"The Rick Surfboards U F O model was developed by the polisher at
Rick's, John Shandera (not sure of the spelling). The story I was told
was that he had ridden his motorcycle out from the Midwest and landed a
job at Rick's polishing boards. He eventually became the shop foreman
and kept production running.
I started sweeping the floors at the Rick
Factory as a stoked 19 year-old at that time (late '66). It was puzzling
to me how a "Hodad" had become a board designer, but the Rick shop was
noteworthy in that it was really open-minded. (Rick was the first shop to
sell Carl Pope's W.A.V. E. Hollow boards made of honeycomb and epoxy in
'70 or '71.)
The U F O Model was a great seller and became a kind of
Icon until the shortboard revolution turned everything around.
The pictured UFO has the first "official" decal, previous to that the letters U F O were cut out of the word SURFBOARDS
in the standard decal at the time (Like the sideways blue ones in the
picture, but they came in different colors.) A year or so later, we went
with a "modern" style, each letter comprised of 4 parallel
lines--really "70's style" and it was the 70's, so that's OK.
The
cutaway fin was a feature of the design as we were all cutting down our
"D" fins to get more maneuverability as the boards were getting thinner.
( '66-'67)
The scooped tail was supposed to help the
turning, too. Note that the bottom was rounded in that area so the board
was loose. Without the scoop in the top of the tail, it wasn't possible
to sink the tail to turn hard. This was a "Performance" board, not a
"Power Surfing " board. It wasn't designed to use the edges to carve.
More like flattish turns and walking the board quickly, "hot dogging",
surfing off of the back foot. It was designed to be easy to noseride,
but not a concave noserider, much more versatile.
The side
profile is a great picture. You can see the thinness of the nose and
tail areas and the foiled thickness in the middle. Also look at the
rails when the stringer intersects. The nose is very thin and the tail
area is about a 50/50 rail to keep the board loose. This board wasn't
designed to carve, the tail edge is soft, so the board could change
directions quickly.
In contrast, the Rick Barry Kanaiaupuni
Model boards were the more "power surfing" boards, designed to carve,
using the front foot and engaging the rails more. (Hulls took that
"Total involvement" style of committing the edge even farther.) The "BK"
Model had a "belly" in the nose area, rounded to help initiate digging
the pinched rail into the face. John Leininger, who was ostensibly the
sales shop manager/ ad manager/ image creator/ and so much more,
convinced me to be a "power surfer" so I carved on Barry Kanaiaupuni
Models and never really rode U F O's. I'm glad I did, because I adapted
easily to the shortboard explosion on a Greenough "Baby" that John
himself shaped in the shop, dropping from a 9'3" "Mini Gun" to a 7'3"
Baby in one amazing day in '67 and I never looked back.
The
shortboard revolution was sure fun; like now, designs good and bad were
being developed constantly! Back in the late 60's the Rick shop built
had a flextail model, the first roundtail model I had ever heard
of and adopted the Eaton twin-fin design within days of the first
successful design Mike had. Eaton had formerly shaped at Ricks, being
brought in by Becker, then moved up to the street (literally) to shape
for Bing after a year or so."
George Leone ... fact checked by John Leininger.
