My friend Mike Black has been after me to shape him a pig for some time.  So I start thinking about the old pig boards I rode thru the years …I think I need to explain about all these old boards I’ve ridden.  I was eleven years old and only had one year of surfing under my belt in ‘67 when the era ended,  that leaves little time to have ridden all these logs during their heyday.

Me Tanis Zana Balboa Island 1970

Me Tanis Zana Balboa Island 1970

Don’t laff to hard at this photo of me and my sisters. Yes we came from the same parents and Yes my parents kept me well fed.
OK, Back to all these logs.  In 1968 my folks bought a beach house on Balboa Island back when a carpenter with 3 kids could pull off such a thing. I spent most weekends and all the summers there for the next 10 years.  Since the shortboard era was in full swing most of those useless obsolete longboards were changing hands for $10 to $25.  The longboards were littered on the beach in the summer because they were cheap and great for paddling around the bay, most families had at least one.  VelzyJacobs, DaCat, Performers, etc, but mostly early ‘60 pig shapes.  I’d borrow a different old board when I went surfing everyday and I really got into riding that useless junk.  My family’s beach board was “Big Red”.   Not the famous one,  this was a 10′ “Australian” (Tom Morey) pig shape and it was my “go to” longboard.  My dad sold it at a garage sale in the ’80s for $25 for a profit of $15.  At least he held on to the beach house.

Now back to this Mike Black pig,  I decided to go stringerless so I’d have a clean slate for some Eames inspired color panels.foamlove2 Also I’ve got a glassing plan so it turns out nice and solid.  I was looking forward to digging into some pure unobstructed foam ’cause the majority of the boards I’ve shaped recently have crazy wood.

Most of the calendar boards are being made from my stock of Walker Blanks. I raided Walker on their last day and got a load of stringerless blanks. I’ve been having Jim Phillips do some of his special glue ups on them.  I only have one big(10′2) stringerless left so I grabbed a 10′3 IceNine with Walker’s revived “Old Man” formula. This is the first IceNine for me because the walker formula they were offering originally was too light for my needs.  I closed myself in my room with with the blank and some templates.  Dug into the foam with the skil walking full speed at full depth,  foam flying and not one chatter or tear.  The foam was stiff and the dust is fluffy.  Loving this, can’t wait to dig back into it today after a morning surf.

Luckily Mike has plenty of boards to ride until after the calendars done and I can get to his, thanks for the inspiration Mike.

Gene