Old Dispacement

86 Backside



Paul Gross textbook bottom turn early 70's on one of his Liddles.




Nat , Malibu 68, with the roundtail that started a long period of Displacement



2 comments:

Paul Gross said...

About the board I'm riding in this shot...

It was one of Greg's 7'1'' roundtail outlines he used on his own boards. During that period (early 70's) Greg had determined that his best personal boards were the ones with 1/8" balsa stringers and 4 oz flat weave volan cloth. He liked them better than the stringerless 6 oz cloth boards.

Based on what he was thinking at the time, I ordered this board. And, it turned out to be one of my all time favorites. I was living in San Diego at the time (college) so when Greg shaped it, he went around the rails an extra time or two with sanding screen, to round off the rails a bit. That's why this particular board could carve such deep turns in less-than-ideal surf. You could bury the rail down to the stringer "at will" with this board!

The board Nat rode at Malibu in August 1968 was designed by George. He drew up the template on tar paper...starting with a true foil curve that was much longer, then rounding off the ends. That yeilded 7'11'' even.

The width as designed was 23", but Danny Keough and Nat decided to make it 22" wide, which gave it an almost semi-gun look and feel. George also specified blunt round rails in the nose, so Nat could really lay into it...and he sure did!

George also designed the fin, and included a drawing of how the layers of the fin should look when it was foiled.

Nat added blocky edges to the back foot or so of the board with a paste of flour and resin, then filed down the edges until it felt right.

All in all, a very sophisticated board and building/tuning technique for the times.

I shudder to think what the surfing world would have been like after 1966 if not for George and Nat!

KP's Round UP said...

Nice job PG well said, I saw that pic of Randy Lewis and thought of that shot your brother took , a hull of fame garage favorite.