Greetings, Shredderz! There exists a long, not exactly organized list of surfboards I’d like to own someday. A hand shaped Donald Takayama longboard is somewhere close to the top. If you want to be ultra accurate, I suppose you could say a hand signed Donald Takayama longboard; like many other labels with large outputs, Donald had production shapers working under him, so it’s impossible for me to say which ones he would have shaped entirely by hand, etc. Either way, I love these boards, because they sit at the intersection of functionality (as in it’s a board I’d actually ride) and history.

Pictured here is a very cool hand signed Donald Takayama longboard on Craigslist in San Diego. You can find the listing here. The language in the listing indicates there aren’t any bargains to be found, but I’m not buying this board anyway, so it can’t hurt just to take a peek.

According to the seller the board is a Noah Ka Oi Competition Model, and the measurements are 10′ x 23″ x 3″. (Note: the Takayama Surfboards site shows a Noah Ka Oi Comp Model with a pintail; I wrote up another Takayama Noah Ka Oi Model with a squash tail that looks a little wider than the one featured here.) I’d guess this was shaped sometime in the early to mid 2000s, but I’m just throwing a date out there. Someone who’s better at dating fin boxes will have a clearer idea.

As you can see, this thing is clean as can be. The details are lovely, too. You can’t go wrong with a classic Coke bottle blue tint, and the red resin pin line adds some pop. I feel like you don’t often see triple stringer setups on these Takayamas, either.

As always, I’d like to salute the few and the proud Craigslist sellers who go above and beyond to take great photos of killer sticks. I’ve found out the hard way that taking solid photos of surfboards is not an easy task, although I’m pretty happy with some recent attempts.

The board comes with a beautiful original fin, too. The red accents throughout are just so cool. On second thought, after seeing the photos of this board and realizing what great condition it’s in, I’m not so sure I’d feel totally comfortable surfing this thing, so maybe I’ll end up scooping up a Takayama longboard that I won’t feel guilty about dinging. Check out the original listing on Craigslist here.