Few things can provide as solid a lesson in surf history as coming across an old board. Finding something 40 years old and maybe giving it a little TLC so it can catch a few waves again revisits what people were riding all those years ago. It tells you what innovation meant at the time, how surfers and shapers approached the waves a board was built for. And this is the entire premise of Finders Keepers, a series with Tanner Gudauskas digging up old boards and learning anything and everything he can about them in the process.
Just a couple months back, Tanner bought a board for $1,500 he’d found on Craigslist. This time it’s a surprisingly crisp 5’8″ thruster he found while looking for something that may have been made by family friend, and Local Motion shaper, Pat Rawson. Tanner grew up in the Local Motion family, as his dad was a sales rep for the company in the ’80s and ’90s. So while looking for an old board from the brand was already a history lesson on its own, it was also a walk down memory lane for Tanner. He doesn’t find the exact board he set out for, but the little thruster he did find holds some great stories, like how Tony Moniz’s signature spray was actually an homage to his Hawaiian heritage.
