One of the best longboards I ever owned was a Takayama Model T... it was a nose riding machine, but was fast enough to get through the critical section of a wave... geez I miss that board.
Below is an excerpt from Surfline on the great Donald Takayama:
"It is with heavy hearts that we report that master Hawaiian craftsman Donald Takayama passed away yesterday. He was 68 years old.
Hailing from Waikiki but raised in Honolulu, Takayama placed 2nd to Corky Carroll in the 1966 and 1967 U.S. Surfboard Championships and enjoyed other competitive accolades, however, his main contributions to the sport and culture occurred in the boardbuilding realm. Remarkably, the Hawaiian started shaping surfboards not too long after he first started surfing, at only seven years old -- making him the sport's original child prodigy.
By the time he was 12 years old, Takayama bought his own plane ticket to the mainland with money he earned from a paper route. He promptly landed a job in Venice Beach, CA, at Velzy-Jacobs Surfboards, and once the company owners divided the business, Takayama followed Jacobs Surfboards to Hermosa Beach, where he built blades for the likes of Mickey Dora and Lance Carson before debuting his own hugely influential Donald Takayama model in 1965...."
To read more, Click HERE
RIP Donald. I know you are toes on the nose in heaven!
