every time I come across photos of this board, it reminds me once again that though there be thousands and thousands of shapers, there be very few Masters…
Work of art!
JIM PHILLIPS is the RENAISSANCE MAN!
Absolutely Incredible!
Does anyone out there have any idea how he did this and are willing to share it with the rest of us?
Jim, did you pour the blank around the preconfigured stringers? I mean, WTF…?
Its a brain-teaser, for sure. I’m gonna guess the straight stringers are real, but the curved “stringers” are just strips of wood routered into the blank.
Routed with a templet.
John Birgis did one that was similar. Jim had commented on it sometime back…anybody got a pic of it…
roger
Greg Noll was well known for his figure 8 stringers in the 60’s - for all you youngsters out there…
He’s still a master woodworker
Jim’s work is above and beyond - SO very clean
As a “woodworker” by trade - Greg and Jim are 2 people who make me feel very humble…and I’ve been at it for a bit - 30+ years…
The curved ones are inlays and not actual stringers.Routed in with a template.(one at a time extremely hard to pull of with this amount of accuracy.I have known Jim for 50 years and he still blows my mind.
A friend of mine has an old G&S with figure eight stringers but Jim’s work is much cleaner. He and I worked together in my woodshop in GA many years ago and if he had gone in to fine furniture design woodworking he would be a wealthy man.
Art? Yes, beauty?, yes. Function? Needs tighter arcs for my personal flex preferences. Stunner to look at though. Superb visual attraction. Like looking at Angelina Jolie or something. I’m not sure I spelled her name correctly.
LOL - this 63 year old youngster knows Greg’s work well, several years ago ran into him at a diner on the beach in Crescent City, we spent the next two hours leafing through the book Drew Kampion and Greg’s wife did on Greg’s life work “the Art Of The Surfboard” while Greg chatted about each board. A highlight to be sure. No one can talk mo betta story then Greg…
I personally witnessed Jim gluing up some ridiculously complicated blanks, and learned a few new curse words at the same time; but my personal favorite is the rising sun board.
His description of the process was classic JKP also.
Think of the logistic nightmare doing a figure 8. Yes they are done with a template and a router...but each one is glued up than re cut. Laying a template and having each one hit the center of the stringer and make a perfect V is nothing short of a mental illiness.
All you got to do is screw it up on one router wobble, maybe a stringer blow out when you cross over the figure 8...or a clamp slips
Jim Phillips.............You ain't right, som things wrong with you.
I love seeing Jim’s work. So awesome…
here’s the 2009 Sway’s thread from Jim outlining the Rising Sun build…stunning, friggin stunning…
http://www2.swaylocks.com/forums/jim-phillips-billabong-art-shaping-asr-sept-2009
Years ago, I was building some Gordies at Allen Heaths glass shop in Oceanside. I was doing the pinline work for them.
Anyway, Gordie would come down and check out the boards we were building.
Man that guy was a classic. He wanted to talk more about my tats and my '55 Ford.
After his stories of distaste for the state of the surfboard industry, he and I had some really good talks about the early days of surfboards.
Knowing the passion I have for gluing and building surfboard blanks, he told me he was the first to put curved stringers in blanks.
He told me that “Greg Noll ripped me off”! He did it first and could prove it!
The next time he showed up, he presented me with a picture of his boards at the first surfboard trade show. In that picture were a line up of his best boards.
Curved stringers of many different styles.
Dated 1958.
Cool as hell!
I still have that photo hung up in my surfboard woodshop.
Definitely inspired me to pursue gluing my own blanks and the like.
And yes I have attempted some of this. It is quite difficult.
Jim is the man!
RIP Gordon “Gordie” Dwayne/ Gordie Surfboards
Barry Snyder
hoped some one would pipe gordie aboard
the good ship swaylocks.
Not enough Gordie stories to go around.
The people that write books
are authorities.
the guys that do stuff
are too busy .
…ambrose…
dont hold back
on the gordie stuff.
Great thread, Jim’s work is inspiring! A true old-school hands-on craftsman / artisan of the highest caliber.
I was looking at the latest pics you posted. Do I see ten different pieces of foam and one stringer, i.e. 11 pieces in that glue-up? Pretty doggone impressive!