Tom Morey to auction off two revolutionary '70s boards
Morey's AL 3 : photo Tom Morey
Tom Morey announces forthcoming sale of AL1 and AL3, two revolutionary air
lubricated surfboards built in 1970 and '76. These two very special boards
will be auctioned July 21, 2007 as part of Hawaiian Vintage Surf Auction.
"The Vintage Surf Auction is about surf items 25 years old and older,
however to the long view, 1982 just wasn't all that long ago, a very
formative time.
After building
thousands of relatively conventional Morey surf boards (1955-'68): Camel,
Stratavarious, Contender, Eliminator, Penetrator, Blue Machine and Tracker)
I began, experimenting in 1970 with air lubrication; a proven approach for
breaking free from the water that had been used for decades on sea planes.
A stepped bottom had always been a gross concept depending on giant steps,
and thus, never tried on surfboards. I felt it could do quite a suitable
job with shallower steps and provision made for venting their back sides
from the deck.
Although I never finished my first attempt with too many steps and too many vent holes, I did finish this second test board, AL1, (Airlubricated One) which utilizes only one step and has since been a major influence on my thinking.
Both bottom planes of AL1 are slightly concave, finished with sharp trailing edges, All other curves, except near the very nose, are also markedly concave. The 'rails' of the deck are also concaved to eliminate every chance for suction drag. Two carefully designed holes directly into flared slots within the shallow bottom step. This vented air to it's back side, frees the bottom, from the majority of surface drag.
Morey's AL 1 : photo Tom Morey
Thus, although the board is seven plus feet long, as soon as it reaches
planing speed, the step lifts it free,.. water no longer touching most of
the surface area which now, from a drag view point, is effectively shortened
to only a couple of feet in length.
"Once I knew for a fact that a wide board given freedom from drag would
really fly, I was mentally free to think in terms of wide flat
stone-skipping proportions, which in a way led to the development of the
first boogie boards, which, in fact, given decent size waves, really scream
along.
AL1 was built and tested in 1970 on Oahu and found to be exceedingly fast, albeit difficult to turn, and so bouncy I could barely stay on. And, with all those sharp edges, dangerous. However, built as an experiment, not for marketing to the general public, I was very happy with the result.
Since then I've built perhaps a dozen other versions of this basic design, modified for easier turning and greater safety. AL3, featuring two steps and three planes, is also on auction and is probably the best example still in existence. Looking back, it seems these boards manifested well ahead of their time.
Built well before the surfing of huge waves where speed is of paramount importance... before even the notion of tow-in surfing, and before methods came to mind for building sleek smooth bottom contours with flexible Kevlar 'eyelash' trailing edges, which have since come to mind and which I plan to use in the not too distant future for construction of practical eight, nine, even twelve foot long high speed tow-in, paddle-in and sail in big wave boards.
These boards will be on display at Blaisdell Center, Honolulu, Friday July 20th, and Saturday July 21th, the day of the auction.