Do You Think You Could Rip a Transition-Era Skip Frye?
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- čas přidán 29. 09. 2020
- On paper, the latest “Shed Sessions” installment looked to be a recipe for success. A Skip Frye-shaped, JoJo Roper-repaired transition-era Gordon & Smith selected by “Shed Sessions” impresario and Bird’s Surf Shed owner Eric “Bird” Huffman and earmarked for SoCal stylemaster Devon Howard-what could go wrong?
While that’s surely an unimpeachable crew of San Diegans, Howard’s virgin San Clemente test-drive got off to a shaky start, the 8’3” x 23 ¼” craft causing the typically stoic stylemaster fits and leading him to call the vee-bottomed relic, “hands-down, the worst surfboard I’ve ever ridden in my life.”
Yet, if Howard’s surfing on the obscure vessel proved anything, it’s that his version of kooking it is an average surfer’s version of style and grace. Howard’s “Shed Sessions” also proves him a truly flexible thinker, one rearing for a challenge. With Huffman in tow, Howard visits Frye, hoping the man whose hands shaped the board will help Howard take control of its proverbial wheel. When asked for his thoughts on the board, Frye’s priceless answer reminds us why time spent in the bay with your local master craftsman is always time well spent.
Click play to watch Howard look pretty good riding a board he found pretty challenging. - Sport
For people who love surfing and surfboards, Shed Sessions is the coolest thing around...and this might be the best episode yet! Thanks, and keep 'em coming.
Devon's a gem. Really appreciated his insight.
One of the best episodes yet. You get a legend, history and a style master. Really enjoyed the Hull references. Great show.
Devon Howard is the real deal. King of the mid length in my opinion.
You seen him log? He’s almost king of that too haha
@@cooperj7213 Hell yeah, man! Endless style and an inspiration :)
Thoroughly adore watching and learning from Harrison Roach and Ryan Burch on a log too!
I owned what amounted to an almost direct copy of that board in the 60's with the one difference that mine had a bit more V in the tail. I suspect that probably magnified the negative aspects of the board. The rest of the board was very close. Spent my very first paycheck buying it and later sold it to my younger brother. To this day he has not forgiven me.
Maybe the most interesting episode yet. That was awesome
The Big Board Kook Lord approves.
Best shed session yet, Devon is such a fantastic surfer and he's surfing this board well.
Just goes to show, technique > equipment
4:27 Noel Salas sighting.
spotted ;)
He looks a bit like Slater there.
@@MHendo-dt8bp Would Slater wear a red wetsuit lol?
@@DougKercher Yes he would. Have you seen some of the other wetsuits he's worn?
“Australian influence” referring to Bob McTavish who used to live with Greenough in Montecito. Bob shaped the “Rincon Tracker” in 1968 while shaping with Morey-Pope in Ventura.
Excellent. Great words, great analyzation, great description, right guy for the right job. Always loved Devon's surfing. Thanks for these!
Devon must have alot of respect and pull at trestles to take off from the line up with a longboard.😆 best episode ever.
epic, Bird. I sound like a broken record but please don't stop doing these.
"Burn this thing" says Skip, what a classic human being!
Favorite part about it. "burn these things"
Sooo stoked to hear you bring up Liddle. We had a guy in the LA area that used to rip those. Always makes me sad that he passed way to young. I wish I could find film of this dude, Fagan.
I just but all over the place. This was such a good video :,)
LOVE THESE SESSIONS
Been riding Greg's boards since 1975. They are an acquired taste but once you know where to be on the board then the feel can be magic. Deep hulls tend to work better in good point break but not in other surf especially if it is mushy. Greg developed the Transitional Displacement Hull with a more shallow concave which made the board more surfer friendly and quite effective in beach break. Another great hull shaper is Ryan Lovelace, he puts the vee near the middle his V-Bowls somewhat similar to what was done by McTavish on Nat's Magic Sam design. The V-Bowl is an amazing board and Ryan really understands how hulls are supposed to work. Many shapers have tried to shape hulls with varying degrees of success. For me, in the right kind of surf i.e. faster, more hollow surf the hull or V-Bowl is the ticket. The feel is amazing and actually part of the wave but hulls are not for everybody. I remember the Surfers Journal article on hulls back in 2005 and how many surfers were inspired to buy a Liddle. A lot of them hated the boards because they tried to ride the board like their other equipment. It was kind of sad to hear these guys bad mouth Greg's boards because they didn't take the time nor had the inclination to get to know the board. Like any hull, if you aren't in the sweet spot you're gonna swim. Anyway, really enjoyed this episode and Devon's solid surf style. Maybe do one in the future featuring one of Ryan's V-Bowls.
Cheers
Agree with everyone here. This is the best episode yet! Love hearing about the evolution of surfboards and very knowledgeable people talking about board design.
Keep these episodes coming, best viewing. 🤘🏻
I made a hull bottom kneeboard and everything Devon said was my board. Hard to ride, it just wants to roll to the rail and turn but once you start turning it became so loose and free. That fall straight to his face, ah ha, that's it. Looses power instantly, doesn't have the lift of a concave, needs to be in the pocket, but you can keep it there because it turns so easily. I haven't ridden it for years, too much effort.
Nice fun looking board. I've ridden a similar board once you work those things out there really fun
That’s my backyard right there. Love Trestles 💕💕
quality content and Devon is such a great guy
I have one of those G&S Skip Frye Models and you are not lying! That thing is hard to ride! I finally found a fin for it and took her out. Unbelievably hard to ride, I was surprised.
These boards are made for true point breaks and don't really work much other places. I took a vee bottom to Sunset one winter and almost died.
At least you went
Great video!! Keep em up....🤙🏼
1:56 I took that picture! 😉
More of these please!
Ahhhh amazing waves I always watch amazed riding the heavy waves with heavy music like Delta Parole or with relaxing music videos in background. If crazy like then always heavy tho
Great stuff
I had an 8'6" transition back in the day, made by George Rice here in Victoria, Australia.
I'd previously had one of his Magic Sam clones which I could never catch a wave on- too narrow, rails too sharp, no volume, probably fine for someone who surfed every day...
I loved my 8'6" and rode it for decades with no leg rope. When I wiped out the wave would flip the board over and eventually push it right up to (almost) dry sand.
The V-bottom was relatively mild and only extended about half way up so there was never a problem up front, not that I did any nose-riding on it.
I sold the board when times got tough and do regret it, but understand it's in the hands of a caring collector.
Great to see Devon struggle on his 1st wave, tho...
One claim I can make is that I had the first vee bottom in San Diego maybe California, second to Steve Bigler’s board that he brought back from Australia. It was a Carl Ekstrom and it was a very sharp railed, sharp V sharp tail think it had a 10-12”tailock diamond and a pretty substantial Bat fin. Carl will remember that we talked about putting a fin on it or not, Thinking the vee may act as a fin. At this point there were very few photos of any vee bottom.
Falling to the side, Like Devon’s first wave I was laughed off the beach at La Jolla Shores until… I really gave her the beans at Windansea and finally figured out the tipping process. it was an 8’10”. Great board. Stringer mess with opac white resin. Heavy, Oversized right out of the glass shop. Boards were dropping in size 6-8” every two weeks.
Excellent profile of this board and featuring Devon (who is an amazing but a bit underappreciated surfer), Skip, and my old friend 'Bird' . The saving grace for this board is the outline...the bottom is completely non-functional and the fin is too flexible to function with such an unstable bottom design and wide tail; I was full-on right in the middle of the shortboard revolution and was lucky my cousin Steve was a laminator for South Coast when it first started in IB and Brown Field in the early sixties. When things really started to change in the summer of '67 and everyone started cutting down their longboards, my cousin and Richard Jolie (master shaper from IB ...RIP) pulled the fiberglass off the tail, then cut it down from 9.6 to 8.0. reshaped the tail and foil so it was perfectly blended in and turned in to a tuned-in 8.0 double ender with a Bing Pipeliner full rounded pin! That a great board that I rode for a couple of years until I got a clean 7.0 RP from Richard Jolie and rode that until I rode Brandon Hayes little fish in the summer of 71' when he came over from Sunset Cliffs to visit us at North Beach in Coronado and showed all of the boys here some mind-blowing surfing in waist to head high peaky little zippers. Once I rode his board I never looked back and always had a fish in my quiver, even when I lived in Hawaii for 12 years. Great video, good story, and STOKED!
Devon is a stylemaster
Skipper is THE MASTER OF STYLE
I own one of these boards! Surfed plenty of modern short boards, long boards, twinnies, you name it but I always find myself reaching for the vee...
Omg I miss San Diego! I live in nyc now. I thought that I would move back bc beaches here mostly suck. I now surf nyc traffic and I love it. I used to b a surfer but now I ride electric unicycles. B u bro. I’m 55, no one 45 is faster than me in traffic.
At 4:29, did he just burn Kelly Slater? If so, he’ll yeah haha
Yes, but only because I found an OG Bing Vbottom in 1989 or so, rode it like religion for a couple years, put the short board in the corner, best move I ever made, rounded out my surfing in a way few boards could. Wish I still had it, watching him ride made me miss it even more.
Tail had so much V, it was almost 4 inches thick.
Reminds me of climbing and dropping across a 3-4' wave for the first time at Cowells back about 1964-5.
Dude is explaining how he struggled on the board and Skip is like “ We’re you listening when I told you what I thought of the board.We should of thrown the conversation out along with the board at that moment . I feel like I taking crazy pills “
Unfortunately I left mine behind under our house in SD 35 years ago
It was the only board i would ride at Pipes in Cardiff for a while in the early 80's
Great for on edge cutbacks just reach down and grab that big pointy edge.
Mine had a full flex fin that you could bend down to touch the deck.
When McT shaped his vees, and later, teh more george greenough boards, he ALWAYS, as we demanded in San Diego or Hawaii, gave the hard down rails in the rear, sweeping up to the THIN round rails mid. George shaped spoons, BUT they always had hard release down rails in the back 3rd. Bob shaped two right in front of me, and one deep v in 68 for my brother, who lived next to TIger across the rip from Sunset.
My brother made one that I really liked at Pipeline, Lani's, and even in the Velzyland bowl, where I'd rip over the back of the wave, spraying the guys waiting outside, then drop over in a floater maneuver . . These were way too short for Makaha point when the north shore closed out, , and only spun out when tearing off the bottom a juicy maxed-out pipeline (those days we might have up to 9 days straight at pipe to ourselves morning to midaftrnoon.
NONE, even the spoons looked like Frye's .
George's spoons in FACT, had NO foam in the rear18-20", just slightly flexy glass layered. It would cut yu like a pissed-off chol whose chica you looked at. Both Vees and flex fins were attempts to make turns like those boards - because the latter would not paddle.
Noses always narrower than the trisomy 23 thing pictured. (If you don't get the reference, look it up)
Especially in the islands, and all shorter & narrower that that.
That board looks like a conservative & bigger "Ole', Huevo Verde" Frye made several of.
Midget seems first on the true roundtails (probably 1964. Midge was first on the ultralight, too. I ran into him one day in the 80s in Maui, thanking him for relieving the world of everything over 6 pounds. I thanked him , from his children).
If you can't cut your hand on those back third rails, it wasn't a surfboard.
it was a frisbee.
Hold your thumb out about 30-40 degrees from below your index finger. If you are a normal handed person, THAT's the rail. Never could make those fat rail mainland shapers make that rail.
(Ozzies ruined the harmony between haoles and Hawaiians back about 69 or 70. Too aggro hogging waves. But they DID bring the right rails one could never get a CA shaper to make before the 90s)
When George made his hidden hard planing surface, it was yet a different board.
And one week at the Channin factory, Chuck Burris and I made a bunch of fins , each with a different flex. Took about 7 to find the Goldilocks just-right. The fin shown was garbage slop, and would have sprung into a hard turn several days after you meant to turn. McT may have still been there when we sanded those. Hairy Ozzies said they'd NEVER seen turns like that, though sometimes you'd end up facing into the dragon's breath.
I heard someone made a nice hatchet with just-right flex in the blade recently. The overfed will not count many coups whatever is handed them.
(neither is this my name, because the problem with surfers was and remains, glorifying auslanders, like mice smelling new pheromones and humping whoever's new - to THEM ).
I once even heard Divine claim "nobody surfed Backdoor" until HE came over. EVERYBODY surfed backdoor in the 60s, YEARS before Jeff ever left La Jolla with his camera - and I'm younger than he) . Hubris: old rusting autos with overlarge self-aggrandizement engines.
A friend recently shaped his first nice Greenough "hidden hard rail", though it was mysterious & fast 30 years ago. EXPECT them,
And the 2nd half of 60s was a creative time, when garage shapers were the true creators. Unlike tech wizards or silicone benjamin-stackers, they weren't in it for the money or smelling feet-ing fame. Dogen Zenji said: "you must look to THIS day, this moment", I snapped as many as 3 lil chips in a single day - it's not the board.
--- though some, like the featured, were best used as anchors (or perhaps MOST useful like road signs in bangbangcowboyland), not wayfaring.
AGAIN: NO concept of what flow occurs around rails = waste of a good blank. Listen when we tell you.
Apparently the closest known species with a life history paralleling human adults, and beer-dissolved surfers:
Botryllus schlosseri. This ocean-dwelling creature has two life stages. In the larval stage it swims about freely and has a brain and notochord. But eventually it attaches itself to a rock with other Botryllus organisms, dissolves its proto-brain, budding off identical individuals to share life under a sheltering tunic.
STEP AWAY from your Botryllusness.
So much flex in that fin! Wonder how it’d handle with something a little stiffer like a Greenough 4.A or CC Tracker...
Excelent episode, but damn that's a crowded line up, cant imagine my local spot being like that, in the summer it sometimes gets like that, winter scares away the summer surfers.
I would've liked to hear the end of Skip's sentence at the end about the McTavish tracker..
Glorified “dog” that one. Mr. Howard killed it.
Legendary boys😂👍👍👍
Great!
Daaaanggg, skip frye...... board just needs the right captain to drive it....I would cherish this board...I'd put a a wider profile fin on it ....but super fun
Agree
Cruising trestles🔥
Noel Salas from surf'n'show at 4:28 ahah
lol i love how skip just says what a POS it is the whole time they interview him
Cool shed this guy has.
I love this board. The board brings out steeze
Devon es unos de los surferos mas versatiles del ultimo tiempo
I know Skip is a recluse but he won’t be here forever so I really wish someone could convince this living legend to let them publish a lot of stuff about him, his designs and his surfing. And by the way, the only Frye I could ever ride well was a sweet 5-10 fish, but Skip sure rips on his own boards.
@tyvek05 Skips designs are unique and not at all what every other shaper is doing. Once you're familiar with his shapes you can identify them easily (even if the logo is covered). Ask him to shape a "normal" shortboard and he won't do it. (Plus, he only shapes for people he knows and likes these days.) His boards were designed for a few spots in San Diego with sections that require lotsa glide.
Should try a wilderness /Bob ducan board , functional hulls that actually rip
I just got a 6’ Stubbie for $400, only had one session on it so far and I gotta say, the thing was a lot of fun. I’m looking forward to taking it again within the next couple days once the rain clears up. It’s got a ton of volume, straight/thick rails, low rocker - to help maintain trim down the line. But the hull sort of slows it down to keep you close to the pocket allowing for nice long rides. It’s not hard to get out of that pocket though, once you take the high-line, it can definitely pick up some speed quite easily. Cool to see someone mention Wilderness in this comment section
Great, thank you, aloha, Long Life
Its like my George Rice stubby noserider 8'6" . Its RAD. About same era.
Hey, i got a board from G&S that looks a lot like that one. Hard for me to ride it. Devon, want to try it sometime? I live in Cardiff.
Only a true surfer can
what beach is this
Interesting v bottom canoes like the Mad River explorer were really popular for a long time. So maybe a v bottom is better for non planing speedes.
What's the last song? Banjo sounds sweet.
What a crowded wave 😦
Would be curious how it would work if Devon used a stiffer fin.
Try it with a stiffer broader fin ? That might make all the difference !
That was the original "wave set" fin and box with two alan's wrench screws. At the time it was cool to have a flex fin.
Yes, that is true....but it would be interesting to see how it performs with a diffferent fin though !
Thanks god this era passed first. The boards were logs.
1. It looked to me that he rode it in creditable fashion if in fact it was his first time on a board MUCH different than whatever he's used to.
2. Mushy waves such as those shown, demand considerable area and/or flotation to keep up on plane and moving forward.
3. RATHER than talk about what a POS the board is, it would have been better for all concerned to hear what the assembled "experts" had to say about incremental improvements.
4. You have to realize that what constituted "ripping" in those days was not the same as what's thought as such in the present.
5. If you didn't live through the new-ness of surfing ever-shrinking boards in those times (I'm 67) little of this would make any sense to a generation, and more, that have been riding six foot tri-fin squashtails their entire lives. Talk about design stagnation! My first board was 9'6", reshaped and reglassed to 7'6", the third one 5'4". Don't get me started on the changes in the fins we used....
6. Bioards such as these were all the rage in the magazines of the time and were heavily promoted by the entire industry. They are still shoveling shit, and the masses are still horking it down. Some things never change.
What’s the sound track to this video?
I thought your boys were going to send it down😂
And nowadays the concept evolved to boards like Fowlers V machine, the V bowls and Gato Heroi space pig. All very userfriendly boards suited for better surfers as well.
It's weird, when hes on it, he looks like those guys in the old surf footage.
i wanna see alex knost rip on it next though
Is that a WaveSet fin?
4:28 What's up Noah Salas!
I feel like Skip got ambushed here
Devon Howard's worse day on an unfamiliar board is STILL way better on my best day :(
Good for Devon,… I wonder how JT would do on it.
Joel is super smooth
So what’s the difference between this and a hull?
tyvek05 hulls traditionally don’t have concave! A traditional displacement hull is rounded up front with a flat tail , S deck and very very foiled. There are variation with tail designs and bottoms sometimes v above the fin or edge.Liddle, Klaus Jones, Andreini and many others use this principle.
tyvek05 your thinking of channels or spiral v
Ha ha did you fade Kelly at 4:26
LOL, is that Kelly at 4:29?
Anything works good on Malibu or Rincon waves.
Unless you were there, from around 1967 through the early seventies you could not appreciate how exciting that transition period was with the experimentation and board designs changing radically and constantly. And most of the designs were pretty awful. The super flexy Waveset Lexan fins didn't help, although they were beautiful.
Surf N Show cameo 4:28
I found one one of these boards for 100 dollars locally and im absolutely frothing to ride it
Whoa I just realized that it’s tressels
but have you realized where the second spot is? He said the name of both of them!
Is that a hull board?
Yea this looks much closer to a hull/rolled-v board than a v-bottom, although I do see it sort of come to a point in the middle.
That’s why hand made experimental boards are so awesome and so awful at the same time. Their range is so narrow. They can be magic in specific conditions, wave size or surfing style but they fall apart outside of that. Modern boards can be ridden in a wide range of conditions, not great in any of them but good in most of them.
If Devon struggled on this board then christ knows how i'd go.😂
art and carving the old day's but not the board's. my g&s Henson model was a wobbly ride. we tried alot of different designs. plh.class 67.
Art means Hynson model. That darn red fin 'hummmmed' real good on mine and vibrate those bitchen stringers and my toes!
I saw surf n show haha
more of Skip: czcams.com/video/rXNFqmA7n1Q/video.html
Throwing chunks...yo..
I have an Aussi 68 and tried that same fin and did not like it. I went to a True Ames 8.5 shorter but wider fin and it became my go to board. It’s my favorite one in my quiver.
sometimes a bigger and fuller fin than can help make these boards a little more reasonable
I had a Bojorquez that I'd stick a 9" Velzy fin on for that occasional "normal" feel. Unless the waves were perfect. Then the Greenough blade would be dug out and installed.
Kelly slater a 4:29 ?!
Should have got Aussie legend Nat Young to show u how to ride those boards
That board looks modern compared to the one I rode there is hardly any V in yours.
The only problem with that board is that it has a way too narrow way too flexible fin. Put a stiffer fin with much more area and it will work well.
My first board was a V Bottom, an early 9th birthday present in '68. A "North Shore Hawaii" board with a psychedelic resin splash bottom. It really didn't work very well, and I remember my mom being really mad at me for trading it for a homemade board that did work. Yeah, If they worked, they would still be making a few from time to time. They didn't, so they don't. I mean, a talented surfer can ride anything, but who wants to have to overcome so much poor performance from a board? It would be kind of like dating an anorexic, violence prone, stripper with daddy issues because she's so unique, and represents a pivotal bygone era. I've ridden both and moved on.