DUKE
CLARENCE MAKI
GEORGE FREETH
Johhny Rice
Johnny Rice Hot-Curl
surfboard part of the Wooden Surfboards Era Exhibit.
Wooden Surfboard Era
By Tom Takao
It was August 24th, 1954 at Canoes. With 2 frames left in his camera after taking water surf photos, Clarence Maki is just about to get out of the water. Grabbing his water housing that he built himself from the deck of his surfboard, he hears a distinct voice from shore. "Hey Mac, howzit." Looking up, he sees his good friend Duke Kahanamoku. Clarence worked for the City of Honolulu in the Public Works Department when the Duke was the Sheriff of Honolulu. Many a time they would sit next to each other at the City Council meetings.
"Oh Hi Duke" replied Clarence. Duke continues "Its my birthday today, how about taking a picture of me." "Sure Duke" says Clarence as he turned his board around and paddles back out with Duke. Duke continues to the lineup while Clarence waits in the area where Duke will be surfing by.
The Duke takes off on a small wave and surfs toward shore, Clarence prepares for the window of opportunity. In the blink of the camera's eye the moment is captured. Confident of his one shot, Clarence tells Duke he will have the film developed in a few days and paddles in. Duke would continue to surf on as he had done since the turn of the 20th Century at Waikiki.
Surfing can be traced back thousands of years and through those years we have a general idea of how the surfboard evolved. The one constant regarding the core of the matter is wood.Though crafts of reeds were used by Pre-Columbian indians of Peru for fishing and surfing. Wood was the choice for the Hawaiians and continued to be used into the 20th century by boardbuilders around the world before foam.
Hawaii is the Ancestral Home of the Surfboard and there have been many ancient Hawaiian boardbuilders. But their identification will never be known and it would remain that way for shapers of the past until George Freeth and Duke Kahanamoku.
For teenager George Freeth his uncle had given him a 16 foot Olo surfboard. It was so heavy, he had a very hard time carrying it to the water. Using his common sense he decided to cut it in half. After doing so he reshaped the nose and contoured the rails (sides of a surfboard) to blend with the outline of his new shorter surfboard.
Growing up around the beach, more than likely Duke learned how to make surfboards by watchng the few older surfer/ boardbuilders of Waikiki. Asking about what kind of tools to use, where would he get the wood and when and how to apply varnish or other products after shaping the board.
After being written about in the book "Royal Sport: Surfing in Waikiki" by Jack London, George was invited to California by Henry Huntington. And Duke who was a tremendous swimmer, would go on to the 1912 Olympics. Both Duke and George would go on to show others how to surf and make surfboards, they were destine to make surfing well known.
Duke would travel abroad and introduce surfing and surfboard building to Australia. After shaping a board to ride for a demonstration, Duke left the board to a young Claude West who would become Australia first surfboard builder. There would be others that Duke would influence such as Alan Wilcox, Tom Blake, Sam Reid, Fred Alkire, Bud Higgins and Gene Belshe to name a few.
Exhibit wall (L-R) Tom blake, Bud Higgins and Gene Belshe
By the 1930's surfing was growing and with it a new generation of surfboard builders. Pete Peterson, Lorrin "Whitey" Harrison, Tule Clark, George Larson, and Woody Brown. Also in that group were Hev McClelland, Ray Acosta, Bud Morrissey, Hammerhead Gravitch, Herb Oelke, Freman de Vincinte, Jame Drever and a young Wally Frosieth.
Most would have day jobs and build surfboards during their spare time. Some would make it their livelyhood and lifestlye. Being at the beach, surfing and enjoying the day with friends. Halfway around the world in South Africa the same could be said of Fred Crocker. Though there were much fewer surfers for him to make surfboards for, but the stoke of surfng made it worthwhile.
Around this time places like the East Coast of the US, Australia, and New Zealand had board builders but not much is known of them. Those who had the opportunity to travel and visit Hawaii soon became aquainted with the sport of surfing. One such person was Carlos Dogny from Peru. He was so impressed with the sport that he took back to Peru a few surfboards and ever since surfing became very popular in Peru.
There were some board builders in Peru in the 1940's but not much is known about them either. In the 1950's there were Fortuna Quesada Lagarrigue and Ramon Raguz building boards of wood in the Lima area of Peru.
Southern California in the 1940's was the defense technology center and was on the leading edge of advance materials. And the young board builders around then took advantage of it. While other parts of the surfing world would be years behind in techniques and material the Southern Californians boardbuilders were making big strides in designs. Leading the way were Bob Simmons, Joe Quigg, Dale Velzy and a talented group of others. Which included Matt Kivlin, Dave Roclen, Hap Jacobs and Dave Sweet to list an abbreviated few who were learning and researching in board designs and materials.
(Top to bottom L-R) Dale Velzy, Wally Forsieth and Joe Quigg
The surfboards in the beginning of the 1940's were either hollow veneered or solid redwood covered with laquer and were very heavy and not very manuverable on the waves. The development of fiberglass and resin made a significant difference in the weight of the surfboards and manuverability.
In 1946 Joe Quigg was seeking to have more control and performance on a surfboard. He began researching the use of a deep fish like fin on his balsa surfboard. After a few unsuccessful attempts at installing the fin, Joe succeeded in figuring out the process of connecting the fin to the surfboard.
He unwrapped the fiberglass cloth to have just the strands. By combining the strands together to the thichness of a 1/2" rope and soaking it in resin and laying it to the base of the fin. Then covering the fin and fillet bead of resin with fiberglass cloth cut to the outline of the fin and the area around the fin. Having a lighter surfboard that didn't spin-out on a bottom turn open the door to higher performance. By 1949 his board were called Potato Chip, then the Malibu Chip and then just Chip.
Dale Velzy was another shaper who would influence the next generation of shapers. His keen observation on what outline and configuration would work made his board the most popular during the 1950's. One of Dale Velzy's protege was Johnny Rice and he would make surfboards on two continents. A legendary shaper of Native American ancestry, whose boardbuilding story is part of Brazil's Surfing History and Santa Cruz's Surfing Heritage.
Velzy Balsa surfboards at the Velzy Surf Shop Showroom in San Clemente, 1958
