Sagas of Shred
Greetings, Shredderz! As I was putting together this post, it occurred to me, with no small amount of horror, that the days of awesome copy on surf-related ads might be over. You can trace this all back to the death of surf magazines, which is really just too bad. In any case, this…
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Greetings, Shredderz! Honestly, there isn’t anything particularly notable about this ad, but I thought it was as good a time as any to pay tribute to Phil Becker’s long and fruitful career. The dude shaped 100K+ surfboards by hand over the years, focused on functional shapes, with little regard for trends. I own…
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Greetings, Shredderz! This might be sacrilegious, but I’m not the biggest Miki Dora fan. He’s celebrated for being an anti-hero, but a lot of the stories about him paint a picture of someone who’s probably easier to admire from afar. Regardless of how you feel about Dora, his influence cannot be denied. We’re…
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Greetings, Shredderz! Here’s a rad 70s Body Glove ad featuring Randy Laine and a Canyon Surfboards stick, likely shaped by Rusty Preisendorfer. I won’t be leading the charge, but I’d love to see someone else start a wetsuit revolution — there’s just way too much homogeneity.
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Greetings, Shredderz! I recently stumbled across this old Bing Surfboards ad, which has some fantastic design and copy. And if you read closely, you’ll see that it’s longtime San Diego shaper Bill Shrosbree second from right, credited as a sander.
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Greetings, Shredderz! Throughout its existence, surfing has been misunderstood, misrepresented, and straight up butchered in countless mainstream depictions. I was recently in a bookstore and picked up Don Winslow’s “The Dawn Patrol”, and had to restrain myself from throwing it through the nearest window once I read the phrase “epic macking crunchy” used…
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Greetings, Shredderz! Katin has had some pretty epic advertising over the years — here’s my personal favorite — and the ad you see below is no exception. Not sure who the surfers are, though I’m almost certain that’s Mike Purpus second from left in the lime green shorts.
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Greetings, Shredderz! Here’s a cool vintage Walker Foam ad from the 1970s.
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Greetings, Shredderz! Here’s a rad poster from the 1986 OP Pro held somewhere in Brazil. I don’t know much about the contest, and I know even less about Brazil’s nascent surf scene back in the 80s, but add that to the long list of subjects I’d like to explore. I think the American…
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Greetings, Shredderz! We’ve got another rad Gordon & Smith brochure for you today, this time featuring two Transition Era Skip Frye models. From my count, G&S also produced the Baby Gun and the V Bottom in conjunction with Skip, along with the Fast Frye and the Small Frye pictured here. You don’t hear…
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