Noosa '66 longboard celebrates its 50th anniversary

November 25, 2016 | Surfing
Noosa '66: the iconic longboard by Bob McTavish

Bob McTavish announced the launch of a limited edition of the iconic 9'7'' Noosa 1966 longboard.

The legendary surfer-shaper will travel with his son Ben to Noosa to produce 20 handcrafted boards using the same materials and construction methods from the era.

"It's hard to believe it's been 50 years since I shaped my first really successful design: the Noosa '66. I'd been shaping since 1962, but I mostly shaped what the bosses asked for," reveals Bob McTavish.

For the 50th anniversary of the Noosa '66, McTavish will only produce 20 hand-shaped, signed and numbered surfboards. They were shaped and glassed at the Thomas Surfboards factory in Noosa, rather than the McTavish factory in Byron Bay.

"I was surfing Noosa all the time with great surfers like Reynolds Yater, Bob Cooper, Russell Hughes, and Algie Grud, and we developed a unique design that featured a wider, hippy tail and a narrower 17'' nose with a parallel mid-zone," adds the Australian shaper.

The Noosa '66 template allowed fast pivot turns and cutbacks, quick trimming, and a splendid noseride in the curl. To preserve the authenticity, Bob McTavish the surfboard was finished with a light polish.

The glassing is all original 10oz Volan - one layer on the bottom and a double layer on the deck with a special extra-wide lap. The fin is a full Volan layup, initially attached to the stringer with brass nails.

You can read more about Bob McTavish's work in "The Surfboard Book," and watch him in the movies "The Hot Generation," "The Fantastic Plastic Machine," and "The Innermost Limits of Pure Fun."
