Purvey on The Ugly, San Miguel Invitational, 1967. Photo by Leroy Grannis.

It's Friday, the 11th of November, 1966. It's the first day of a three-day invitational surfing contest at Stables, the point north of California Street, in Ventura, California. An audience of about two thousand have gathered to see the performances of fifty professional surfers, invited from around the world, to test their skills in an effort to see who can ride a wave for the longest time out of ten waves. Money is the prize. The second day will test their skills in an effort to see who can ride the tip ("Nose") of their surfboard for the longest time. The third and final day, combine both accumulated tip time and wave time.

It's called the Morey-Pope 2nd United States Professional Invitational Surfing Championships held at the Ventura Fairgrounds beach, locally known as "Stables." It's inventor's, Tom Morey and Peter Pope innovative event, designed to address the need for objective judging in the sport of surfing. Objective judging is required by the Olympic Committee for a sport to qualify as a participant in the Olympic Games. The objective timing system provides fair judging, which satisfies the contestants and gives the captured crowd a simple to understand test of skill.

Each of the fifty champion competitors have the intent to push tip-time to the extreme. Riding the tip is a true test of skill and can make or break a competitor.

The year before (1965), which established the event, the format was simple: Judging the longest time on the "Nose". The nose area was designated 25% of the surfboard's length - no length limitation. The first event's rules promoted experimentation of surfboard design (as did the second contest). It seems only logical that this simple rule would promote invention. The rules were simple but madness abounded. Some strange devices appeared, among other oddities; a 10 pound bar-bell taped to a tail, a brick rosined on the tail, a "Wing" attached to a fin. Mike Doyle had a 2"x4"x8' Spruce plank rosined onto the tail of his board, bending the rules a bit to add length to the 25% tip area.

The second contest was meant to include esthetics and added a qualification round for length of ride, meant to qualify the better competitors. The second day's tip time contest was a test of skill. This part of the event defined who the front runners would be.

Perched like casual Gods on the nose, striking ethereal poses in effortless motion, the competitors clocked incredible distances. The entire audience would watch, mesmerized, as the length of tip time increased.

The times defining the top placers was getting tight. A concern was raised about the times that separate the winners from the losers were getting closer together. It was determined that it took .02 of a second to just start and stop the stop-watch. A common thread connecting the competitors advancing was the surfboard design: they couldn't just nose ride, they had to turn as well as nose ride.

For his first three years as a competitive surfer, Purvey designed his surfboards, except the first, under the sponsorship and tutelage of Dewey Weber and chief shaper, Harold "Iggy" Igg.

With his current sponsor, Con Surfboards of Santa Monica, he insisted on being in the contest, having missed the first one and knowing that the Morey contests had cash purses.

For the second Morey-Pope contest, Purvey devised the logical curves necessary to accomplish his goal: TO WIN!

(from Competition Surf Magazine, Spring 1967): "On the last ride of the day Purvey catches a five foot wave "..turned high and went to the nose, the section came up, he backed off, dropped, repositioned himself with two steps and came out on the nose. Then the wave broke ahead and he straightened off then turned into the wave and clocked two more seconds while in the soup. He made no mistakes whatsoever."

BP on The Ugly winning the nose-riding division of the 2nd Morey Pope Pro Invitational in 1966.

It's March, 1967. In a full page advertisement in Surfer magazine, the former manufacturer, Con Surfboards of Santa Monica, advertises The Ugly for the first time. The Ugly and Bob Purvey's accomplishment on it are described: "It's called 'the Ugly'. Bob Purvey out rode the top professionals in the 1966 U.S. Championship Invitational Nose-riding contest at Ventura, with the highest nose-riding time of 41.5 seconds for 6 waves. An average of 7 seconds per wave. Purvey won the admiration of every rider and surfboard maker for his superior wave knowledge and ability. Bob gives the credit to his UGLY.

EVERYBODY WANTS IT ANYWAY! No matter how you look at it, the only thing beautiful about the UGLY is the way it handles in the water. There is certainly nothing handsome about the twenty inch nose one foot from the tip, able to support full weight on take-off or cut-backs. Beauty prizes will never be given for the parallel rails that holds smooth trim as the board glides down the wall of any wave, or give precision control in turning from the nose. And the really Ugliest part is the silly looking, scooped-out popped up six inch square tail that sets into the water and causes downward pressure exerted on the tail for opposite reaction to the nose. What we are trying to say is that nobody cares how it looks, because it was designed for function as an all around board as well as a nose-rider!..."

The next full page ad in Surfer magazine's summer issue states, "Bob Purvey has been consistently improving his own time..."

Along with the ads, word-of-mouth spreads that the Ugly is truly the most functional nose-rider design. "In action, the Ugly is the definitive nose-rider. It practically makes you want to nose-ride!" Purvey states. By mid-summer of 1967, the surfboard factory must quickly increase manufacturing capacity by approximately 35% because of demand for the Ugly. By the end of summer, 1967, the Ugly becomes recognized as the fastest and hottest selling surfboard in the world.

In October, 1967, the introduction of the 7' 11" "V-Bottom" starts the shortboard revolution, which eventually takes over the market, leaving longboard's collecting dust and endless nose-ride stories left in faithful memory.

The Ugly becomes the last popular longboard model to dominate the historical longboard era. Then, the Super Ugly is introduced as the "Fun Board." It's The Ugly, proportioned down in length to 7' 11" to compete with the short boards. As the short board trend progresses taking over even the small wave arenas of California and Florida, where the biggest population of surfers reside, both The Ugly and Super Ugly seem to fade away into the shadow of collector's heaven.

In 1980, a resurgence of interest in longboard's starts to take hold and a movement grows all over the world. Longboard's of the 50s and 60s are dusted off and proclaimed collector's treasures. The Ugly is one of the most valued.

From 1990 to 2007, ownership of Con Surfboards changes hands four times. In 2009, Purvey takes over his trademarked brands of The Ugly and Super Ugly surfboards , which he originated and designed, to maintain authenticity and promote The Ugly Challenge. Bob points out, "Today, when its compared to newer tipriders, The Ugly still pulls in some of the longest time on the tip and makes champions."

Check out the too numerous to mention testimonials on The Ugly. If you want to buy a new Ugly stick, simply download the order form for the appropriate surfboard. There are FAQ's and easy to follow instruction on how to fill out an order. If you have any questions, we love to answer them, email us at uglyboards@theuglysurfboard.com

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