In 1967, something called the shortboard revolution overthrew longstanding traditions. To be fair, surfing had encountered prior revolutions. In 1935, the addition of a fin to the board, something generally credited to Tom Blake, changed the way waves were ridden.
The next big change that I am aware of was the invention of fiberglass. To my knowledge, the legendary Pete Peterson was the first to apply glass to a surfboard in 1946. When fiberglass was applied to balsa wood, the boards dropped a lot of unnecessary weight. The production of foam blanks in the late 1950s led to the mass production of surfboards for the first time.
Foam had only been around for about four years when, in 1962, I began surfing. The boards of my youth often contained three redwood stringers or one wide balsa wood stringer. Glassed with double 10-ounce cloth, the average weight of those boards was around 30 pounds.
By 1965, boards began losing a lot of dead wood and fiberglass. As a result, they became lighter, faster and more maneuverable. Fins, too, were being cut down to size. 1965-1967 was, in my view, a short golden era of surfing with our own Dale Dobson and Donald Takayama, along with David Nuuhiwa and Australian Nat Young, leading the way.
And it was Young, who, at the 1966 World Surfing Contest, changed our view by riding a short (by ’60s standards) 9-foot 2-inch board with a far narrower fin than we had previously seen. Just one year later, boards had lost an average of 2 feet and 10 pounds.
By 1969, the revolution had sucked all the blood from traditional surfing, and you couldn’t find a board longer than 8 feet in any surf shop, anywhere. Now, I’m not saying that this was a surf magazine/board manufacturer conspiracy. That does, however, seem possible, considering shorter, lighter surfboards at the same or greater cost than bigger, heavier ones, cut material and labor costs by at least 50%.
Short boards are certainly advantageous for hard-breaking waves over 6 feet, something we in North County only rarely encounter. Nonetheless, the entire surfing world had been hoodwinked into believing that shorter was better in all conditions, as even surfers from the Texas/Florida Gulf Coast were slogging through the mush on boards built for Hawaiian power.
Traditional longboards returned quietly to San Onofre and various reef breaks in North County in the early to mid-1970s. By my recollection, it was among the smallest years in surf history, and each day we scanned the horizon for a wave worth riding. Generally, there were none.
Then, someone mentioned that Takayama was seen hanging ten at Seaside Reef on a vintage 9-10. Seeing that waves as small as 2 feet could be fun again, we responded, slowly at first. It took until the late 1980s for longboards to make their way back into lineups internationally.
Soon, longboards were once again clogging lineups on days previously considered too small to ride. By 1990, traditional, heavy, single-finned longboards had competition from progressive, light, multi-finned longboards.
Many surfers had abandoned their roots and were doing progressive moves like aerials on the new craft. Then, just when it seemed progressive longboarding had prevailed, 14-year-old Joel Tudor stepped up, dusted the competition and led the way home.
In next week’s Waterspot, I will chronicle Tudor’s rise to become the leader of the longboard renaissance.
