Tag: skip frye

Shred Sledz Social Media Roundup: #Fryeday Edition (September 1)

Greetings, Shredderz! Here to take you into the weekend is a celebration of one of California’s finest board builders, one Harry “Skip” Frye. Don’t forget to check out the latest issue of The Surfer’s Journal for a comprehensive look at Skip’s personal quiver. In the meantime, here are some social media selections showing off Skip’s shapes…

I wrote about this Skip Frye single fin when it was posted on Craigslist…and I’m still kicking myself for not buying it! This is the only Frye I have seen with a Select Surf Shop laminate, and it’s got a sick little wing pin outline to boot. I’m glad that it found a good home with Buggs, who runs Surfboard Line. The board has been fixed up and looks better than ever. Make sure you scroll through all the pictures!

A palm reflection off two Skip Frye's

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Taylor Knox owes his long career to his powerful rail surfing. It’s difficult to imagine him laying these gliders into his patented spray-chucking carves, but if there’s anyone who can pull it off, it’s Taylor Knox! I’m just stoked to see this unexpected but rad union between two opposite ends of the famously varied spectrum that is San Diego surfing. Don’t hold your breath for Joel Tudor to bust out a high performance thruster, though…

I don’t know a word of Japanese, but I do know how to recognize an incredible quiver when I see one…

Holy Grail. Art and shape by Skip Frye.

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Things are really heating up over at @beyond_litmus Limited release. Holy Grail. Straight backs. Original.

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This board is a bit of a mystery, but don’t skip over it because of the abstract picture! Skip Frye shaped this board for use at Jeffrey’s Bay, and it ended up being ridden by Derek Hynd (and I believe Tom Curren, too). You can read more about the board and the session in Andrew Kidman’s forthcoming Beyond Litmus book.

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A young Skip Frye holding an early Gordon & Smith board. Interesting to note Skip’s board doesn’t have any Frye logos on it — it must pre-date his signature models for the brand.

Skip Frye Quiver in The Surfer’s Journal

Think of this less as a blog post and more of a public service announcement: there is an absolute must-read feature in the current issue of The Surfer’s Journal featuring Skip Frye’s personal quiver, and a detailed overview of his various shapes. The article covers just about every kind of board Frye has ever produced, from his days with Gordon & Smith to more recent designs. If you at all have a passing interest in surfboards, or you ever think to yourself “Why, yes, I would be interested in seeing the sickest quiver in the Western Hemisphere,” then go out and purchase an issue today.

Picture above via The Surfer’s Journal; photograph by Shawn Parkin (Shawn’s Instagram Account)

Trio of Skip Frye Vintage Surfboards

Greetings, Shredderz! We’ve got some more detailed posts in the hopper, so please stay tuned. And if you haven’t already, please check us out on Instagram. In the meantime, though, now is a good opportunity to feature three Skip Frye vintage sticks that are currently for sale on eBay, all being offered by the same seller. Based on some of the boards’ various details, it looks like all three of these Skip Frye vintage boards were shaped in the late 1980s and early 1990s. There are some cool details on each board, which I have explained below.

Skip Frye Vintage Board #1: 9’1″ K Model “The Diamond Frye” Logo (Link)

This board has definitely seen some better days, but that’s understandable, if not outright required. Click through to the eBay link above for more pics, and you’ll be able to see some obvious places where repairs were made. Board measures 9’1″ and you can see it has a thruster setup with glassed on fins. Starting bid is $1200, which might be a bit on the steep side. Note “The Diamond Frye” logo. Stoked-n-Board lists “The Diamond Frye” logo as having been produced between 1986 and 1988. During those same years, S-n-B claims Frye’s boards were produced at the Diamond Factory in San Diego. That can’t be coincidental. As for the shape of the board itself, I believe it’s a K Model. There’s another picture of a Skip Frye K Model on Daniel’s Longboards, and the outline looks identical. I’m not certain on that, however. As always, drop me a line if you have more info on Frye’s boards, as there is nothing listed on his website.

 

Skip Vintage Board #2: 7’9″ Thruster (Link)

This board seems like the best bargain of the bunch. First, it’s in superior condition to the K Model pictured above, with only a $200 difference in starting price (opening bid is $1400). As far as I can see, no major fixes have been made. The 7’9″ board also has beautiful wooden glassed on fins. They might be Larry Gephart fins, but I can’t be certain. In the last picture you can see an “S.D.” written on the stringer, followed by a number that looks like “19”. Unfortunately, the number is obscured by the fiberglass leash loop. Once again, Stoked-n-Board comes through in the clutch. S.D. does not stand for San Diego, but rather Skip and Donna (Donna being Skip’s wife). The S.D. written on the stringer started in 1990 and continued in 2000. If it is in fact number 19, that pegs the board as having been shaped in 1990. It makes sense that the various boards being listed by this seller were all shaped around the same time.

 

Skip Frye Vintage Board #3: 7’7″ Thruster (Link)

The last board is another thruster, this time with a neat green paint job, and a multi-colored Skip Frye wings logo. The 7’7″ green board is very similar in shape to the 7’9″ thruster. One interesting little touch on the 7’7″ green board is a doubled up version of Skip’s signature hand drawn wings design, located on the stringer right near the fins. This is a pretty unusual touch that I haven’t spotted before. See the second picture above for a closeup. This board has also been signed “S.D. 63″ (I didn’t include the pic, but click through the link above to see). This would squarely date the board in 1990, according to Stoked-n-Board’s very thorough records. The 7’7” green board is also being offered at a starting bid of $1200.

Skip Frye vintage boards don’t always pop up for sale, and when they do, it can often be a little tricky figuring out when they were made. Seeing this trio for sale sheds some light on what Frye’s boards were like during the late 1980s and early 1990s. The prices might be ambitious, especially if these are just starting bids, but I never pass up an opportunity to window shop when it comes to Skip Frye’s creations.

Celebrating Skip Frye: Happy Frye-Day!

Celebrate #Fryeday with some Skip Frye surfboards!

Greetings, Shredderz! If, like me, your thirst for vintage surfboards (and Skip Frye shapes) has long left reason and logic in the rearview, you have no doubt turned to Instagram for your fix. One of the nice little traditions you can find on Instagram is the #Fryeday hashtag, where users share photos of some of Skip Frye’s fine creations.

As a nod to Fryeday, I’d like to shine the spotlight on a few Skip Frye boards that are either currently for sale or were recently listed, along with some prices. Some collectors don’t like to discuss board prices — “throw it on eBay if you want to find out!” is a common (and unhelpful) refrain — but considering most mortals will have to buy a Skip Frye board on the secondary market, I think it’s a topic worth exploring.

Update (8/24): At the owner’s request, previous pictures of the board were removed.

First is a 9’9″ Skip Frye surfboard for sale on Craigslist in Orange County. You can find a link to the board here. The seller is asking $2,485. I tend to think the price is on the higher end of the spectrum for a Skip Frye board. The listing has been up for a few weeks now, and generally speaking, Skip Frye boards tend to come and go very quickly, thanks to their limited availability. Unfortunately, I can’t say what Frye’s boards sell for when you buy them directly, but the issue is the access, not the price. (Note: The original version of this article had this board described as a K Model, but a reader wrote in with a correction.)

For contrast, there’s a 9’6″ Eagle — Skip Frye’s glider model — being offered in San Diego for $1200. You can find a link to that posting here. There are no pics with the listing, but it’s worth noting to get a sense for prices.

The second board is an 8’6″ mini-glider with a thruster fin setup that was recently for sale on Craigslist in New York (posting has since been taken down). The asking price was $3500. This seems extremely high. The board above also spent a few weeks on Craigslist before the listing was taken down. I know, I know — using Craigslist postings isn’t exactly science — but I take this as evidence that the 8’6″ board was overpriced.

Finally, there’s another 8′ Skip Frye K Model for sale on Craigslist in San Diego. You can find a link to the board here. The board is going for $650…but there are more than a few catches. There’s current delamination on the board, it looks like one of the fins may have been partially ripped out earlier, and overall it’s not in the great condition of either of the examples posted above, cosmetically and otherwise. If anything, this is a testament to the fact that Skip Frye’s boards command premium prices, considering it’s a $650 project.

Hope this post was helpful. As always, if you have any feedback feel free to reach out using the Contact link, or leave a comment below.

Shred Sledz Social Media Roundup (June 12): Yater Hull and More

Greetings, Shredderz! As always, here’s a collection of some of the coolest boards I’ve seen floating around online as of late, including an awesome Yater hull.

@Yater

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How cool is this thing?! Yater was the subject of my most recent post, but I might like the board above even more. I can’t be for sure, but it looks to have a bit of a vee bottom. The outline of this Yater hull is very reminiscent of some Liddle and Andreini hulls (specifically, Andreini’s Vaquero model.) The fin — both its rake and its placement — reminds me of Liddle’s boards.

Hull aficionado Kirk Putnam has an excellent pic on his blog that traces the lineage of Andreini and Liddle’s shapes back to George Greenough. I’ve added the picture below. Liddle’s board is at top, and the next two are Andreini Vaqueros. The fourth board from the top is a Surfboards Hawaii vee bottom shaped by John Price, and the board at the bottom is a Midget Farrelly stringerless vee bottom with a Greenough logo. I had been aware of Greenough’s influence on Andreini and Liddle, but had no idea that Yater had tried out some of these shapes as well. Andreini has made no secret of his admiration of Yater, and it’s cool to see a shape that combines the Greenough school of displacement hulls, and Yater’s more traditional side of California board building. If you have pictures of another Yater hull, please drop me a line!

Kirk Putnam Hulls: Yater Hull
A partial shot of Kirk Putnam’s quiver. Pic via kp’s round up

For more on the subject, I urge you to check out Putnam’s blog. If you’re prone to quiver jealousy, though, his Instagram feed might push you over the edge!

 

Lopez’s boards for Lightning Bolt are by far the most collectible, but it seems like there’s a growing interest in some of his more obscure shapes. Pictured above is an extra clean example of Lopez’s signature model that he produced for Hansen in the late 1960s. What’s interesting about that board is that it actually featured two different logos. There’s an example of a different Hansen / Lopez board that was recently sold on eBay. It has the alternate logo, which I have reproduced below.

Hansen Gerry Lopez Logo Shred Sledz
Note the different logos in the two Hansen / Lopez boards. The first one says “By Gerry Lopez”, and the second has “Designed By Gerry Lopez.” In addition, you’ll notice the Hansen logos themselves are very different. Pic via eBay

 

Bird Huffman is a San Diego fixture. He runs Bird’s Surf Shed, where he oversees an ungodly stash of vintage boards. Here Bird has come across two awesome early examples of boards from two separate San Diego craftsmen: Skip Frye and Steve Lis. Make sure you click through all the pictures in the gallery above. The Frye is very similar to the Select Surf Shop single fin I posted about recently, down to the glassed on wooden fin. I love the Frye wings logo towards the tail — never seen that placement before.

Skip Frye 1970s Select Surf Shop Single Fin 6'10"12.jpg
Skip Frye Single Fin with Select Surf Shop laminate. Look at the sharp wings in the tail. Pic via Craigslist

The Lis board is a funky shape, given that it’s a wing pin single fin, and Lis is best known for his fish designs. Make sure you follow Bird on Instagram, as he has been posting updates on the Lis board as he gets them!

 

Skip Frye Gordon & Smith: Seventies Single Fin

Greetings, Shredderz! Apologies for the slowdown in posting frequency. Shred Sledz is back with a vengeance, though, featuring a Skip Frye Gordon & Smith single fin for sale in central California, available on Craigslist. You can find a link to the board here. Pics of the board can be found below (photos taken via the Craigslist post).

Check out the listing for some details on the origins of the board. The seller contacted Bird Huffman, surfboard aficionado extraordinaire and owner of San Diego’s Bird’s Surf Shed, and got some more info. Bird estimates the single fin pictured above likely dates to sometime between 1973 and 1973, and it was possibly shaped for team rider Steve McCullum. Bird also mentions the diamond tail as being unusual for a Frye design, and speculates that it could have been made at the request of Gary Keating or Tim Lynch. It should also be noted the board is a project, and it would require some more work to get it ship shape, hence the relatively modest $450 price tag.

I also find it interesting that the Gordon & Smith laminate on the board above is the classic red and black version of G&S’ famed bowtie logo. All the Frye / G&S boards from the 1960s I have seen feature monochrome black & white Gordon & Smith bowtie logos, like this one below:

Gordon & Smith Skip Frye Model 1967 9'81
1967 Gordon & Smith Skip Frye Model. Board was sold via US Vintage Surf Auction (pic from USVSA listing).

Here’s another example of a Skip Frye / Gordon & Smith logo, which does not have the bowtie at all.

Skip Frye Model for Gordon & Smith Logo
Non-bowtie Skip Frye / Gordon & Smith logo. Pic via Holy Smoke

Anyway, I don’t know if the red bowtie version is a rare logo; but it is one I have never personally seen before. As always, if you have more info, please chime in below!

Finally, here’s a bonus shot of Skip Frye from 1966 toting an interesting-looking Gordon & Smith shape. To the left is none other than Mike Hynson. Pic courtesy excellent New York surf shop Pilgrim Surf + Supply.

Skip Frye and Mike Hynson circa 66 with the snub nose Gordon & Smith "Stretch" model. So much to thank Larry Gordon for. Rest in Peace.

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Skip Frye Single Fin for Select Surf Shop

Skip Frye is a San Diego shaper whose boards are a surf-themed lesson in supply and demand. To even place an order one must have Frye’s blessing, and as a result, there’s a healthy market for Frye’s boards whenever they hit the second market. Pictured above is a unique Skip Frye single fin shaped in the late 1970s.

The board is currently being listed for sale on Craigslist in Santa Cruz, a decent ways up the coast from its home in San Diego. (Pictures above were taken from the Craigslist post, which can be found here). The asking price is $1100. That is a lot of money for a surfboard — especially one that has some dings that need fixing — but I think it’s fair, considering this is a Skip Frye board, and a unique one at that.

What really stands out to me is the “Select Surf Shop: Pacific Beach” graphic on top of Frye’s famous and timeless wings logo. The biography section on Frye’s website tells the story of how, after leaving Gordon & Smith in the mid 1970s, Frye struck out on his own, shaping in a room located behind Select Surf Shop.

The poster claims this board was shaped in the late 1970s, and this matches up with the timelines given on Frye’s own website. By 1980, Frye was back at Gordon & Smith once again, shaping boards for their label (though he may have also been shaping for himself as well; I am not sure of that).

Other aspects of the board point to the 70s, too: consider all the foam up front in the beaked nose, the wing pin design towards the back, and the glassed-on fin. I wonder if the leash plug was added after the fact, however. I don’t see a signature anywhere on the board, though I wouldn’t read too much into that. By way of contrast, Surfy Surfy, to no one’s surprise, has a great example of a Frye board from a similar era, which does have some signatures on the stringer. See below for pictures of Surfy Surfy’s 70s Frye (pics below via Surfy Surfy’s fantastic blog).

 

Returning to the Skip Frye single fin pictured at the top of the page, there’s also a chance that the “Select Surf Shop” logo is not underneath the glass, but on top of it. I tend to think this isn’t the case. The logos are very close together, and at the very least, Frye had an association with Select Surf Shop dating back to when this board was likely produced. As always ,though, if you have any more information on the board, I would love to hear it!

Check out the Craigslist link here.