house, she went in, and came out with it. Wow!

It duck dove really well. I don't recall it having much rocker, in fact, the nose was pretty flat. It went from about a 1/2 inch thick nose to about 3" at the tail.

Wait..I seem to remember it...YES....it had sort of a bump about mid-deck...about where your solar pelus would be...instead of concave on the deck, it was convex.

Truly someone's one-off grand experiment.

It was left behind, with my 7' 4" Rick - which was one of those transitional longboard to a shortboard things...still had a heavy glass job and redwood stringers, diamond tail. It was yellow, so, it was named the banana board.

Anyway, we moved to Humboldt County, in the Redwoods, 1971, so, I had to leave them behind, baking on the shed roof. I can only hope it was rescued!

I'll get pix up as I get them.

Birdie

Nels · Posted: Wed Jan 21, 2004 11:50 am Post subject:

I just about never see any of the old paipos. I see more old kneeboards than bellyboards. That may have to do with where I live though. All seem to get the collectors going, perhaps because they have aquisition prices less than the surfboard contemporaries. Perhaps because anybody who had a good one has some nostalgia.

Aloha-Cruz in the South Bay (southern California) website seems to get some from time to time.

Pagosa Don · Joined: 31 Jan 2004 Posts: Location: Pagosa Springs CO

When I lived in sunny So CA (1946-2001) I found the place to find the really nice 60's bellyboards was at the Longboard Collectors Meet held at Doheny in December every year. While the surfers were examining all the cool 10-6 Velzy's and nice Hobies I was scarfing up all the paipos and bellyboards. Every once and a while (at heir quarterly meets) a real Greenough and a few "questionable" Greenough's would show up on the grass and go for big bucks. Believe it or not I've even found a few very nice bellyboards at Colorado flea markets. Lots of vintage CA skateboards have somehow ended up in Colorado too. I've had to switch to collectable skis, fishing gear, and sleds!

Pagosa Don

doc · Posted: Sat Jan 31, 2004 7:54 pm Post subject:

It's surprising where and how things show up. For instance, every year I see at least one surfboard that really has been stashed away in a garage or cellar since the '60s.

Now, if you want to find them, see if you have any blue collar friends who are likely to be wandering around other people's houses. Electricians, plumbers, those guys.

Offer a case of beer finder's fee. Make it good beer. If all you're offering is some cheezy Blatz, then they'll keep it themselves and make a sled out of it.

Same goes for G-men...you know, the guys who ride around banging the hell out of trash cans at 5 AM. It's amazing, what gets thrown out. Buddy of mine got three boards ( surfboards, that is) riding a trash truck one summer.

Birdie · Joined: 20 Jan 2004 Posts: Location: so cal

My 60's Sea King Dextra is now up on my website...

I had a friend shoot a few of my boards today, still need to photoshop them, and, actually, will redo some of them at a later date....

I should be getting the new Nikon D70 in March....when it comes out.

So, then, can take my own pix and do a proper website....

rodndtube · Posted: Sun Feb 01, 2004 12:59 pm Post subject: Re: Sea King Dextra

Birdie · Joined: 20 Jan 2004 Posts: Location: so cal

Are you clicking on the www right here - below my post?

I just tried it - it worked - but maybe I am seeing a cached copy?

Umm, no, I think the server is slow....actually.

Here is a pix from the website (which I need to crop and photoshop)

Birdie · Joined: 20 Jan 2004 Posts: Location: so cal

Here's another

Note the filed down fin and concave bottom