Social Media Roundup (May 22 2018)

Greetings, Shredderz! As always, here’s a random selection of cool Instagram posts that I have come across. Without any further ado:

‘67 – ‘71 was a transitional period. Thicker (or thinner), shorter, knife-ier rails; performance and surfing styles were evolving constantly. The pintail, along with the #McTavish V-Bottom, were the performance traits of the day. This particular Yater shape was specifically designed for speeding down the fast waves of Rincon, just on the cusp of the shortboard. Interesting Fact: Renny’s wedge stringer (seen here) was created to minimize the weak point of the fin in the stringer by splitting the stringer around the fin.  It is unique to his shapes. . . . 1968 “No Name” • Foam, Glass • Shaper: R. Yater . . . Check out our upcoming documentary on Santa Barbara surf heritage 🗿 “Spoons: A Santa Barbara Story,” directed by Wyatt Daily with @PaintShopLA (link in bio). Board courtesy of Roger Nance of @surfnwearbeachhouse. 📷 @Wyatt_Daily . . . #SpoonsFilm #Yater #1968 #rennyyater #pintail #Longboard #singlefin #vbottom #SantaBarbara #SBSurf #BeachHouse #SurfHistory #History #Handcrafted #handshaped#Foam #Surfboard #ClassicSurfboard #Classics #YaterFilm #RinconFilm #PaintShopLA

A post shared by Spoons: A Santa Barbara Story (@spoons_film) on

Here at Shred Sledz we are firm believers that Renny Yater can do no wrong. While Yater’s noseriders and his single fins are among his most classic shapes, I also love his more unusual boards, like the hull pictured above. Check out this write up of a Yater single fin that sold recently.

8'6" #eatonsurfboards #bonzer #ace 1992

A post shared by CORE SURF (@core_surf) on

I am fascinated by the Bonzer and all its various iterations, but the holy trinity has to be the Campbell Brothers, who created the shape; the Bing Bonzer; and Mike Eaton’s take on the multi-finned design. The concave on this Mike Eaton bonzer is a trip — it almost looks like there’s a small hump near the center fin. Gotta love the airbrush on the rails (forget who the name of the artist is, but you’ll often see similar designs on Eaton’s boards).

Echo Beach era Wave Tools boards are all pretty outrageous, but this one just might take the cake. The warped checkerboard on one side and then the red and pink stripes on the other is completely excessive…and perfect. You know I’m a sucker for branded fins and oversized Clark Foam lams. This Wave Tools Lance Collins twin fin ticks every checkbox on the list.

Leave it to Luis Real to come through with an amazing Mike Diffenderfer shaped Lightning Bolt single fin! The board has been “semi-restored”, and while I prefer the character of all-original boards, there’s no denying the pedigree or radness of this stick.

i poached this from @casurfmuseum . if you aren’t following or supporting them some how, you are blowing it!!!! below is the text to support this post , swipe -> to check all of the 3+ minutes. shit is MENTAL!!!!!! ……………………………. ・・・ ⚡️J O H N S E V E R S O N ⚡️ presents ⚡️B A N Z A I P I P E L I N E ⚡️ This film is from 1962 and could be ordered out of the back of @surfer_magazine for $5. This film is extremely rare and hasn’t been seen in over 50 years. The music by Link Wray was added recently. The surfers in the film aren’t named but we have a pretty good idea who these legends are, we’d love to hear your guesses too. Make sure you bring the whole family in to tour our newest exhibit “Salute to Pipeline” sponsored by @billabong @josecuervotequila @wsl @visitoceanside . . If you #repost please tag us. Thanks. . . #northshore #oahu #hawaii #pipeline #johnseverson #surf #surfing #film #8mm #digital #photography

A post shared by captn blackstoke (@surfapig) on

The post above is not a surfboard, per se, but it’s safe to say that surf culture as we know it would not exist without John Severson’s influence. The late, great Severson is best known as the creator of Surfer Magazine, but he was also an artist and a filmmaker. I’ve really been digging the graphic design on various Severson creations — things like posters and lobby cards for his early films — and I love that someone unearthed a clean copy of an old Super 8 movie he made. The packaging is amazing!

Price Checks Featuring Yater Seventies Single Fin

Greetings, Shredderz! Today’s post features a bit of a head-scratcher: a Reynolds Yater Seventies single fin that ended up selling for a bargain price on eBay. I’m still a bit shocked that the board didn’t command more on the open market, especially considering it was an auction.

The photos in this post were taken from the eBay auction, which you can find here. It’s unclear what year the board was shaped, but it was almost certainly sometime during the Seventies. The measurements are 7’4″ x 21″ x 3″, and as you can see from the pictures, it’s in great shape.

Yater Seventies Single Fin Logo .jpg
Close up of the logo and signature on the Yater Seventies Single Fin. If you look closely towards the top of the screen you’ll see the textured deck. You can just make out the “Y” right above the serial number (#2152).

The picture above demonstrates two cool aspects of the Yater board in question: first, you can make out the textured deck (look at the top of the picture); and second, Yater’s “Y” signature along with a serial number.

Nowadays Yater signs his boards on the stringer closer towards the tail, as you can see here. The Yater Seventies single fin, however, has a single “Y” signature on the deck located closer towards the nose, and right beneath the logo. I’m not sure when Renny shifted to signing “R. Yater” in script towards the tail, but the single “Y” is commonplace among a lot of his boards made during the Seventies. For example, I wrote up one of Renny’s personal riders that was sold during the 2017 California Gold Surf Auction.

As a quick aside about the date of the eBay board, I would say pre-1974. I’m strictly basing this off a comparison of the serial numbers. The eBay Yater Seventies single fin has the serial number 2152, whereas the 2017 California Gold auction board is dated to 1974, and has the serial number 4294.

The Yater Seventies single fin on eBay sold for a much lower price than I would have guessed, closing out at a paltry $320. If you had told me the board had sold for double or even triple that amount I wouldn’t have blinked an eyelash.

There are two recent comparisons I have, although both of these are Renny’s personal boards, and they were also sold at auction. First, there’s the 2017 California Gold Yater personal rider, which cleared a cool $3,700. At the 2018 California Gold auction another Yater personal rider — a Nineties thruster — sold for $2,000. I would say off-hand that Yater Seventies single fins are among the most collectible of all his shapes. As a result, I’m blown away that a super clean example sold for $320 on eBay, of all places, as opposed to being some random one-off Craigslist bargain. There was no shipping on the board, but I don’t think that’s the only reason this thing sold for at least a few hundred below what I was expecting. Then again, pricing vintage surfboards is equal parts art and science.

Lightning Bolt Gerry Lopez Single Fin

Greetings, Shredderz! Today we have for you a very cool example of perhaps the single most coveted surfboard of all time: a Lightning Bolt Gerry Lopez single fin, most likely shaped by the master himself.

First, a little bit of background: Lightning Bolt might have been the single biggest surfboard brand of the Seventies, but tracking down authentic Bolts can be a bit of a headache. For starters, Bolt’s logo was copied off endlessly, and it appeared on numerous surfboards that had absolutely nothing to do with the Hawaiian label.

Lightning Bolt Gerry Lopez Single Fin via UsedSurf.jp
Here’s a clean example of a Lightning Bolt Gerry Lopez single fin; to be honest, though, I’m not sure if it’s hand shaped by Lopez himself. I mostly posted it because I love the color combination. The board was for sale on UsedSurf.jp, which has a killer selection of vintage sticks.

But even when dealing with genuine Lightning Bolt surfboards, it’s not always clear which ones were shaped by Lopez. I wrote an earlier post on the subject of Lightning Bolt Gerry Lopez boards that featured some so-called “California Bolts”: genuine Lightning Bolts bearing signatures with Gerry’s name, but produced in California and shaped by Terry Martin and Mickey Munoz. (I also covered the topic in another blog post, which you can find here.)

So you can imagine my surprise when I saw an intriguing little Lightning Bolt board pop up for sale on Craigslist in Hawaii. The board is no longer listed for sale, but I saved the photos, which you can see here.

First, as you can see in the photos, the Lightning Bolt Gerry Lopez board is far from mint condition. But it does have a number of unusual touches, starting from the circle around the famous Bolt logo laminate.

It also has a pretty upright glass on fin, which you can see in the photos above. I also can’t help but notice the diamond tail. Most of the Lightning Bolt Seventies single fins I have seen have pintails, with the occasional swallow tail mixed in. I have seen a few examples of Lightning Bolt single fins with diamond tails, but they are much narrower than the Craigslist board pictured above.

The outline on the Lightning Bolt Gerry Lopez board featured here is reminiscent of the boards Lopez produced with Hansen during the Transition Era of the late Sixties. All of the factors above lead me to believe that the Craigslist Bolt was shaped in the early part of the Seventies.

Lightning Bolt Gerry Lopez Single Fin Signature .jpg
Close up of the diamond tail and the clear Gerry Lopez signature.

What really struck me about the board, though, was the presence of an obvious Gerry Lopez signature. As I mentioned in my previous post about the California Bolts, hand shaped Lightning Bolt Gerry Lopez boards are signed on the blank beneath the glass. Moreover, I have noticed that Lopez’s signature is often written in all caps, instead of the script you’ll see on California Bolts and newer repros. (Many thanks to Randy Rarick, who first passed on this tip.)

To no one’s surprise, Buggs Arico‘s Surfboard Line site has a few excellent examples of hand-signed Lightning Bolt Gerry Lopez boards. I have reproduced the signatures here, which originally appeared on Surfboardline.com. Please check out Buggs’ site if you haven’t already!

You’ll notice the red and yellow boards have very similar examples to the Craigslist Bolt. All of the signatures feature “LOPEZ” written on the stringer in all caps, in what looks to be beneath the glass. One small difference with the Craigslist board is the tilde over the O, which I have personally never seen before. In conclusion, I think the Lightning Bolt board posted to Craigslist was a rare example of a Bolt that was hand-shaped by Gerry himself.

The Craigslist Bolt was actually listed for a mere $700, which I think is an absolute steal. The listing stayed up for a few days but I have no idea who eventually made off with the board. If you’re the lucky owner, give me a shout!

Featured Photo at the top of the page by Jeff Divine; found on his awesome website.

 

Mike “Slambresi” for Vans: Sagas of Shred

Greetings, Shredderz! I don’t have much to write today, except to say that this is an old Vans ad that originally appeared in Surfer Magazine in 1990. After all, there’s not really any room for improvement on an ad whose tagline is “SLAMBRESI BY VANS.”

As always, thanks for checking out Sagas of Shred, and tune in late next Thursday for more vintage surf ads.

Gordon & Smith Skip Frye V Bottom

Greetings, Shredderz! Today we have an awesome example of one of the greatest Transition Era boards of all time: the Gordon & Smith Skip Frye V Bottom Model.

I’m not sure exactly when G&S produced Skip’s signature models, but they were somewhere in the 1968 – 1969 range. (Sadly, Stoked-n-Board continues to go missing from the SHACC website, though I have been told that there are plans to revive the site).

Pictured below is a Gordon & Smith Skip Frye V Bottom that is currently listed for sale on Craigslist in the Santa Cruz area. You can find a link to the listing here. Longtime readers might actually recognize this board from when it sold on Craigslist a little over a year ago and I wrote up a brief post on the board. The asking price for the G&S Skip Frye V Bottom last year was $850, and now the seller is asking a cool $3,500. (More on that later).

There are no two ways about it: this is a bitchin’ board with a lot of neat bells and whistles. Check out the W.A.V.E. Set fin, and the colorful G&S logo on the bottom of the board is an insane trip back to surfing’s psychedelic roots.

As you can see, the Gordon & Smith Skip Frye V Bottom is in very good condition, and there’s even a serial number on the deck (#3153).

Gordon & Smith Skip Frye V Bottom 11.jpg

Now, as for the price, well, I think $3,500 is a bit ambitious. Now, don’t get me wrong: any example of a Gordon & Smith Skip Frye V Bottom is going to fetch a nice price. And I can’t begrudge the guy for pouncing on the board at $850 a year back, when it was clearly worth a LOT more.

The California Gold Vintage Surf Auction just closed up a few weeks back, during which  another nice G&S Skip Frye V Bottom board went on the block. You can find a link to the auction board here. I’ve also embedded a photo below.

late 60’s skipper V bottom. Super foiled with mild V. I’m tripping #skipfrye

A post shared by Rick Lohr (@ricklohr) on

The auction Gordon & Smith Skip Frye V Bottom ended up selling for $2,000, a good deal cheaper than the $3,500 that’s being asked for the Craigslist board. (Note that there are fees with the auction board, but it still ends up being cheaper.) The auction board looks to be in slightly better condition, too — note the visible discolored repairs on the bottom of the Craigslist Skip Frye V Bottom.

That said, I personally don’t have a problem with people buying boards on Craigslist and then re-listing them for more. I know it sounds kind of crazy, but I don’t think a Skip Frye board should be cheap! Boards like the one posted here are genuine pieces of surf history. Now, do I think it’s worth $3,500? Probably not. But either way it’s a rad board, the Craigslist posting has some great photos, and if money’s no object, you can even take the board him with you. Check out the Gordon & Smith Skip Frye V Bottom board for sale on Craigslist here.

Christian Fletcher for T&C Surf Designs: Sagas of Shred

Greetings, Shredderz! For those of you who don’t know, Sagas of Shred is a series on the blog where we run vintage surf ads. While old magazine articles are great — The Surfer’s Journal digital archive, available to subscribers, is amazing — an overlooked angle is the fact that surfing’s story often gets told in the form of ads.

The T&C Surf Designs Christian Fletcher ad featured here ran in a 1990 issue of Surfer Magazine. To me, it’s a pretty classic expression of surf culture at the time, between the tail end of the Eighties and the Momentum Generation, which would arrive a few short years later. If I’m being honest, I often struggle to describe these ads. There’s no denying the unintentional humor. But the last thing Sagas of Shred aspires to be is the douchebag hipster that hides its unpleasant contempt behind a thin veneer of so-called irony. I can genuinely say I love this ad, and not just because it features one of the most influential surfers of the late Eighties and early Nineties. I love everything about it, whether it’s the odd torn paper effects, Fletcher’s vintage T&C shirt, or the unsettling feeling that Christian Fletcher might be trying to challenge you to a staring contest.

While many elements of the ad are charmingly dated to the late Eighties and early Nineties, the same cannot be said of Fletcher’s surfing. His front hand layback gouge is every bit as radical as it was when the advertisement first ran.

I’ve written a lot of Sagas of Shred posts about Fletcher and his family over time. We have featured T&C Surf Designs in Sagas of Shred a number of times as well, whether it’s a 1982 ad featuring Dane Kealoha in some short shorts, or another entry featuring the evolution of Ben Aipa’s famous Sting design. I think we can all agree that the Christian Fletcher / T&C Surf Designs marriage is one for the ages.

Thanks again for checking out Sagas of Shred and tune in late next Thursday night for more vintage surf ads!

Local Motion Twin Fin

Greetings, Shredderz! Today we have another Shred Sledz Submission from Bobby — a fellow Gators fan — in Florida, who was kind enough to share these photos of a sweet Local Motion twin fin he picked up recently. Thank you Bobby for sharing pics of the board! Give Bobby a follow on Instagram for his troubles, and as always, hit me up if you have a board you would like to see featured here!

I would guess the board was shaped in either the late 70s or early 80s. You’ll notice the dual fin boxes, complete with some very sweet Rainbow Fins.

Local Motion Twin Fin Fins.jpg
Close up of the fins on the Local Motion twin fin. Not sure if these are considered standard fin boxes. They don’t look like examples of Star Fin boxes I have seen.
Since Stoked-n-Board is still down, I don’t have an easy way of looking up the list of shapers who made boards for Local Motion during the Seventies and Eighties. The only name I know off the top of my head is Pat Rawson, and this doesn’t appear to be a Rawson shape based off the signature.

Local Motion Twin Fin Signature.jpg
Close up of the signature on the Local Motion twin fin. Anyone have any guesses as to who this might be?

Regardless, this Local Motion twin fin is a super sweet board. First, the aesthetics of the board really stand out thanks to the colorful spray job and the multiple Local Motion laminates. It took me a bit to realize that there are actually two different types of Local Motion logos on the board. I’m partial to the palm tree version myself, especially in the loud pink color on the deck. I also love the outline of the board. The combination of the twin fin setup and the round tail strikes me as a little unusual (and very cool).

Finally, Bobby provided some shots of the Local Motion twin fin alongside a sick little channel bottom Lightning Bolt Tom Eberly twin fin. Thanks again Bobby for sharing your pics, and go Gators!

 

Ole Surfboards Transition Era Hull

Greetings, Shredderz! This transmission is being sent from the midst of a severe wave drought in Northern California. Please send swell ASAP. There hasn’t been much in the way of waves recently, but luckily there have been a few good finds popping up on Craigslist and eBay. Case in point: featured here is a Ole Surfboards Transition Era hull, shaped by Bob Olson.

I can’t in good conscience claim this is the prettiest board I have ever seen, but as a big fan of the interesting shapes that emerged from the late 1960s, I thought it was worth a closer look. The Ole Surfboards Transition Era hull is currently listed for sale on Craigslist in San Diego. You can find a link to the board here. The seller is asking $400 for the board, which I find a bit on the pricey side, given the condition. That said, it’s an unusual board with some awesome pedigree. The vast majority of Ole Surfboards I have seen are traditional longboards, like the one pictured below.

Anyway, back to the Ole hull in question: the seller claims the board measures in at 7’11”. He also says that it has a serial number of #70 somewhere on the board, although this isn’t shown in the pics. Given that Olson began his shaping career in the late 1950s, and the hull was likely shaped a decade number, I doubt this is a sequential serial number.

The Ole Surfboards hull also comes with an original W.A.V.E. Set fin, which you can see in the photos below. (Click to enlarge).

The photos also give you a good sense of the vee bottom on the board. Again, all of these details point to the board being shaped in the late 1960s, per the description on Craigslist.

As an aside, I am a little stunned to see that Olson doesn’t have an entry in the Encyclopedia of Surfing. Stoked-n-Board is temporarily out of order due to the SHACC website redesign, which means that there isn’t a ton of info readily available on Olson online. Either way, it seems like there should be much more information about Bob Olson given his long and storied career as a shaper. (Olson was also the shop teacher for a young Shawn Stussy, believe it or not, before moving to Maui in 1971). Amazingly, Olson continues to shape Ole Surfboards to this day from his home base of Maui. You can find a listing for his surf shop on Facebook here.

Photo at the top of the page via the Board Room Movie.

Vintage Gotcha Ad with Pottz and Dino Andino: Sagas of Shred

Greetings, Shredderz! Welcome to the latest installment of Sagas of Shred. Today we’ll be exploring a vintage Gotcha ad from 1990. Gotcha was founded in 1978 by South African surfer Michael Tomson, cousin to Shaun. (I recently wrote up a sick Stussy board that once belonged to Michael Tomson, which you can see here.) The brand saw its greatest success during the 1980s and the early 1990s, when its loud aesthetic helped set the tone for surf culture as a whole.

Successful surfwear brands are often defined by their team riders, whether it was the combination of Kelly Slater and Quiksilver in the 1990s, OP and Tom Curren in the 1980s. Even today, when the big corporate surf brands have seen their grip on culture begin to slip, Mick Fanning and Rip Curl are still synonymous with one another. Gotcha was no exception to this rule, having been home to pros like Brock Little (RIP), Derek Ho, Rob Machado and Matt Archbold.

Gotcha’s most iconic team rider, though, has to be Martin Potter. The vintage Gotcha ad featured in this post originally ran in a 1990 issue of Surfer Magazine, and as you can see, it prominently features Pottz. Eagle-eyed readers will notice Pottz is going off the top on a Blue Hawaii Pottz Model board. The other pro surfer featured in the ad is none other than Dino Andino, Southern California fixture and father to current WSL competitor Kolohe.

I tend to feature ads that I find amusing — like this earlier Gotcha / Pottz spot — but in the case of the example above, I think it’s a compelling piece of graphic design. The vintage Gotcha ad actually reminds me of Volcom ads from the late 1990s. Beyond the shared homemade collage aesthetic, the Gotcha ad channels the raw energy and creativity that made Volcom so irresistible during its peak.

It’s also interesting that this Gotcha ad reads “More Core.” At some point during the late 1980s, Gotcha spun off More Core Division into a separate sub-brand, which was Andy Irons’ sponsor for many years before Billabong stepped in. I’m guessing this ad just barely pre-dates MCD’s existence as a separate line.

Gotcha More Core Division.jpeg
Photo via Michael Tomson’s personal website.

It’s a shame that Gotcha is no longer around, although Urban Outfitters recently released a small collection in conjunction with the storied label. Even sadder, Michael Tomson was arrested a few years ago on suspicion of cocaine trafficking in Southern California. For a sunnier look at things, the Surfer’s Journal ran this excellent interview with Tomson covering some of the better stories from Gotcha’s run. Even if things didn’t end on a particularly high note, there’s no denying Gotcha’s place in history as a formative surf brand.

Thanks for checking out Sagas of Shred and come back in a week for even more!

Transition Era Donald Takayama Single Fin

Greetings, Shredderz! The board featured here was a shoo-in for the Shred Sledz Signature Collection…until I read the price. Pictured below is a Transition Era Donald Takayama single fin that was listed on Craigslist for a firm $1K. As much as I wanted to dash off a borderline insulting lowball offer, the seller went as far as to require that any buyers include their minimum $1K bids in the email subject line. I can’t help but respect that kind of Craigslist power move. Anyway, enough about prices, and more about this rad Takayama surfboard.

I’m not sure what the measurements were on the board, but I would guess somewhere south of 8′. As you can see, it has an original Transition Era fin, which I believe is a Bahne Fins Unlimited model (not positive on that, so if you have more info, gimme a shout.) The seller claims the board was shaped in 1972, but if I can politely disagree, I’m wondering if it wasn’t shaped a few years earlier.

Case in point: there is a similar Transition Era Donald Takayama single fin featured on The Surfboard Project. I have included some of those pictures below.

As you can see, the Transition Era Donald Takayama from The Surfboard Project is extremely similar to the Craigslist board. Both have the same old school logo, era-appropriate fins, and distinctive Transition Era outlines. I would also say that both of these Takayamas look hull-ish to me, but I don’t have enough detail on the bottoms of the boards to say for sure. One difference is the Craigslist Takayama single fin has a pintail, whereas the board from The Surfboard Project has a pretty wide squash tail in its place.

And to tie things back to the date, Joel Tudor has chimed in on the board featured on The Surfboard Project. Tudor, of course, is Takayama’s most famous protege. Tudor estimated that the Transition Era Donald Takayama board on the Surfboard Project was likely shaped in 1969 or 1970. Given the similarities between the two boards, I would guess the same dates for the Takayama single fin posted on Craigslist, instead of the 1972 date supplied by the seller. Joel Tudor also posted an old Donald Takayama ad on Instagram a while back that dates to 1969, which I have inserted below:

DT at stone steps riding a scorpion 1969 @surfboardsbydonaldtakayama

A post shared by Joel_tudor (@joeljitsu) on

Finally, a quick word on the price: for a genuine Transition Era Donald Takayama board, I think $1,000 is in the ballpark. Is it possible to find one at a cheaper price? Maybe. But the problem with unique boards like the one featured here is that they don’t pop up frequently. This also means there can be huge swings in prices from one board to the next. Donald Takayama, who sadly passed away in 2012, is a shaper with a Hall of Fame resume, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see his boards increase in value over the years. The Craigslist posting was taken down in a few days, and I can only assume someone was willing to cough up the $1K+ for the board. If you’re the new owner of the board, feel free to reach out, as I would love to learn more. Otherwise, I hope you enjoyed this look at a rare and well-preserved example from the early days of Donald Takayama’s long and storied career.