By the end of 1967, the longboard trend started to give way to shorter, faster shapes because the Pipeline and big waves were getting more traction as the frontier; as the shortboard trend phased in, Bob suggested to the manufacturer that they build a shorter version, one foot shorter than The Ugly’s average length in the nine-foot range.  The short version became known as the Super Ugly.  It was supposed to compete in the shortboard movement.  It turned much faster, but it was a noserider shape, with a kicked-up convex bottom tail, and thus, not a giant wave board with a flat-bottom tail.  The Super Ugly was a fun board and the first of its kind.  It’s now known as the first “mini-nose rider.”

Because storms are not as frequent or prolonged as the lulls between storms, there are primarily small waves to ride throughout the year.  So, longboards returned to the surfing arena. Many surfers started to diversify, using a shortboard thruster or twin-fin for big waves to maneuver faster and gain the speed necessary on big waves (10-foot faces and over) and a longboard for small waves where they could walk the length of the board and get the thrill of noseriding, or even combine the two skill-sets with the mini-noserider; speed-turns, air and noserides.