setting up

Velzy and friends

There are two boards of interest in these photos , the red panel one is an 10' American Gordon and Smith 1964 Mike Hynson shape ( and it surfs like a dog) in nearly mint condition, and the 9' Dale Velzy, Hap Jacobs solid Balsa 1958 in mint condition, boyh of these are Roy Meisels( of Bare Nature Byron Bay) who brought them out here when he first came here after Vietnam . Ive known these boards for 37 years , the Velzy Jacobs is really a beautifully shaped board and it goes unreal

red hot

The RED HOT was the 2nd board for Adam the first a 9' 8" with a very similar bottom so, having him hooked on a big one, the addiction to something smaller and more flighty was easy. I love making all the SNAKES they are my past and present in one and I think Adam summed them up when he said " there just fun". For me if a board does not have speed (lots of it) and positive turning, and fin( or fins) control, I'm not interested, a sluggish board isn't fun and generally will let you down when you need a board to perform, and remember ,once you have speed you have control...........

FINS AIN'T FINS

Nowdays most fins are massed produced , which means they look good and aren't cheap and if you do get a fin with a half decent layup of colours you pay exhorbirant prices for them due to fact that now, it is rare to find any surfboardmaker making his own fins ,,so... everyone now can walk in and buy any fin they choose, and for the layman this can often lead to a wrong choice. The basics of VERY good fin are good planshape (depending on the board ) and a full foil from the base to the tip ,a half foil(which you generally get) is only going to give you that when you really Jam it.Look closely at wings of birds ,dorsal fins on all fish, wings on on aeroplanes (not the rudder) they are all full foils and if you run your hand over a fin a few times you will feel wether it is a goodun or a badun. I've been making full foils for over 40 years and still hand make everyone either Fibreglass, Bamboo or Ply I couldn't make them any other way as anthing less just doesn't work as good ,so be fussy about your fins they are a big reason why your boards work or don't...... FINS AIN'T FINS

TIKI