Skip to main content
Solid redwood except chambered center section. Rounded rails & bottom, from bottom up. Aluminum, 1 in. deep, bolted on fin, most likely added much later. Cond. 8.5.
Solid redwood except chambered center section. Rounded rails & bottom, from bottom up. Aluminum, 1 in. deep, bolted on fin, most likely added much later. Cond. 8.5.

Solid redwood except chambered center section. Rounded rails & bottom, from bottom up. Aluminum, 1 in. deep, bolted on fin, most likely added much later. Cond. 8.5.

Date1933
ClassificationsSurfboards
Credit LineOn loan from Bill Janss
Object numberS.462
DescriptionLos Angeles, 1933. Bill Janss, (who later in his life owned the Sun Valley Ski Resort) had the board made by the best surfboard maker of his day, Buddy Morrissey. Bill took this board on the famous ship Lurline to Hawaii in 1939, surfed it there, then brought it back to the mainland and later had it in his home in Sun Valley, Idaho. It is one of the first boards to have a fin made of aluminum (only 1” deep). We are not sure exactly when the fin was added, but it was likely after Tom Blake’s introduction of fins on surfboards as recorded in 1935. Blake may not have been the first person to do so but he is the first that we can pinpoint the day of.
On View
On view
Collections