Late ’70s Bing Bonzer

Another well-known transitional board from the 70s, designed by the Campbell Brothers with the help of Bing’s head shaper at the time, Mike Eaton, the Bing Bonzer was one of the first tri-fin surfboards to be built. This board is characterized by its double concave bottom, two long low-profile side fins, and single center box setup. A board built for speed and drive off of the turns similar to riding the edge of a ski/snowboard, the Bing Bonzer is a retro glimpse into today’s surfing and maintains its functionality in medium to large hollow and powerful surf. (excerpt from the Bing Surfboards website). This surfboard was recently donated by Phillip “Flippy” Hoffman.

Gordie Tandem Vee Bottom

Steve Boehne (Infinity Surfboards ) began surfing in 1959. In the beginning he built boards in his garage and then in 1968 he went to work shaping for Gordie Surfboards. The Shortboard evolution was taking place during this period and Gordie's answer to the call was his vee bottom, Assassin model. Being a tandem rider, Steve created this one-of-a-kind board to compete on. The shortboard influence is evident in the board's dimensions, 10' x 28" x 3.5" (most tandem boards were and are in the 12' and over size range) and coincidentally, it is the best example of a deep vee bottom tailed board currently in our collection. We're working with Steve on getting some video footage up of him riding the board with his wife and tandem partner, Barrie.

Jim Richards Hot Curling in 1952

Jim Richards came by for a visit yesterday and happened to have this photo of himself, riding a Hot Curl board at the foot of Newport Street in San Diego, back in 1952. We asked Jim if we could scan the image, and here's the result. Thank you for stopping by Jim.

Carl Ekstrom's asymmetrical surfboard

Product designer and surfboard innovator Carl Ekstrom was just awarded the "Best in Show" trophy at Sacred Craft this past weekend, for his forward thinking asymmetrical designed surfboards. Carl, his wife Denise, and test pilot Richard Kenvin stopped by recently with some of Carl's newer inventions. If you think this is interesting, you should see the finless model he's come up with. You can read up on Carl in a past issue of Surfer's Journal, Volume 15, Number 2.

Duke Kahanamoku's Flying "V" surfboard

Duke surfing tandem with Viola Hartman, Corona del Mar, 1922

Robert Wald, publisher of Ocean Magazine, based out of San Diego, is including a new series of articles focusing on boards from our collection. This issue features the Duke Kahanamoku shaped Flying "V" surfboard. You can view the magazine online here. Next issue's board: Dale Velzy and the Bump model.