Greetings, Shredderz! Today we’ve got a doubleheader for Sagas of Shred: a full page of vintage surf ads, featuring one spot for Clark Foam, and the other for Bing Surfboards. Bing has had some great ads over the years, and it’s cool to see the label still going strong today. Bing Copeland has kept meticulous records around vintage Bing boards, so if you own one, you can post the serial number to this Facebook group, and Bing himself can tell you when it was shaped and produce a “birth certificate” for the board.

As far as I can tell, the image above was a full page taken from an early magazine, and it was split into two separate ads. The ad at the top is one for Clark Foam, and the one on the bottom is for Bing Surfboards. It took me a second to figure this out, and I was definitely confused by the fact both spots have the same color scheme. The image above is via a Wired Magazine article about Jim Heimann’s “Surfing” coffee table book.

The Clark Foam ad is a trip, and it even pre-dates the creation of the classic Clark Foam logo we all know and love. I posted about another 60s Clark Foam ad earlier, which features the same roster of classic labels: Yater, Hobie, Wardy, Ole, Con, Hansen and of course Bing. The text on the Clark ad is a fascinating peek into the early days of surfboard production, as it describes an “easy” process where you’d buy a decal, a pre-shaped blank, and drop it off at your local glass shop. I had never heard about this before, but that’s one of many reasons why I love these older ads and what they can tell you about the early days of surf culture.

The Bing ad is pretty straightforward, but you can’t go wrong with the clean design. It’s also a cool reminder of Bing’s LA roots and its original location in Hermosa Beach.

Thanks for reading and we’ll be back next Thursday with more Sagas of Shred!