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the catalogue #260

1973 San Juan - Nat Young Surf Design Squaretail 6 ft 8" Shaped by Nat Young

#356

MANUFACTURE
MANUFACTURER: San Juan Surfboards
91 Johnson Street Byron Bay NSW phone (066) 85 6395.

SHAPER: Nat Young

DESIGN: Nat Young Design Squaretail, later the Backhand model.
DESIGNER: Nat Young

SPECIFICATIONS
CONSTRUCTION
Fibreglassed foam blank, 1/4" redwood stringer, pigment laminates, resin pinlines, r/h post-production plug.

DIMENSIONS

*Length :*	6	ft	8	inches	*L2:*	6ft 3 1/2''
*Width :*	19 1/4	inches		*Wide Point :*	0	inches
*Nose :*	11 1/2	inches		*Tail :*	13 1/4	inches
*Thickness :*	3	inches		*Pod :*	6	inches
*Nose Lift :*		inches		*Tail Lift :*		inches
*Weight :*		kilos		*Volume :*		litres
*Other :*		inches

FEATURES
Nose: pin
Tail: rounded square, with slight chamfer
Deck: flat
Bottom: very subtle concave, flat, then slight vee before the fin.
Rails: chunky down rail with a fine chine with tucked/breakaway edge
Rocker: full

FIN
8'' x 5" base x 9 1/2'' span @ 4 1/2 inches .
Clear Greenough Stage IV
Drilled legrope hole at the rear of the base.

DECOR
DECAL
Deck: San Juan Bryon Bay NSW box and Nat Young Design, black script at the sweet spot.
Bottom:
MARKINGS
Deck:
Bottom:
COLOUR
Deck: white pigment laminate with cream rail overlaps and black resin pinlines.

Bottom: cream pigment laminate.

NOTES
BOARD HISTORY
The board was located at a farmhouse in the Upper Hunter Valley, and added to the surfresearch collection by Will Chance, October 2013.
Dimensions and photographs, 27th December 2013.

COMMENTS
The board has had numerous repairs of various quality, including at some point the addition of black paint on the nose and tail, subsequently removed.
The fin has a hole for a legrope and a poorly fitted post-production legrope plug, marginally off-set to the right.

DESIGN HISTORY

This is a picture of my board for going left or backhand.
It's five to seven years old and is in fact the same one I was riding on those lefts at the beginning of "Morning of the Earth".
I only use it for backhand for as you can see, it's suffered many scars, and in fact I will be making a new one, as I will be shaping at Bennetts in Brookvale all summer if any of you are interested in a new stick.

-Young: Nat's Backhand Board.
Tracks, Number 64, January 1976 , page 33.
Photograph: Frank Pithers

REFERENCES
Magazine Articles
1. Falzon, Albert and Murphy, Garth (photographers) :"Nat and His Boards and His Surfing"
Tracks, October 1971, page 14.
Note Pintail and Squaretail ("Backhand") model.

2. Nat Young: Nat's Backhand Board.
Tracks, Number 64, January 1976 , page 33

Books:
Young: Nat Young’s Book of Surfing page 64.
Young Surfing Fundamentals pages 100 - 101.
Same text as # 1. above. Includes reprint of Pintail/Backhand photograph in Magazines # 1, noted above.
Young: Nat’s Nat
Extensive references and photographs, note pages 228 to 236.

Film :
1. Alby Falzon: The Morning of the Earth, 1972.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRJu4KjATKA

While MOTE is packed with an incredible amount of high quality surfing performances, the sequence featuring Nat Young (in his regulation red boardshorts/longsleeve vest) at Broken Head, NSW, is arguably the most outstanding.
In extremely fast breaking waves, Nat fails to make his first two when he attempts to speed trim though sections.
Subsequently, he is more successful by forgoing the straight line approach and rides at the curl speed by maintaining a series of fluid turns whereby the board is constantly accelerating coming out of the top turns.
This effectively was the ultimate expression of McTavish's Break Out From the Straight Line Theory, formulated in late 1967.
See Source Documents: "LADIES AND GENTLEMEN AND CHILDREN OF THE SUN.."

Through the 1970s this approach would typify shortboard surfing, with straight-line surfing generally confined to riding deep in the curl.
Towards the end of the 1970s, South African Shaun Tomson extended performance levels by advancing the method whereby he was "turning inside the tube", see Bill Delany's Free Ride (1977)

CONDITION: 5

NAT YOUNG SURFBOARDS:

Left:
Nat Young with Pintail,
Skydog and Backhand
Square Tail, circa 1971
Photograph : Alby Falzon
Tracks, circa 1972.

Right:
Will Chance and #260.
Waxed, with black paint on
the nose and tail.

Geoff Cater (2013) :Catalogue: #260 San Juan - Nat Young Squaretail, 1973.
http://www.surfresearch.com.au/00000260.html