Matt Calvani
...and I don't really know because I have heard a bunch of different versions (editors note: regarding how the first PIG board came about).
Mike Black
I have been to. But it all pretty much sounds consistent. Bing talked to me yesterday, and I was talking to Marc Andreini its sounds to me like everyone is attributing Dale Velzy with pulling the wide point back. The discrepancy centers around why or how the wide point was pulled back. Some people say it was an accident.
MC
exactly. that is the version I heard from Hap. Many years ago back before anyone even dreamed of riding a pig , back in 91 when I started working for Hap people were riding 2 + 1s. I was intrigued by the pig. I have 3 Velzy Jacobs original boards from the 50's. A 10' 6" a 9'6" and an 8'8".
MB
they have flat bottoms don't they. and the rail isn't really shaped.
MC.
they have flat bottoms but the rail is round. the boards are kinda thin. they are actually more refined in shape than a lot of the boards were. that 10'6" I have is perfect. The template and the curve are so beautiful. Its classic , back then no one cared about aesthetic. it was just function. the made the boards out of wood because they didn't have anything else to make the boards out of. it wasn't because wood looked cool. it was just because that is what they had. of course they knew the curve had to be correct. it needed to be accurate. they could have made a pice of shit and no one would have known the difference because there was no one out there. however, they were craftsman. Jacobs and Velzy were craftsman. Anyway...my point is that Hap said they were making malibu chips when Hap first started coming on the scene. Hap was actually a laminator when he first worked with Velzy. Velzy and Jacobs were put together. They didn't go "hey lets work together!". They were coerced into doing it. They didn't volunteer for it. They first started making Malibu chips then by accident one day Velzy saped it backwards or something I don't exactly know how it went down. i don't remember, and he looked at it and said "shit , this looks like the back end of a PIG". I am sure it was Velzy , it wasn't Hap who said it. Then they got Mickey Munoz. Mickey went out to Manhattan pier with it. He ripped on it. He was just turning ...ripping turns...you know this is kinda before nose riding. So there wasn't a reason to have a wide nose. The chip never had a wide nose. The mistake gave all this curve in the outline in the back. You know they didn't change the fins. They just changed the outline. They worked the outline around the fin. The fins were a little bit smaller on the earlier shapes. They started sticking these bigger fins on because they were stable , but they realized we need to do something with the outline since these fins are so big. Accidentally they kind of stumbled upon the pig. It was looser. The littlest guy in the world was shredding it.
MB
was it 10'?
MC
i don't know. but Mickey Munoz he is around 5' tall. From what I understand he is the guy that pretty much rode the first PIG board. This is the story from Hap. So its pretty intriguing that its an accident. The amazing thing about the whole story is that every board was made like that until around '65.
MB
right!
MC
That is the intriguing thing about it. Every one just said "alright this is how a surfboard is supposed to be". Until the noses got wider. No body tried to change the pig because the pig works. The pig worked because of the fin. If you stick a big ass fin on a board and you don't move the wide point back you can't turn. With a big fin you need more distance between the base of the fin and the rail of the board. That way when you go to turn it you don't have as much resistance. If you put a big fin on a narrow tail, you are not going to turn. They kind of knew this. I think the key is they really kind of built the pig around the fin. They couldn't conceive of any other shape of a fin. They were just like...this is the fin, this is how we make them.
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