HB POSTS

A 7'6 Hot Buttered Sunset Gun (Rainbow Board) will be on display at this week's Duke's Day, Freshwater. Jack McCoy asked Terry Fitzgerald to comment on the original board he rode and the following handshapes he created from the 1971 Duke Kahanamoku Classic in Hawaii in which Terry was the finalist and Australia’s only representative. The TF story is as follows (extracted from copy written for Rusty P... and used in TSJ a couple of years ago):

• My very first idea came from Bunker, surfing Pokala rights in summer
1971. He had a rope handled kneeboard which he paddle in laying down,
took off on his knees and then pulled on the handles for his trim line
and then stood up. He had small keel shaped resin fins stuck in the tail
rail to help keep a high line.

• The jump came in the our winter of ‘72. My Hawaiian influenced boards
just did not have enough tail area to skate over the flat-spots at Narrabeen.
So, I ADDED wings (or what we called flyers). The idea was that ß
by adding the wing to the rail it would add more planning area flat, but,
you would still have a narrow tail for in the pocket and bigger waves.
The ‘wing/flyer’ had to be pinched to allow the rail to stay in the wave
and run you higher as well (á la Bunker’s idea). But, the wing also gave
you a break point for snapping out of the lip. So, three pure benefits
i) More planning area to get across the flats
ii Pinched wing to stick in the face and ride high on
iii) A break point in the rail to snap off the lip on
Tested in Hawaii that year and then launched in December ‘72,
January ‘73 in Australia.

• ADDED: note - wings we not something you created by cutting a piece
out of the tail of your board. They were ADDED to the rail line / foil
and planshape...and pinched to have minimum effect of rail line
entry and line, but, maximum effect on planning area when flat,
plus the increased ability to run high and hold a high line.


“My whole wing thing only came with concaves - a double edged development.
Concave to get you up the face, wings to hold the high line.” TF

A very happy custom shape client...

Rory's Board

Made a few of these for Cheyne back in the '80's (he won Bell's on one too).
Rory had a red one made and rode it for a lifetime. Just re-birthed another for him.
Edged tail, concave v, bow nose, winged keel - a true customs for those who go
where none have gone before.

TF

A southerly change sweeps up the coast, pushing a lumpy swell on the horizon while the wind cleans the inside. Rainbows can only be seen when the sun has got your back and the storm is in your eye. Getting in a few between squalls is all about being on the spot

Hot Buttered Soul was a revolutionary four track LP released by Isaac Hayes and the Bar-Kays in 1969. A few months later, 20-year-old Terry Fitzgerald, fresh from a Hawaiian winter season and a big fan of funk and soul rhythms, decided to borrow the name for his surfboard company. But all three words didn’t quite fit on the rainbow sash logo. Thus Hot Buttered Surfboards were born - and with it one of surfing’s true originals. But the third word never went missing. Instead it’s lived in the handmade, hand-painted HB surfboards and the styles that arose from riding them, over three decades, in the best surf on the planet."

Martyn Worthington, HB's airbrush artist for Terry Fitzgerald custom handshape surfboards gets a write-up:

Martyn's creative force is also captured on Hot Buttered Skateboard decks: