Greetings, Shredderz! When it comes to feel good stories, my personal favorite subgenre is “surfboards saved from the trash.” Believe it or not, this killer example of a vintage Andreini Vaquero model was headed to the dump before it was rescued. Even more incredibly, the person who found this board was none other than Marc’s brother Peter. Thanks to Kookamonga Surf Shop for sending along all the board pics featured in the post. I’m thrilled to report the board is being fixed up and it’s hopefully going to stay in the Andreini family for years to come.

I often write about boards that I admire from afar. In the case of Marc’s boards, though, one of my all time favorite sticks is a 9′ Serena. I’ve been surfing the Serena lately, after leaving it alone for a few months, and it has been a blast to rediscover all the things that make it so fun to ride. That said, Marc’s most famous shape is his Vaquero model, which his site refers to as “a smooth, flowing design.” (Somehow I’ve never actually ridden a Vaquero, which is something I gotta fix soon.)

The board featured here is a vintage Vaquero model measuring in at 7’10”. You can clearly see the rolled bottom in the photo below. I believe the board was shaped sometime in the late 1970s. It has an opaque white resin tint and a double resin pinline design on the deck.

The fin is a beautiful touch, too. It’s interesting to note the vintage Vaquero has a square tail, as opposed to the round tail that is standard on modern Vaqueros. (Note that the Andreini Special K Model is described as a square tail version of the Vaquero that also has vee in the tail.) I’m not quite sure why this is the case; hopefully I can get some more info from Marc and if so I’ll be sure to update the post.

If you look closely, you can see there’s an inscription on the tail (and of course, how cool is that Clark Foam laminate?). The inscription reads “Kona Special For Pop.”

Last but certainly not least, Peter Andreini was kind enough to send me a photo of Marc riding the very same board. He is surfing somewhere near Kona, on the Big Island in Hawaii — hence the inscription — and the photo was taken in 1982.

I’m always fascinated by what shapers choose to surf themselves, and it’s also very cool to see an earlier version of Marc’s famous Vaquero design. The fact Marc’s brother happened to save this board from being discarded is a wild stroke of luck, not to mention the fact that there are also photos of Marc surfing the board, explaining its inscription. All in all I think this is a very cool piece of history for my fellow Andreini nerds out there, and more than anything else, I’m pumped that it’s back with the family instead of serving as a piece of landfill somewhere. Thanks again to Kookamonga and Peter Andreini for their help in putting together this post.