I snagged this 9 footer off a local fellow who was giving up the surfing game - he says he’s owned it for 25+ years. I’m familiar with the brand and Skip’s name of course, but I’m hoping someone might be able to shed a little more light on this beast for me. I’ve attached photos of everything relevant I can find - no other markings anywhere on the board. How old is this thing?
The old girl is pretty beat up - countless repairs, and some of them are less than stellar work. I’m thinking of repairing it to the best of my ability, and taking it back into the surf where it belongs. I have no clue what this thing is worth, if anything, but I’d rather ride it than hang it on the wall.
‘‘The old girl is pretty beat up - countless repairs, and some of them are
less than stellar work. I’m thinking of repairing it to the best of my
ability, and taking it back into the surf where it belongs. I have no
clue what this thing is worth, if anything, but I’d rather ride it than
hang it on the wall.’’
You have a legitimate SCORE. DO NOT REPAIR IT YOURSELF UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING!!! I know there are going to be people that would be drooling to get this one just like it is.
No pics of the bottom, but given its age it looks better than many of the period. What you have is roughly 67-68 in origin. The WAVESET fin and box are the clue. It is a very early Frye, as that model came along just about the time WAVESETs did. I think there were Frye models some time in 66, maybe? But not much before that. Your board is at least 40 years old. So, look at the condition from that perspective. Bonus is that it still has the fin. It should be restored as much as possible, and ridden.
Bill T needs to see this one. I’m sure he can narrow it down better than I.
Edit: Missed the bit about it being 9’. If it is actually 9-0, it is most likely late 67 to early 68. By Summer of 68, most all boards had gone below 9’.
My 9’8 Skip Frye was made in July of 1967 and has the glassed in fin which is actually glassed into a black “box” routed into the stringer. WAVE set fins were after this of course but I don’t remember when they started. I do remember that my early '68 9’4 Skip Frye had a WAVE set fin.
If you look carefully at the stringer you should find a serial #. It may be hard to find since the stringer is only 1/4" there wasn’t much room to write. And it would have been written in pencil which would be very light against wood that probably got a little darker over the years.
Also Skip would often write little messages, the name of the customer or the name of the shop the board was ordered for.
I have some factory invoices from '67 and '68 and maybe could give you a closer date.
I think what you have may be a “Flying Fish” which would be the third generation of the Skip Frye model. These were shorter and wider that the first models.
Actually the very first Frye’s had narrow noses, 16" or so. Then the noses were a little wider, 17" or so with a 22" wide point.
The Flying Fishes were made in late Summer of '67 into early '68 and were wider, 23" wide point and 18" nose. These numbers are approximate but you get the idea. The board could have been made, as Sammy and Bill T said above, anytime from late Summer '67 to probably not much later than Spring '68.
When Skip made the trip with Larry to the East Coast in August of 1967 he had a 9’4 Flying Fish with a lime green tint.
Thanks to everyone for all the help. Much appreciated.
I took a few photos of the bottom of the board, in case anyone is curious, including the monster nose repair. Ugly but charming.
I found a serial number of sorts along the stringer, but making it out is quite difficult. From what I can see, starts with NO, followed by three numbers, which seem to be 328 or 329, and an inch or so further down the stringer another four numbers, which appear to be 0291.
9’ long, wide point 23", nose 18" - sounds like BalsaBill’s Flying Fish to me.
Even with that hacked repair in the nose, the board is in pretty good condition, over all. I have seen some old Fryes that were in terrible shape being advertised at ridiculous prices. If you paid less than $1000 for yours, you got a deal. It should be professionally repaired and ridden with care. While not a museum piece, it sure isn’t a beater, at all.
Might want to add a non permanent leash attachment to help prolong its life.
If you ride it do not run the fin into something anything and snap it.
Spend some time with a heat gun or hair dryer, slower and safer, on the bottom. Most of those dents will rise up and disappear. The less amount of actual ding repair work fillers etc to get it water tight the better.
There are guys that would love to add that to their Skip collection. Make it better not worse.
I scored on a skip frye very similar to this one too. I originally thought it had the fin glassed into the waveset box, but maybe its just a glassed in fin like balsa bill suggests above. I think it’s around 9’8" - 9’6". When I get home tonight I’ll get the stringer numbers and post some pictures. I’ll be taking it down to Sacred Craft for the appraisals this weekend and hoping to get some restoration advice and info on who best to do the work. Anyone know the best restoration person in LA county? Thanks!!!
Ok, I’ve got G&S factory invoice # 0095 dated 4/23/68 with serial #'s from 009 lowest to 0803 highest. There is a 9’10 Frye Flying Fish serial # 0250 which is the longest board on the invoice by far. It’s clear with a tapered balsa stringer. Wow. That would be cool to find and very rare. The Frye’s had the standard 1/4" redwood and I don’t remember ever seeing a deviation.
The rest of the boards on the invoice were 9’2"s to 9’6’s mostly Hot Curls, SS models and an HYII.
Here’s the skip I was talking about. It had a long life under a house for probably twenty+ years. It has some serious damage and even worse repair jobs. Here you can see how deep they did cutlaps back in the day.
