I`m wonderng when exactly the first Lis Fish was made? Was it the first board design of that type? What were the main things which separated it from older swallow tails and twin fins? Thanks! Great site!
Howzit Tom, Next time I see Steve I’ll ask him when he shaped the first one. Aloha, Kokua
The first Lis fish was a knee board that ended up getting stood on. I think around '69. Tabeling brought one back to FL from the Cliffs in about 1970 and the surfing he was doing at the time was pretty incredible. Lis was inspired by a surfboard design called the Superboard made by Surfboards LaJolla (the Mirandon Bros.), who in turn was inspired by designs by always cutting edge Bob Simmons back in the 50’s, who got his inspiration from a US navy project circa WW2.
And while were at it, By 1972 the fish design had found quite broad approval and that years World Championship in San Diego found the fish topping the mens division, capturing first (Jim Blears) and second (David Nuuhiva) in the finals. By the 1974 US championships, Clyde Beatty had designed a pointed nose version called the Rocket fish. The rocket fish then found its way to Hawaii where Reno Abilera was shaping some which he then brought to Japan for an early pro event. In Japan, Mark Richards got a peek at Reno’s board and the following winter, 1976, MR was seen flying across the smooth faces of the North Shores, Off the Wall, directly in front of Dan Merkles 600mm century lens. This sparked the twin fin craze of the late 70’s and early 80’s. In 1981, Simon Anderson added a third fin and the rest is history.
Dear Mr. Loehr, the truth is! The (rocketfish) was designed by Steve Brom, in 76’ for David Nuuhiwa in the first stall next to the alley in the new factory off of Dyer Rd. in Santa Ana. The first rocketfish was originally sold in the Dyno showroom, on main street, in Huntington, Beach, and was called a gunfish and sometimes refered to as a winterfish. It was sold “exclusively” at Dyno Surfboards, until one morning it showed up in the showroom window of the famous surfer of the month’s store, directly across the street from the Dyno Showroom on Main St… Mr. Nuuhiwa was soon, no longer under contract at Dyno Surfboards. Clyde Beatty Jr. was introduced to the design which we all know and love, shortly thereafter. Since the owner of Dyno was fazing out of the surfboard business, and his sons had lost their facination with all of the stars of surfing and found real jobs about then, my rocketfish design grew new teeth under the tigerhead. Thanks to Clyde’s investment of time and money over all of these years, the rocketfish has morfed into what it is today, like it or not. And yes, he is still ordering your epoxy almost exclucively for all of the rocketfish that he is still manufacturing. And no, I am not shaping the latest morfed version of the original rocketfish. It sure is a kick, though, to read all about the history of surfing. Keep up the good work SB
Yes,the fish you all seem to want now, is pretty much the kneeboard fish from 1975 or so.Say what you want ,but there it is.Check out the Pavel fish that rasta is riding now-five ft 6inch ,concave deck and bottom ,polystyrene foam glassed with carbon fiber.
…I can testify to Mr.Magicman’s statement of history,but I believe it was the winter or 74/75 December ,if I’m not mistaken. …The Gun/Winter fish was 5’-11" ,maybe 6’, red top and bottom opague with large yellow eagles.A yellow pinline around the cut lap on the bottom to finish it off…oh yeah,wood and glass fins…the glass part of the fins was red too! Sounds about right SB? …I have the window counterpart from across the street,a 6’-4" red rails and bottom with a clear deck,wood and glass fins.Finished with a powder blue pin on the deck side around the lap cut…oh yeah the labels are handdrawn on either paper or directly on the sand finish(pre-tiger label).I would have to check the sig. but I believe Richardson shaped it.I can pull it out of the bag to check for #s and signatures,they’re on there.I got it 2 Christmas’ ago as a thankyou present from a good friend.The board is in great shape and requires little resto work…best part is there’s no holes drilled in the fins for a zort cord,no deck plugs or stick its either.Who ever owned it , rode leashless 100% of the time. …as for the original gunfish ,The last time I saw it was at John Burns house in Long Beach, about two or three years later from it’s premier at the Dyno shop.It was beat and delammed.Even the wood was separating from the fins due to neglect,typical Johnny Burns.Herb
The fish is way more popular now, than it was in it’s early 70’s design .Except for the lis kneeriders.Very few fish were ridden stand up in the early 70’s. The fad then, was be like Gerry-overly gunned in Calif surf.The fat stubby fish was not cool for the masses then.The belief then was long narrow boards for anything and kneeboards were barely tolerated.Then MR came along and all jumped on that wagon.Then Simon came along etc…
…Actually it was T&C’s Larry Bertleman twinfin design that got the whole ball of wax started up again,not MR ,HE JUMPED ON THE BANDWAGON A YEAR OR SO LATER.I pattern alot of my own hybrid fish after LB’s twin outline and foil.Herb
Larry Berteleman designed?? or Aipa??
DENNIS PANG DESIGN/LARRY BERTLEMAN MODEL, TOWN AND COUNTRY SURFBOARDS 1976-77.Herb
Smelly where are the photos of Rasta…
the pic’s of rasta are in new transworld surf mag–his whole quiver
Herb, It would only be you who wood dare close the window! Herb has Surfer Mag, Vol.18, No 2, July 77’. Good for you Herb, the year was in the fall of 74’. At the time I was shaping as many as ten fish a day. Sometimes six. Sometimes eight. They were at that time, all in-between 5’4" and 6’4", and an occasional 6’6" for somebodys Orange Coast College fullback. Herb, I honestly still remember pulling the measureing tape out across that fatefull Rogers 7’4" R blank,to 6’6" (sorry Herb), and pulling that gun template off the wall for the nose into the wide pt., and then mixing and blending and matching a set of curves that I was used to adjusting, in, or out, for all of the custom fish orders, to get to that pointy nose fish that I first showed David, before I learned that he was about to leave, and that Dyno would no longer begin any new investments in advertising or anything else for that matter, that had anything to do with surfboards again. Skateboards, trucks, and urethane wheels were now the cat’s meow. Dyno Surfboards, Full Force, and yes, Huntington Hawaii,(a molded surfboard), were now a part of surfing history. The one that got away? Not while I can still pick up my planer… have fun! SB
I’m surprised not to hear Ricky Ryan’s name in all this… True, Mr. Mirandon had his split-tailed double-veed boards working in the La Jolla reefs. Ricky one night took his 7’-10" single fin Frye (fin/tail was wrecked) and cut the board along the line created by the tail patch. He glassed on a stubby single fin and over the next few days proceeded to rip apart a prominent left reef break in our area. His surfing really changed; it was like nothing else ever done. My friend Larry Crow told me that within days after that Stevie made the first true fish. I need to ask Larry if the fins were keels at that point yet. Soon after that at a prominent right just south of where Ricky was ripping, Jeff Ching (from Hawaii, attending CalWestern) asked Steve if he could try the “Fish”. It was just as a joke; the thing was tiny, I’d say 4’10" or so. Jeff claimed he was going to stand up surf the thing. From what I saw, he dropped in, pulled up into an overhead wall right at take-off, disappeared, and re-emerged at the END of the wave. I walked about 20 steps so it was pretty long. He face surfed the thing like nothing else; again, upping the performance ante. At that point, as a kid, I felt some of the best surfers in the world were coming from there. These guys’ stuff was so “futuristic”. I was a grom just tripping on Bunker’s “involvement” surfing: He’d take off and slide off the end of his board and with his hand on one of the tails, would bodysurf using the board as a handgun, recover the board, get to his knees and disappear into the barrel; all on this crystal-green backlit peeling wave. He’d come out of that on his feet, switch stance to do the cutback, and then rollercoaster, increasing speed to insane levels. Where the hell is Larry Duff? and later on, Brandon Hayes? Jimbo Frank? These guys, to this day ripped on waves like no one else ever had. Some guy filmed them, Guy Motyll (sp?); I’d like to see that again. There was a whole crew of surfers, RIPPING, and from my perspective as a grom, they never sought limelight, but they were legends. This stuff can only be pieced together by all the varied accounts. I’m sure someone is working on it…
i love hearing stories of the old days. keep 'em coming please.
Larry Bertleman…ahhh definitely one of the pioneers of performance surfing and deserving of the name “rubberman” too bad his life went downhill after the glorydays.
I sa ricky ryan at the ranch last year ona toby fish-still at it…
Herbs post about the MR and Bertelmann twins really jogged my memory. I remember being surprised to hear from a friend that worked at T&C that Larry had broken off from Ben Aipa and was learning how to shape from Craig at T&C. It didnt take long before there were a few Bert shapes in the window and they sold like hot cakes. They had a stable of quite a few hot shapers back then, besides Larry, Glen Minami, Dennis Pang, Glen Pang and the odd BK shape on occasion. 
I’d say somebody needs to make a documentary about the whole Fish thing…anybody know Stacy Peralta? He’s going to need something for next year’s Sundance film Festival. Pretty much everybody is still alive too, and apparently still kickin’…