I still have the original invoice for my first ever custom surfboard from Jeffreys Bay Surf and Sail.
Custom-made windsurfers were quite the rage at that time too. They have kind of come and gone since then.
Twin Fin Surfboards under the name Seaflight were the main staple when I placed my order in Jeffreys Bay at the time.
Twin fin surfboards were all the rage at the time, then knocked out of the market for nearly 30 years by thruster three finned surfboards and in the last 10 years or so, they have made quite a comeback.
In those days, the Seaflight surfboard factory was at 55 Diaz Road, right on the Kitchen Window and Phantoms surf breaks.
My invoice #71 in 24/6/1983 declares the factory phone number was 529. J-Bay has changed a bit since then.
The occasion of ordering this board was during my winter varsity surfing holiday and I had secured a holiday job sanding surfboards at the factory.
This was an itchy and scratchy show if ever there was one.
The price of my spray-designed custom surfboard, crafted to suit my weight, height and ability with fin box and trailing fin, less 10% and including GST added (General Sales Tax — VAT had not been invented yet) was a huge R262.30. That was 43 years ago.
A new Firewire surfboard today can cost you anything from R12,000 to R15,000 or more. My 1983 Seaflight was worth every cent.
My board was a double winger (two steps in the outside rail near the tail) with a chine boat nose.
The board had two white stripes in the spray design parallel to the stringer.
This was a nod to McCoy surfboards in Australia which ran with stripe spray designs a lot in those days.
My competition surfing was in its infancy and recalling my low skills base, it is difficult to give an honest evaluation of how the board rode but wow, I did learn a lot in the factory.
I was in the shaping bay with Glenn Darcy when he planed out my top and bottom deck.
Shapers use an electric carpentry wood plane for this work.
All hand crafted.
Then with his curved templates he showed me how the nose, midpoint, widest point and tail were measured out and how the plan shape was cut out.
Then he shaped the rails in, rolled the top deck, shaped the chine nose and vee, and fine-tuned with a sanding block and gauze.
All the while he was measuring and explaining to me trim, flow, edges, curve, speed, rocker and turns.
I had no idea how fortunate I was at the time to experience this art form and years of craftsmanship on the trestles.
From there, it was off to the spray booth to get masked and sprayed.
Then into the laminating bay where I watched the genius of glassing, laminating the top deck, bottom deck, nose wrap and tail wrap, rails and glassed in fins.
Michael Ginsberg was at the factory at the time, measuring resin, catalyst and fiberglass cloth, laminating rainbow fin panels and foam fins.
I just settled for black fiberglass fins but the lesson I received in how fins are cast, cut out, foiled, canted in and canted over, was invaluable.
From there, it was into the sanding bay where I absorbed critical lessons on how sandpaper and tucked-under edges can finesse speed and excellence into a board or destroy it.
Then there was the finish coat and water paper to gloss or polish or 600-grit shark skin finish.
It is a big process and like all art, rare that our craftsmen get their just rewards.
Surfboard shapers/manufacturers are a special breed of humans. They are the Michaelangelos, the Da Vincis, the Rhodins and Fibonaccis of our game.
To Glenn Darcy, the late Ken Freeland, Dave Lipschitz and Michael Ginsberg, it appears to me that I never thanked you guys enough for the board.
The gigantic experience you guys imparted to me as a varsity student grom on what the fullness of a custom surfboard is, is inestimable.
Forty-three years later, you guys are still deeply etched into the foundations of my surfing adventure.
Thank you so much for your kindness. Aloha. Bless ya.
Daily Dispatch
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