Also what an honor to stand on the stage with Larry Gordon, Floyd Smith, Mike Hynson, Skip Frye and all the others. It was the thrill of my life.
Great seeing Sam Cody, Selby, Ricky Ryan, Paul Bordieri, Bill Andrews, Rusty, Tom Morey, Bing, Dave MacIntire. Wow, who am I forgetting? There were a zillion people there and many I hadn’t seen in over forty years! I felt like gettng the old factory crew together and going over to El Vaquero for a cheese omelet! But I did the next best thing and had breakfast there at the venue with Sam Cody. Sam has so much stoke and he is probably the best surfboard artist who ever lived.
He looks a little different than this today but not that much!
Hey Mike: I was working. That was a business trip!
And it was two parties in California. The next day (Sunday) was the Duke Boyd Event at the California Surfing Museum in Oceanside. http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/oceanside/article_21fe7ea7-35e5-5a10-a249-323e22673ca1.html
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Tempted to say ''you suck..''
SammyA, lift some more pics on here for our ease of enjoyment!
So Bill, you've had a tough few weeks here lately, huh? Off to Hawaii for some surf, and sitting in with some classy Hawaiian musicians. Then you go to a big party in SoCal.
What a great time that would have been, and I wish this old Aussie surfer could have made it there. I never worked for G & S, but I can still remember Floyd Smith approaching me on the beach one time in 1965 and asking if there was any surfboard market in Australia. Of course not Floyd
While I was doing ding repairs at Hobie’s in Dana Point (just across the road from G&S’s shop) in 1965, I spent a lot of time hanging out at the G&S shop talking with Bill Andrews and admiring the Red fin boards Hynson was shaping (… and I finally did end up getting one which I took to the North Shore that year with Windansea Surf Club). I have never seen so many good/great surfers riding one particular shape at the same time, and for that era in California it was the Red Fin. Every one from Skip to BK seemed to be ripping on them! I was even lucky enough to watch Mike and Skip put their new Red Fin pintails through the paces on one of Stoner’s trips to the Ranch. What a memorable day that was, to see such good surfers on cutting edge boards!
Good Luck for the future to a true surfboard company…
The guy on John Holly’s left is O. B. Root aka Skip Wright.
That’s Ricky Ryan to the left of me and that’s Selby on the right in both pictures. Selby (Jim Goodwin) was the G&S Sales Manager in the golden era. (the sixities). He started out sweeping the floor as the shop gremmie in the early sixties.
I stopped by Bill's shop today (got a nice pair of classic baggies, thanks Bill). He may not have his 8'8'' anymore, but he's got a beautiful Frye longboard, and the original receipt from when it came into the shop in NJ some 40-odd years ago. One of these days he's going to post pics of it (hint, hint).
I could tell from talking to Bill he was genuinely thrilled to be there. He said he saw some guys he hadn't seen in 40 years.
I know this was an old post you had of the 50th but I came across it
while surfing the web. The guy you thought might be Floyd Smith was not
as some one mentioned but here is a recent photo of him from the
“Woodys on the Wharf” celebration in Santa Cruz for 2010. I took these
photos when Floyd shaped a balsa board by hand in front of the crowd
that day. It was the high light of the event. The big guy Floyd’s standing with is the great craftsman George Benson who fabricated the wood fin for this beautiful board. Floyd and George, no less Legends to surfing…
Howzit Bill, Good to see the picture with OB Root and Selby, both good friends and I worked for Selby in the 70's when he was one of the owners of the Dolphin Restaurant in Hanalei. I can say that Selby was probably the best boss I ever had and just recentley got back in touch with both him and Skip. Hve you checked out Skips website with all the pictures from the old days in Hanalei, great pics. Selbe has gone on to become a culinary legend and when he retires he is moving to he Big Island. So many stories from back in the 70's it would take weeks to tell them all. Aloha,Kokua
Oh yeah, Kokua. It was great seeing Selby, Ricky, Root, John Holly and all the guys in the photos above after all these years. Too many to mention them all.
The Dolphin Resturant in Hanalei was the greatest. Hugh McIntosh was an owner and I sure miss him. Selby could sure grill a good steak couldn’t he? I wonder if he still remembers how since he’s a big shot executive now.
By the way the photo with Floyd? above is actually Bobby “Challenger” Thomas.
It was really great seeing Floyd again. He was the one who really started me shaping teaching me the “Six Steps of Good Shaping”.
The main thing he taught me was don’t go to the next step until the current step is perfect.
By the way, here’s an old film clip of Selby and Ricky Ryan from 1966:
Howzit Bill. Now that is classic Selby and the funny thing is I don't think he surfed and I have now known him for 40 years and never even saw him in the ocean, but he could sell a fridge to a eskimo and drink like fish. Jon Riddle AKA the "New break kid " was the one who turned me on tho Skip's website just before I left Kauai. Selby is the same and he confirmed it just a couple of weeks ago in an email through FaceBook to me. There were 4 owners of the Dolphin and besides Selby and Hughy the was Dennis Garret who is back on Kauai and another Dennis who it turned out had been ripping off the other owners since he did the books. Those days at the old Dolphin were classic and here most bosses would fire you for having a toke break selby would fire you if you didn't tell him so he could join you out back. One reason he really took to me was because I knew ho to grow the crip and always brought it to work. Pau Hanas were only for the brave at the Dolphin and my memeories of those days and the people who worked there will forever remain in my mind. How about the Lockwood Family, more classic people and Tom and his kids are great friends, Shack and more come to mind, Shack had the Greenroom in Kapaa in the 70's. Do you know Barr Surles who is another OB boy. Nice to know there are other people who knew these clssic people and I hve stories that would take weeks to tell about them. When Diffs house behind the Dolphin burned down the fire dept put their water intakehose in the rivernext to the restaurant and Selby went and tossed it ito the bamboo patch,Whoops no water and the way the house burned down is another classic Diff and Danny Durone story . Aloha,Kokua