Author: Tom
Date: 4/14/2011 9:21 am PDT
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Thanks for the photos, Hayward. It's not really a freak, just a custom order. Customers could order boards with whatever logo they liked. I like the Maui Foil bird logo a lot, and that's how I would have ordered it too. Below the bird on your board, the small, discrete Bing logo and words "Australian Foil" represents a style which many people preferred on their boards at this time of anti-commercialism. This is opposed to the large, blocky original Australian Foil decal that ran across almost the entire deck in 1969. I'm not sure why the original owner would have preferred it to say Australian Foil instead of Maui Foil (same size and lettering style), unless the shape of the board is more of an Aussie Foil than a Maui Foil... As I said, the Maui Foil replaced the Australian Foil at the start of 1970, many months before yours was made.
I would need to see the rails to tell you for sure which it is. As more of a purist and someone who likes things (historic facts) to fit in an orderly, consistent way, I'd hope this board is more like an Australian Foil, given that that's what its lam says it is. Even though there was a lot of variation in the templates of the Aussie Foils (1969) and the Maui Foils (1970), their rails and rocker were uniquely distinct from each other. The Maui Foil's rails were turned down from the tail up through the middle of the board, while the Aussie Foil's rails were only turned down in the tail (back one-third of the board). The Aussie Foil had much less rocker in the nose. You could look at yours and see how matches up to these "standards."
I have Maui Foil #6209, ordered 5/6/70, which is the last of all the Foils in my records (over 40 recorded so far), before yours appeared yesterday. As your photo shows, yours is clearly #6553, made in about June 1970. Your board (template) looks very much like the shape of the Maui Foil that Rolf Arness won the World Championships on in Australia in May 1970.
Did the board have the green resin abstract panels on its bottom when you got it in 1976? I've not seen a Foil done like that before. It goes nicely with the green tint bottom layup, but would have added a pound or more to the board's weight.
Very cool board. Bing will send you a "Birth Certificate" for it. Thanks for sharing it with us.
Tom |
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