Greetings, Shredderz! I’m on the road at a landlocked and undisclosed location, which means that instead of the usual fresh scans, this week’s Sagas of Shred is sourced from the deepest reaches of the internet. Featured here is a Body Glove ad from 1970. I actually pulled the pic from the excellent Harbour Surfboards website, which has a ton of great content from the brand’s storied history.

As you can see, the ad is for the debut of Body Glove’s “legs” model. I’m not an expert on wetsuit history, but I can only assume that earlier wetsuits didn’t even cover the bottom half of your legs. The Body Glove ad features Mark Martinson and Keith Paull ostensibly suiting up for a session somewhere around Santa Cruz. And for all the talk of the new legs feature, they’re still paddling out in Northern California without sleeves! That said I’m sure the crowds were a lot more manageable fifty years ago, so it’s not all bad.

Martinson and Paull are both toting some gorgeous looking Transition Era sleds. I wish there were more details on their boards. In particular I’m really digging the outline on Martinson’s board.

As always, thanks for reading, and we’ll be back next week with more Sagas of Shred.