RealSurf Surfers' Forum

About 18 months ago I picked up a strange little board from a secondhand shop in Canberra, of all places. It's a 6'3" egg, with an orange/yellowish bottom and a white deck (pretty appropriate colours for an egg, eh?). It appears to be a popout, as it doesn't have a stringer, just a coloured line where the stringer should be. It has a massive yellow fin, really raked like a tuna's tail or something from a Greenough spoon. The logo on the deck says "Sportland" and the writing is in the shape of Australia. Just guessing, I'd say it was from the late sixties or early seventies. Can anyone tell me anything about this board? I'd love to know a bit about it's history.
PS: It goes like a freaking rocket in clean two foot surf.

I've posted some pics at http://www.flickr.com/photos/apehammer/

put up a pic.

what's the bottom like? pretty flat or does is have a roll?

rails?

thick?

sounds like an S deck or something.

Could be what they called derisively a "pop out" = mass produced in a mould (sounds familiar), They had no stringers and Bill Wallace in Brookvale and Shane (I think) were the big dealers in these. Sounds like the shape and length and from memory they all had to be coloured as the production process didn't lend itself to plain un coloured models.

Jorgo wrote:Shane (I think) were the big dealers in these.

Correct j-lo! Did’t they have a swirly/streaky pigment pattern on them. Think some of the earliest ones got a little out-of-shape, or worse, due to expansion and that went some ways to establishing their reputation... :?

Ricardo - correctamundo. The colours looked like something "Miiister Haaart" might have done - or maybe something trippy for the times. I even seem to recall they had like a 6B pencil line down the middle to make them look like they made a stringer. A mate had a swirly pink mother - jeezus was it ugly.
Barry Bennett was doing some licence deal here in Australia too under the famous name of Gregg Knoll (spelling??) - and again they were always solid primary colours and pencil line stringers. My younger brother had one - they didn't go too bad though for gromms as we were at the time

eggs sux.....sux sux sux

it's a design that driven people mad...and sucky

it's soo pure it's so balance the shape a egg just...it just...seems so perfect a design for a wave

but there not.....there shit

mayb...i need a real thin one...with a single racked fin and there should b a fin box each end so i can surf it either way.... and lots reverse v

nooooo...there all shit.....but they could/should work....the curves just ( to me ) look perfect for a point break :?

p.s ihate eggs

my old man has a 7'2" x 22" x 3 1/4" with 70/30 rails and the Vee bottom. No one is to touch it. He doesnt even surf anymore.

He has some rad fotos of him carving up LA and north Av in the 70's. {drool}

peace,
Jack

Top Kat - do you know what make it is? Chris Crozier was making some "S" decky, eggy things back then.

[quote="Jorgo"]Top Kat - do you know what make it is? Chris Crozier was making some "S" decky, eggy things back then.
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Its a Clear Sea Surfboard by Rodney Ball with the S deck.

TC - if its a Rodney Ball its bound to be fairly "unique" like Rod as a character was. He worked at McGrigors for a long long time with Ian Goodacre and Barry King and was a regular Nth Steyne surfer. He also designed some fairly progressive boards at the time - like his single fin "keel". Never really took off, but a few of the regualr Nth Steyne crew were riding them.
If the one your dad has is in good nick, then I'd suggest it is a collectors item as Rod didn't make hundreds under the "Clear Sea" label - but as I said, he certainly had his devotees

Salty, right you are with the Ski tail - in fact I think for a few years there he did some Ski Patrol/Instructor work down at Perisher. His surfing style was very much parallel footed stance - like pre snow board downhill ski style.
Those board designs were almost straight rail outline (can't call it curve) from about 12-15 inches from the tail up.
A mate had a Clear Sea too and it had the same fine rails etc like yours. Was a great board. I remember riding it a few times and it was very fast. More though I remember it had a textured deck - like an extra layer of glass that had been laminated - but not filler coated. The idea being that you didn't need wax - but in those days before wet/rash vests, it really ripped your guts.
Anyone recall - in the eary 70s they had this stuff called "Slipcheck". It was a spay on paint - like a flat paint that again was supposed to alleviate the need for wax and it came in colours which you could spray on through stencils?

Yeah - that was it Salty - obviously a salt of the earth man.

Don't remember Crystal Tubes with Rod Ball. Another elder of the Nth Steyne set was Doug Bell - he had a logo that was something like Crystal something or another. Hell there were plenty of trippy names around then.

The slipcheck stuff got some pretty ornate templates happening. I recall obe guy used his mums crochet (sp) tablecloth to get a funky pattern. The things one did eh?

Jorgo wrote: More though I remember it had a textured deck - like an extra layer of glass that had been laminated - but not filler coated. The idea being that you didn't need wax - but in those days before wet/rash vests, it really ripped your guts.
Anyone recall - in the eary 70s they had this stuff called "Slipcheck".

I had a Wayne Deane swallowtail that he shaped for Hot Buttered that had a textured deck. I never found it that much of a problem as long as you waxed it and it waxed up extremley well as you might expect.

I remember seeing ads for Slipcheck but never saw it used. There was also a few early versions of deck grip that covered the whole or most of the whole deck. Now that caused rashing.

I've found tuflite boards give you more of a rash than fibreglass boards because of the paint job I think. Anyone else found the same problem?

Jorgo wrote:I recall obe guy used his mums crochet (sp) tablecloth to get a funky pattern.

Come on J-Lo, you know it was you.

Amazing when you think ‘rocket block’ was the precursor for the FCS multisquillionaires.

Wonder where Rod Ball ended up, did see him down the snow about 100 years ago as you mentioned.

RV (Winnabego man) - no trippy deck sprays for me. I was strictly a Brewsters "Bower Boy" surf wax kid.
Though I did nearly burn down my oldies house as a grom when I was melting down some small blocks of old wax. Crazy thing was, I was doing homework and forgot about it on the stove - and I never have before or since done homework on the pretence that its dangerous to your health