05/03/2026
My very first winger was a 6’10” round-tail flyer, launched at Northy the summer of 1972/73. That board was the beginning of a series of adaptations and the basis for one of my favorites, the round swallow wing.
I added wings to my rounded-square-tail mini-gun outline with a new rounded tail, my wings were not ‘cut-out’ to make the tail narrower. Because the new-age mini-guns were so tight in the tail, l ‘added’, giving more planning area under the back foot (for skating flat spots). The pinched wings bit into the face (helping to run higher lines) and by creating a break-point in the rail-line, short arc turns were back. By pinching and foiling, and with the balance point pushed forward rail drive is maintained. With extra projection, came extra speed.
By converting my round tail into a swallow, weight on the back foot allowed better direction changes on the face, increasing maneouvrability. To climb even higher on the face my nose-v into concave with spiraled tail-v (double concave) and the winged plan shape created boards all about speed, but, keeping the truest of single fin feel. Weight forward on the front foot – weight / unweight - accelerate, weight onto the back foot – turn, break-tracks. Design and development reached peak performance at Uluwatu, Honolua Bay, and then Jeffreys Bay, in late ‘74 and the winter of ’75.
Martyn Worthington’s original HB Rainbow Murals and Fades were created using resin and styrene mixed by Martyn himself. Marty’s airbrush designs individualized custom surfboards. The foundations of Hot Buttered Surfboards : art and function.
This Round Swallow Wing is based on my 6’9” surfed out on the Channel Islands and at J’Bay in ‘75
