balsa
Smooth, porous blond wood, lighter than cork, grown mainly in Central and South America; the most popular core material for surfboards in the 1940s and 1950s. Surfers initially used balsa in combination with redwood; Pacific Systems Homes, a Los Angeles-based house-building company that dabbled in surfboard construction, built redwood-balsa composite boards as early as the 1930s. All-balsa board ...
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Phil Edwards and "Baby"Subscribe to view
Greg Noll Shapes a Balsa Surfboard, 1956Subscribe to view
Joe Quigg with balsa paddleboard, 1960Subscribe to view
Taj Burrow on balsa-railed Firewire surfboard, 2007. Photo: Tim JonesSubscribe to view
Yana Surf balsa boards, 2015Subscribe to view
Dale Velzy (left) and "roughing out" a balsa blank, mid-1950sSubscribe to view
![](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/f1hjpcr4/production/4e71185acf5e40177f29c69c5fca1661349d4ee6-1280x720.jpg?w=640&h=360&q=65&auto=format)
Phil Edwards and "Baby"
![](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/f1hjpcr4/production/33d8947cfa7456db16a0bbe7275f409aa51e6282-960x540.jpg?w=640&h=360&q=65&auto=format)
Greg Noll Shapes a Balsa Surfboard, 1956
![](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/f1hjpcr4/production/8d04d4e7e3b90e18c57ec2947a87a380f28ca6f7-900x675.jpg?rect=0,0,900,506&w=640&h=360&q=65&auto=format)
Joe Quigg with balsa paddleboard, 1960
![](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/f1hjpcr4/production/7a6448d0fdf1dbc48e8fdbb58bb29cd7f1e00936-900x506.jpg?w=640&h=360&q=65&auto=format)
Taj Burrow on balsa-railed Firewire surfboard, 2007. Photo: Tim Jones
![](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/f1hjpcr4/production/d2c18561723229bb9743262cb5c7aac0af53db83-900x506.jpg?w=640&h=360&q=65&auto=format)
Yana Surf balsa boards, 2015
![](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/f1hjpcr4/production/9fc557898b692120741208de3283e42ff5217499-900x900.jpg?rect=0,65,900,506&w=640&h=360&q=65&auto=format)
Dale Velzy (left) and "roughing out" a balsa blank, mid-1950s