Hawk in his "study" about '91. Not long after this shot was taken, he was cleaning up the rafters of this soon to be pool room. Only then it was a garage, and then a shaping bay, and a tool shed and photo gallery all rolled in to one. Anyway, he's taking some of the old stuff out of the rafters. Pieces of wood, like balsa, redwood and bass, some old tailblocks, log sawing tools, sticks for stringers - things like that. Reaching up into one of these storage areas Velzy pulls out this old template. It's so fragile it's crumbling as he brings it down to the floor. Carefully, before it turns into dust, he traces out the outline of the template.

Hawk begins working in an inspirational rhythm. Excited now, on a mission, he draws out a planshape on a sunbrowned blank. Hawk saws the outline, skins the blank and shapes the board in a matter of hours. Mowin' foam to the sound of rancheria music. "It's 'cheerful' music" he says.(Maybe it was Hawaiian Slack Key anyway..). Fine tuning the rails, blending contours.

It turns out the template is the lost version of a well thought out surfboard that changed surfing forever when it was introduced in the late 50's and early 60's. Not since Dewey, Johnny, Skip and Lance have these designs seen action. The shape caused a change in the local choice of boards. One of Velzy's South Bay "test pilots" dropped in to surf the beaches of La Jolla, Pacific Beach and Crystal Pier back in the early '60's. The board won the respect of locals with casual or aggressive performances the design provided. It was such a good prototype, one local surf business owner/shaper took the template and copied it. Right there from Dewey's board on the pavement of the parking lot overlooking those very same beaches, another surf design was passed on to the masses. It's a good thing waves haven't changed, because these rare beauties are back in the water. Amazing! But it started with Hawk.

Meanwhile 35 years later... Velzy is so worked about this thing he calls up one of his associates and says something like "Whatta ya doin?...come over and look at this." To which the friend replies, "O.K., tomorrow." Hawk says, "No I'm goin' to church tomorrow... come over now." Anyway that was the second beginning of the Malibu Express. The same design that spun the aussies heads when they first saw it... just before they burned their "kook boxes" in the late fifties, that's another story though.

Malibu Express Single Fin (left), Classic Balsa Stringer with Cadillac Yellow Rails & tailblock (center) and Hawaiian Print Competition Stripe Square Tail (right).Click on these to see the larger version.

California surf history & The Velzy Gallery.
"In Search of...Baja"
Viejos Longboard Party Page
Snapshots from the Velzy Gallery. Go to the Velzy Pages.
Surf-related write in. For submissions, mail, comments and questions click here.

Viejos South Bay Riders Main