This restored balsa wood and fiberglass surfboard was most likely inspired by the Hawaiian style of surfing that Southern Californian surfers and board makers saw when they visited Oahu in the years following WWII. There, shapers like Matt Kivlin, Joe Quigg and Dale Velzy noticed how the Hawaiians were able to ride in control when high on a steep wave’s face and even in the breaking curl, despite the fact that their boards had no stabilizing fins. Such boards were known as “Hot Curls.”

The Hot Curl surfboard was a breakthrough in design dating back to the mid- and late 1930s after Hawaiian surfers Fran Heath and John Kelly became frustrated that their heavy, wide-tailed, finless boards kept spinning out (or “sliding ass” as they called it) in bigger waves. Taking saw, adz, draw knife and block plane, they narrowed the tail dramatically, made the nose more pointed and shaped a deep vee into the bottom of the back section of their 75-pound planks. The changes worked. It was not long before many top surfers of the era including Wally Froiseth, George Downing and Rabbit Kekai adopted the Hot Curl design and it was still in use when West Coast surfers arrived ten years later.

This particular example is not as extreme as the original Hot Curls and has been clearly modified to better suit West Coast waves that are generally not as big, fast and hollow as those in Hawaii. As a result, the tail is wider and the vee has been eliminated, mainly because most Californians were already using fins on their boards and this board shows evidence of having had a fin at one time. The logo was certainly added when the board was restored, as board makers of the era did not use them, or even sign their creations. As a result it’s impossible to know who shaped this board.