To all that have posted here on Swaylocks...thank you....from Belmar, NJ and parts nearby.
A special thank you to Jim "The Genius" Phillips for showing us the way.
I just want you to know that we are many in the backyard shacks and custom shops, shaping and sanding trying to get it right.
Casimier
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Now that sounds like the Tinker I KNOW !!! Hey does anybody know where " Artist John" went John Briden ?? One time on Kurzt st. he and I were glazing boards and in walks the husband of the girl he is banging . This guy is active Air Force and has been away for awhile ( Viet Nam ) Just as he walks in John has just poured out the amount of catalyst into our little shot glass he gets so nervous he starts shaking !! bad the catalyst is running down his fingers as this guy is interrogating him His finger skin was really ate up !!! oh well !! Frank McCleary
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I just saw this in the thread. John Briden was very influential on my Airbrush work I met him when he was doing all the airbrush work for Sunset surfboards in Encinitas this was about 1972 or so. I stopped by Moonlight glassing a couple of years back. Peter St Pierre told me that John was living in key West and was doing a lot of the art work for Jimmy Buffet.
This is a great thread. In 1969 I and a couple of friends opened Freedom Surf Shop in Beach Haven NJ.
John is living in Ft. Myer’s, I have his card at the factory. John was working at Bahne-Channin/ Diffenderfer in Del Mar in '68 when I was shaping for them, first guy I know of to use acrylics on foam, I thought it would delam or bleed when glassed, what did I know ?
Thanks for the up date Jim. My info was 2nd hand from Peter Pinline. Peter's son JP now has a Surf Shop called Surfy Surfy in The Old Surfboards Hawaii Factory in Leucadia.
The first board I ever did was with airbrush dyes. Dr Martin dye does not like sunlight within a short time it was just a shadow under the glass. The guy who owned the board made me pay him back the $20.00 I charged.
Randy, Are you waiting for Lituya Bay to break?
http://www.slidemag.co.uk/2009/06/the-biggest-wave-ever.html
Hey,
Lituya is incredibly peaceful until it turns wild.
It is not far from Yakutat where some of the waves were being ridden (shown on the website that I linked to).
The Alsek river empties into the Gulf near Lituya Bay. The river goes through the mountain range where the landslide that caused the large wave (1,500 ft.) originated. Other tsunami like waves have happened over by the glacier near where the Copper River flows into the gulf, over toward Cape Fairweather (good point breaks around there).
There is a canyon called “turnback canyon” in the area the river carved out of the mountain range near Lituya Bay. It is called that because no one has ever canoed or rafted it through to the Gulf near Lituya Bay. The river literally goes under a glacier (at least as of circa '69-'70 when I was there), but lots of glacier melt has taken place so someone may have gone from Haines Junction to Lituya Bay by raft by now.
The Alsek headwaters go back to Lake Dezadeash (lake near British Columbia / Yukon Territory Border) where I canoed a lot.
My cabin was on the Tatshinshini river in the Kluane Game Sanctuary which flows into the Alsek. I lived at Dalton Post in a cabin one summer. I canoed the Alsek and Tatshinshii, which had 70 lb salmon in it (kings).
There were lots of bears, and I do mean lots of bears! It is a bit unnerving sleeping in a sleeping bag on the ground without a tent in that country sometimes when you are on a hike / canoe trip.
Anyway, there are a lot of good, and really good surf spots in that Alaska country. In the summer it is tee-shirt warm, the air that is, but the water is like Santa Cruz cold (Japanese Current warms it).
The problem is getting to the surf spots. There is a long rincon like break off Ugak Island.
Today as I write, Rocky Zimmerman is in a hospice in Florida, his caregiver called me early this morning, said he most likely won’t see the end of this day.
F’ing Mesina, you sentenced him with death when he HAD to go to Nam, you thief
Sweet Memories Rocky~Soar Rocky Soar! Lynda
I hope he charges him double his normal rate, at the very least.
I tried calling Rocky several times over the last few months, left messages, but he never returned my calls. Now it seems I will not hear from him again in the life. I would consider it ironic if Mesina is alive considering his chosen life style.
Rocky changed my life in many ways, all for the good. I feel very sorry that I did not get the chance to have one last conversation with him.
Mesina, what a useless, worthless Fawhk, when were were all doing boards for Manatee, Mesina ran a bar of wax very lightly on a board taped and ready for gloss, what did he write, of course, F-you, bumbling, boated tick of an excuse for a human
Jim, My brother Willy said that recently Tinker paid a visit to the Encinitas shops . But I don’t recall you saying anything about it on this site. Could you please elaborate ?? He also said Bill Bahne is
a fat cat in Thailand making boards and his knee problems have gone away . Frank McCleary
PS He also said that George Panton is there and has married a Thai girl and life is GOOD !!
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...George Panton is there...
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Holy Moly! It's great to know ''Littie George'' is still around! I always had a good experience doing business with him.
Yeah George was Mr. COOL
Tinker had been in touch with me about seeing me when he came to go to the Grammy museum, one of his old team riders runs it.
But…Tinker has also had many people beating at his door about a new interest in his surfboards, he figures it will be less expensive to get a ticket to California and shape them at my shop, then walk them to the far end of the building, rather than set up his factory again.
Tinker wanted his visit to be kind of low key, Surfore came down from SF and shot quite a few images of him doing some rough out on a few blanks, but Tinker being Tinker wanted first approval of any media before it is public, that is why I have not done too much blabbering about his visit.
Bill is QC at the FireWire factory, it was his last shot at getting out of the debt he has had hanging around his neck for far too long, he still needs to get a knee replacement, all too many ski injuries.
George set up his biz in Thailand, married a sweet heart and she has a sister who he wants to set Bill up with. I think Bill should carefully think about sisters, after all he married 2 sisters and both of them skinned him.
Howzit Jim, I would have killed the guy if he did that to boards I was going to gloss, sounds like a real D^#khead to me.That kind of stuff is just not tolerated and I hope you banned him from the factory after that. Aloha,Kokua
Sam and Bill look pretty good, I hope they see this picture
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/floridatoday/obituary.aspx?n=charles-zimmerman&pid=148342615
To most this might be old news, but I will post it anyway. Rocky Zimmerman passed away January 31 2011 from cancer as a result of being exposed to agent orange in Vietnam. Good man. Sad loss.
Hartson
4/7/11 I just got an email from Steve Thompson. Hartson, Rick Barry, and yeah even you Jimmy Phillips know who I mean. Steve was my surfing buddy thru the middle to late 60's in Belmar and remains like a brother to me. Steve started out as the kid with the body board while I and his brother, Gary surfed 19th ave in Belmar. As time went by Steve and I became close friends and constant companions. Being the oldest, I did the driving to high school, and of course we checked the surf every day at Sea Girt where you could see the waves from the road. If it was right and the tide was right, we would go to Pete Gagan's house to wait for the tide to be right. Winter, spring, it diden't matter. We surfed with 32 degree water and -5 degree wind chill. That may be why I called him "nanuck of the north", for his habit of laughing while I strugled to get my wet suit on in the car before we went out.
Steve made fins at Ribles, where I worked, from time to time. I think the going rate was $.50 a fin for a fiberglass fin, but it really didn't really matter to him. We just had a lot of fun doing what we did.
Steve had a heart transplant maybe 7 to 10 years ago. It has worked out very well for him. He, being who he is, when I called him today, he made light of the fact that he must undergo surgery on Monday ( for " maybe just a stent or bypass").
I for one will keep "Nanuck" in my hopes and prayers on Monday when he has his surgury, and as God is my wittness, no matter the outcome, I will do a paddleout at 19th ave, Belmar in Steve's honor. We OWNED that break. Anyone interested? contact me here or at robbins4shore@gmail.com. dogoftheeast