Who = Who should be riding this model
When = When should this model be ridden
What = What this model is about
Who - Beginner, intermediates, and advanced surfers, will love the Mark Richards Bumble Bee
When - This board was a revelation in small surf for Mark Richards. It paddles great and more importantly it has lots of ‘get up and go’ speed and maneuverability. It is fast and loose and will make you look forward to small days of surf!
What - Mark Richards shaped his first twin fin in May 1976, after the 2SM-Coca Cola Surfabout in Sydney. At the time he was riding a narrow tail single fin and was struggling in small waves. He was inspired to make this twin fin after watching Reno Abellira from Hawaii ride a round nose, low rocker, fish style twin fin on the smaller days. He was skating over sections where other surfers were bogging down. He suggested some dimensions for Mark which were 5’11”, 22″ wide and 2 & 7/8″ thick. He went home from the event and shaped and glassed it straight away. He sprayed a big bumble bee on the bottom and that’s how it became known as the bumble bee twin fin. Mark Richards rode it on small days in Newcastle for the rest of the year. He sold the original Bumble Bee in the late 70’s and it is now in Eddie Phillips’ surfboard collection in Byron Bay. He kindly lent Mark the board in winter 2011, to ride and to use a reference to recreate the board exactly as it was in 1976. So here it is now in the MR model range, an exact replica of the original shape with the colours, decals and Bumble Bee faithfully recreated.
Features include a classic round nose fish outline with deep swallow tail, the thickness is carried right up into the nose, finishing with a thick retro style beak nose. Low nose rocker to float over dead sections, wing swallow to reduce tail area to enliven turning response, combined with a flat panel V bottom which helps rail to rail transition in turns
Concave fluted wing on the bottom of the board for extra bite when turning.
