Tag: jacobs surfboards

Weekend Grab Bag: Jacobs Donald Takayama Model Edition

Greetings, Shredderz! Today is a special edition of the Weekend Grab Bag, a series that spotlights notable vintage boards currently listed for sale. This Sunday we have not one but two examples of the Jacobs Donald Takayama Model that are currently up for grabs.

I wrote an earlier post on the Jacobs Donald Takayama Hawaii Model, which you can find here. I have also written up the Bing Donald Takayama Model. While my memory of Donald Takayama is as an elder statesman of surfing, largely thanks to his work with Joel Tudor, during the Sixties Takayama was already a talented pro. It was in this decade that Bing and Jacobs both produced Takayama signature models, both of which are traditional longboards. According to the Encyclopedia of Surfing, the Jacobs Donald Takayama Model was produced beginning in 1965. The following year, Donald jumped ship to Bing, where he designed the David Nuuhiwa Noserider.

A lot of the content on Shred Sledz veers towards the Seventies and Eighties. Nonetheless I think there’s a timeless aspect to the beautiful longboards shaped in the Sixties before the Transition Era. And given Takayama’s long career, whether it was as a pro in his teens, or the functional noseriders he shaped up until his passing, I think there’s something special about Takayama’s longboards.

9’8″ Jacobs Donald Takayama Model (Facebook — Oahu)

The first board is an all-original 9’8″ Jacobs Donald Takayama Model. Pics are via the Vintage Surfboard Collectors group on Facebook, and are reprinted here with the permission of the board’s owner. This board is for sale, so please check out the post and DM the seller if you’re interested. Thanks Dave for allowing me to run your pics.

Jacobs Donald Takayama Model Deck.jpg

According to the listing, the Jacobs Donald Takayama Model is all original, without any delam or twists or any other major issues. You can see that it has some snackles and repairs from over the years, but overall, it’s in good shape for a surfboard that pre-dates the Moon Landing. The seller is asking $1,800 and the board is located on Oahu, so keep that in mind for any potential shipping costs.

Jacobs Donald Takayama Model FinJacobs Donald Takayama Model Rocker

Nothing makes me happier than seeing a board listed for sale with great pics accompanying it, and the seller definitely delivered in this regard. Check out the photos above for some more shots of the beautiful (and original) red fin.

9’7″ Jacobs Donald Takayama Model (Craigslist — LA)

The second Jacobs Donald Takayama Model is up for sale on Craigslist in Los Angeles. You can click the photos above to enlarge. As you can see, the board is very similar to the first one I posted, although it has green colored panels towards the rails.

You can click the photos above to enlarge. The green Jacobs Donald Takayama Model is in worse shape than the earlier board. The green version has some water damage towards the nose, which is clearly depicted in the photos. Here’s another shout out to the seller for providing some great and informative pics of the surfboard. You’ll notice the matching red fins on both boards. I can’t quite tell if the fin silhouette is the exact same.

The Craigslist LA Takayama board is being listed for $550. This is a good deal cheaper than the other board, a good chunk of the price difference can be chalked up to the significant difference in condition. I don’t have any recent price comparisons for the Jacobs Donald Takayama Model, so make of these prices what you will.

Dave, the seller of the board at the top of the page, helpfully included some old ads and descriptions of the Jacobs Donald Takayama Model. Make sure you click the photos below to enlarge them.

According to the ad, Takayama apparently shaped many of his Jacobs signature models himself. This is cool no matter what, but it’s even more impressive when you consider that in 1965, when the board was introduced, Takayama was only twenty two! The photo above and to the right also goes into detail about the actual shape of the Jacobs Donald Takayama model:

Designer: Donald Takayama — 1965 — for waves up to 15′ in height. Cost: 9’6″ $155.00. Leading Rider: Donald Takayama / Denny Tompkins. Design Theory: This board has a speed shape for the fast beach break and point waves. Thin rails are used for edge control and going through white water. Also, loss of speed will not occur while going under sections of waves. The nose is shaped and very thin with a little round belly in the bottom for maneuvering while riding on the tip of the nose. The tail is also quite thin and six inches in width. The roundness is also used on the bottom in the tail to provide a faster and smoother turn without spinning out in a critical wave. A conservative amount of rocker is put in the board with a small lift or kick in the nose. This enables the board to perform to the fullest extent for this type of shape.

These are two beautiful vintage surfboards, and if you know more about the Jacobs Donald Takayama Model, or you have one to share, feel free to drop me a line!

Photo at the top of the page by LeRoy Grannis; via the Encyclopedia of Surfing

Sixties Jacobs Surfboards Step Deck

Greetings, Shredderz! Today we have a very brief entry focusing on a board that was listed for sale last week on Craigslist. Pictured here is a Jacobs Surfboards step deck longboard that was shaped in 1967, according to the listing. Sadly the listing is no longer live, but I managed to save the photos, which you can find here.

For today’s post I have more questions than answers. As always, if you have some insight to share, don’t hesitate to get in touch! The Jacobs Surfboards longboard you see here was described as potentially having been shaped by none other than Donald Takayama.

A few months ago I wrote up a Jacobs Donald Takayama Hawaii model, which you can find here. In addition, Jacobs Surfboards also produced a separate Donald Takayama Model. I have seen a few different variants of the Jacobs Donald Takayama Model. First, you can see an example here, apparently from 1965, with a triple stringer setup and a Donald Takayama Model laminate. Here’s another Jacobs Donald Takayama Model, but you can see there’s a double stringer setup, and the logo is slightly different. The double stringer board posted on Swaylocks was apparently shaped in 1967, but I’ve also read that Takayama left Jacobs for Bing in 1966.

As for the board featured here, I’m not quite sure what to say. It has the red fin and a clear step deck, but it has a relatively straightforward single stringer setup. More importantly, it doesn’t have any Donald Takayama laminates anywhere on the board. The seller estimated the board was shaped in 1967, which again would mean it was shaped after Takayama had already decamped for Bing. That said, I don’t have any confirmations on these dates other than the sources I have already linked to.

The Jacobs Surfboards step deck longboard you see here is a beautiful board, and it’s still in pretty good condition considering its age. I wish I had some more definitive info about whether or not it is at all related to Takayama, but in the meantime, I’ll just admire these photos of a very cool vintage surfboard.

 

 

Jacobs Surfboards Donald Takayama Hawaii Model

Greetings, Shredderz! Today’s post comes to your courtesy of a reader who was kind enough to reach out with some great pics of a very unusual board: the Jacobs Surfboards Donald Takayama Hawaii Model. A few days ago I posted a Jacobs Donald Takayama Hawaii Model on Instagram, saying I had only seen one example of this board before. It wasn’t long before a gentleman named Marty sent me some photos of a different Takayama Hawaii Model he owns.

First, I’ll re-post the images that I shared on Instagram. I got these photos from the listing for an old auction, which you can find here. Note that Jacobs Surfboards had a separate Donald Takayama Model longboard. You can see an example of one here. The Jacobs Donald Takayama Hawaii Model, on the other hand, has a different laminate with the word “Hawaii” prominently featured in the center, as you can see above and in the photos below.

Click on any of the photos above to enlarge. According to the auction listing, the Takayama Hawaii Model was shaped in 1968 and it measures in at 8’6″.

The photos above are of Marty’s Jacobs Surfboards Donald Takayama Hawaii Model. As you can see, his photos provide some great context on the design elements of this rad surfboard. You can really see the extra foam in the tail as part of what looks like an S Deck, which isn’t really visible from the pics of the auction board. Overall, Marty’s photos really help shine a light on what I would almost call the more hull-like properties of the board. The fin looks identical to the one on the auction board, except it’s yellow on Marty’s stick.

The other thing that’s interesting to me is Marty’s board has a slightly different logo. It’s hard to tell, but if you look at the pics from the Jacobs Donald Takayama Hawaii Model sold at auction, the logo is in black and white. As you can see directly above, though, Marty’s Takayama Hawaii Model has some red in the logo. Otherwise the boards look extremely similar.

Thanks again to Marty for sharing these pics! If you have any super rare boards you’d like to share, don’t hesitate to reach out.

Jacobs Single Fin by Redman

Greetings, Shredderz! Today’s post is a quickie, but that doesn’t make this board any less stunning. Pictured below is a stunning Seventies single fin shaped under the Jacobs label by storied underground shaper Robert “Redman” Manville. The pictures of this board come courtesy of Shred Sledz reader Steve Wray, whom you might remember for his absolutely killer Jacobs Mike Purpus V.

Surfer Magazine ran a small obituary for Redman for his passing in 2004. The obituary credits Redman as a legendary East Coast shaper. Before that, Redman had his roots in the South Bay near Los Angeles, which would explain his involvement with Jacobs, which has its roots in Hermosa Beach.

There are some interesting details about this board that I can’t quite line up with any research I was able to find online. The owner tells me the board was shaped during the 1970s, and between the unusual logo above, the airbrush and the board’s outline, I can’t imagine otherwise. However, Stoked-n-Board’s Jacobs Surfboards entry doesn’t list an owner for the brand between 1971 and 1976. Moreover, they list Manville as having shaped for Jacobs during the 1990s, with no mention of an earlier stint. Still, I would be shocked if this were a reproduction — the Redman surfboard above has all the hallmarks of a Seventies single fin.

I don’t see a signature for the airbrush anywhere, but the board’s owner speculates it might have been done by the one and only Jack Meyer. I don’t have any proof, but with the bright colors and dolphins, the airbrush definitely could have been done by Meyer.

This Redman shape might not command eye-popping prices at the next high-end auction, but that’s not the point. I absolutely love this board, starting from the contrast between the clean and simple deck and then the over the top madness of the airbrush on the bottom. In addition, I have a soft spot for well-regarded but still mostly underground shapers like Redman. More than anything else, though, I love the board because it suggests that if you’re into vintage surfboards and you’re down to explore just a tiny bit, you can find all sorts of unique little gems that have so much unseen history behind them.

Thanks again Steve for sharing the pics, and if you have a board you’d like to share, please do let me know.