That is a great photo.Looks like Jim in his blonder days 3rd from left???Thanks for the memories Roger brucker
Brukah, I ain’t in the photo, those are all San Diego guys, that came east with Tinker.
Tinker would draw a pretty respectible slice of Socal to NJ in the summers, Michele Junod, Barry Gordon, Steve Haight, all Santa Monica boys, would do the contest and surf promo circuit NJ to New England.
Jim, which one of the guys in that picture (thanks TonyM) is Tinker?
I’m printin’ that pic and putting it on the wall in my shaping room so
he can keep an eye on me.
Tinker is 2nd from left, the one holding the Skil 100 under his arm, I wasn’t cool enough at that time to know the factory crew, it wasn’t until that fall that I was “invited” to the try outs. Prior to that, I had been only in the farm leagues, shaping, or that was what I was calling it back then, for 3rd string local builders.
Even if I was still a kook shaper at the time, each of the 3rd string shops I worked for, were pulled up by the boot straps with my slim abilities and knowledge.
After my first trip to New Jersey, from Long Island, I got approached to shape at any of the shops that were near the contest sites.
A contest each weekend and I went back to LI with more more than I arrived with.
LI had only Bunger, Hannon and the shop I was at Micris, another 3rd string, but my addition to Micris started pulling orders immediately.
LI had very limited access to surf spots, very gestapo tactics by the policia and a drive at that.
New Jersey had a jetty every 2 blocks for miles, right down the street was the “L” jetty at the Shark River Inlet, phenominal wave, where I came the closet to dying while surfing.
So it was only natural to bail on New York for the Joisey Shore and the chance of a lifetime meeting with the one and only Tinker. This was that pivotal point in my life that could have easily slipped right by me and I would have continued to bumble along with the great unwashed masses.
I figured Tinker was the guy holding the planer, but wanted to make sure. Thanks.
I guess I had one of those pivotal points also. Mine came in 1980 when I met you.
I’d been bumbling along too, mostly self-taught since I ‘‘shaped’’ my first one in '71.
It wasn’t 'til I got to Magnolia St. that I saw what COULD be done with a planer. If
Tinker taught you the finer points of planer magic, who taught him? Did Simmons
use a planer? What exactly is the history of electric planer use? (might make a good
thread on it’s own)
The way things are now, the vast majority of boards currently produced aren’t touched
by a planer. CNC machines and molded boards have seen to that. I’m glad I got the
chance to work with the very best and CREATE, not design on a screen or copy in a mold.
I am the guy with his hands on sides, sun glasses. Here is a list of the names, from left to right:
Standing: Wally (Rockaway dealer), Tinker, Craig Bruha (Surf Team Member - Mission Beach), Wally’s brother, me (Randy “Waldo” Whited), Ernie Vose, Rick Barry (Shop Salesman - Neptune);
Kneeling: Jimmy Dalton (Surf Team Member - Mission Beach), Art Meinung (cartoonist - he drew “Elbir The Fat”, I wrote it)
PS: This was way before Phillips and his chick ever showed up. That was a year or so later.
I glassed and glossed boards in 1967 (10-20 week), and glassed and glossed in 1969 (40 week). Howard (“Smilin Haired”) a green beret took over glossing in 1969 so only had to glass.
Challenger (Randall K. Whited)
Elbir the fat, for all of you who were not in Belmar in 1967, was the owner of Rible surfboards Bob was about 5’8" and maybe 300 pounds, he rode all 11’ plus boards, wore a pair of speedo’s that barely contained his fat engorged nut sack.
His sidekick was Seaweed, a Newfoundland retriever that weighed nearly as much as Elbir.
One summer day a young lass was lounging on the beach at 12th Avenue, knees pulled up, eyes closed, Seaweed comes strolling down the beach and takes a beeline to this gal and jambs his bear sized snout into her warm and salty pleasure zone. She may have been released from the mental hospital by now.
A sweet little Jewish Princess was in Elbir’s show room leaning back against the show case, Seaweed walks into the shop, takes one look, sniff, what ever and stands up on his rear legs and mounts this chick, pinning her against the show case, front legs over her shoulders, his red rocket covering her nether region in propellant.
The will never be another time in history that had so much fun waves, amazing charcters, Rible has passed on, God Bless him
Welcome to Swaylock’s, Challenger. All this history is thoroughly enriching my shaping life. I can’t thank guys like you and Jim enough for providing the stories about things that were going on while I was in 5th or 6th grade which would later color my experience.
Mike and Jim,
Thanks for the welcome.
One thing we did at Challenger Eastern that was probably a unique type of glassing was to double wrap the rails. We stopped doing that in 1969 though.
It was tough to do. We always glassed the bottom first, wrapping the rails, and using the squeege to make it adhere. We then wrapped the cloth around and onto the top with the squeege. The cloth just stopped about 2 inches onto the top side.
Then we used a razor knife while the resin was not completely set to trim the rough edges (“trees”) so the sander had an easier go of it.
After glassing the bottom we gave it to the sander who scratched / sanded just the rails and tapered the edge of the glass so when the top was glassed the cloth would bind to the first layers and would not leave a visible mark. The sander had to be very careful because you know what a power sander will do to foam. Ernie Vose became a master at it.
Anyway, so there were 4 layers of cloth on the rails, tail, and nose.
We changed and went to the type of glassing other companies did in 1969. That is, not overlappng and sanding the rails any more.
Sorry to hear about Rible. He loved the Elbir The Fat comic book Art Meinung and I did. I liked the guy.
When I was last in New Jersy and spoke with Cecil Lear, he said when Bob passed away, he had grown to about 750 pounds, the fire and rescue had to use a chain saw to remove part of the wall in the bedroom to get his body out.
Jim,
Good to hear you are fine.
I remember when you and your chick lived with us awhile (Tinker, Ernie Vose, and I) at our house in Jersey.
Hey all,
I made a mistake.
After talking with SammyA, the date of the photo is 1966 and not 1967 like I had thought (for a long time).
We can all learn here.
I remember when my friend Kent Nakamaru got one. He was from Hawaii and going to Temple Dental School in Philadelphia. The board was beautiful. It had three balsa stringers. They cut a decal up and spelled DDS with the letters from “surfboards”.
In the early seventies I was in a recording studio in the middle of the night up in North Jersey helping a studio musician friend lay down some tracks for a long forgotten recording. The band couldn’t play their own songs. (If you’ve ever wondered why bands on tour don’t sound like their albums, this is why).
Someone in the studio said, “Hey, you’re a surfer?” and I said yeah.
“Ever hear of Carl West?” he asked. Yeah I said, why?
We’ll it seems that Tinker got into the music business and was managing bands. I later heard that he was managing the James Cotton Blues band.
He was also the manager for an up and coming Asbury Park band in the early seventies. Know who that was?
Didn’t Propper manage James Cotton for a while?
Asbury Park band? Max Weinburg Seven …?
James Cotton?
One of the worst pains in the ass I ever worked with.
Asbury Park?
I can’t think of a single band from that town that didn’t suck.
Tinker managed Bruce Springsteen for awhile, and got him jump started.
Read a story about it I wrote:
James Cotton taught Paul Butterfield how to play harmonica.
Cotton played in Muddy Waters band for awhile.
The James Cotton Blues Band is a Chicago blues band.
Springsteen … wasn’t he he that old surf dude that was fronting the Max W 7 at the superbowl? I guess Sammy’s not a fan.
Randy - that guy in the photo standing to the right of Ernie Vohs is Billy Sautner from Rockaway. He and the 2 Schreifels brothers sold Challengers in Rockaway - that’s where Ernie was from originally.Tinker said Ernie was the best sander he ever had. These guys all connected in Mission Beach before Tinker came east. I had just come back from Hawaii and stopped in Mission Beach for awhile before heading east. Tinker wasn’t the easiest guy in the world to get along with, but he was creative.
Thanks.
Wally and Ernie and I had a house in Mission Beach after they moved out there.
I went to La Jolla High for years whle surfing and managing the Challenger Shop in Mission Beach before we went to Jersey.
Heard from the Schreifels or Ernie lately?