Greetings, Shredderz! There have been a few tasty vintage Liddles on Craigslist lately, and this one is no exception.

Pictured above is a well preserved 1968 Greg Liddle displacement hull. (Though to be honest, I’m not 100% sure if this should be considered a hull, but I’m sticking with the description for now, so feel free to let me know if this is incorrect.) As far as I can tell, this is the earliest example of a Liddle that I have ever written up here on the blog. I’m kind of blown away at the condition. Sure, there’s some discoloration here and there, and it’s not showroom ready or anything, but all of the important details seem to be intact.

Liddle has always written detailed inscriptions on his stringers, and it looks like he started this practice very early on. The board is dated July 22, 1968, making it almost exactly 54 years old. It measures in at 8’6″, and it is number 72.

It’s fascinating to see the outline of the board and compare it to Liddle’s later output. It’s hard for me to get a sense of the belly and the rocker, and I have a hard time analyzing boards via still photos. Nonetheless, it’s probably useful to have some of these pics online so people with more knowledge than me can analyze them. There are also more pics available on the always classic Liddle Surfboards website, which you can find here. What stands out to be about the board is the pronounced pintail. I also found another 1968 board on the Liddle site with a similar, slightly more rounded pintail.

Last but not least, here’s a shot of the W.A.V.E. Set fin. I’d be curious to hear about how this board performs as a result, given all the subsequent R&D that went into developing flex fins for Liddle’s hulls. No matter what, though, this is a pretty rad piece of surf history, and I’m glad that whoever sold the board took such great pics.