Hamilton Followup #2 ...

The next year --1969 -- boards got narrower, flatter, and more refined...especially in the Islands where the most meaningful progress was now being made in shortboard design.

Here's a classic image of Bill Hamilton carving at Pupakea...

A frame grab from John Severson's Pacific Vibrations gives us some insight into the design of his board. It featured a pulled-in diamond tail, a small fin placed maybe an inch further forward than usual for the North Shore, and a bit of roll in the front third of the bottom.

This was a "safe and sane" design approach. It represented the last phase of displacement hull bottoms in Hawaii. In December of 1969, Joey Cabell blew the scene open after winning the Duke with his nose-to-tail down railer.

Here are a few other boards using the same bottom scheme as Hamilton's red tipped board during that period...they were essentially flat bottom down railers with a bit of turn-up in the nose.

 

 

A template comparison between Bill Hamilton's deep V in the summer of 1968, and his flat tailed mini-gun in the fall of 1969...