i went into paradise surf shop in santa cruz yesterday to find a board for a buddy. i started looking at the boards hanging from the ceiling and saw a couple of full-on wooden guns; one single fin, one tri-fin. i started perving a little closer and saw the name of the shaper:
jim phillips
nice work man. the little gal working in the shop said they were shaped from agave??? was she full of shit or for real?
bitchin boards
Tommy,
Jim is no stranger around here, with many members taking pride in a Philips…
Josh
Tommy that little gal was right, those boards are made out of Agave, they are kinda grayish with darker, and lighter line, if you had gone down to the Hook at the end of 41 ave. you might have ran into a big guy with a hat on selling boards, his name is Larry, those boards belong to him. He was in SI a few months back with some of his wooden/agave boards. Larry goes up and down the coast finding agave that people don’t mind him cutting down, he then takes them down to Jim’s shaping area and cuts them and glues them into blanks, Jim Phillips shapes two, one for himself to do with as he wished,and one for Larry. At least that is the way I under stand the deal. So yes that little gal new what she was talking about.
i went into paradise surf shop in santa cruz yesterday to find a board for a buddy. i started looking at the boards hanging from the ceiling and saw a couple of full-on wooden guns; one single fin, one tri-fin. i started perving a little closer and saw the name of the shaper:
jim phillips
nice work man. the little gal working in the shop said they were shaped from agave??? was she full of shit or for real?
bitchin boards
oh - that guy who always has 3 or so longboards leaning up against the chain-link fence? cool.
i should go try to hunt down some agave 
thanks bagman
Yep that’s Larry. If I were you I would go talk to Larry about getting a blank from him, there is a lot of work in cutting down cleaning, glueing and so on, I’ve been told that if you cut the dam things too green and get some of the sap on you it burns like hell, just one thing you need to know about agave.
I may have some access to some dead agave stumps and I was wondering what would be the minimum number of stalks needed to make a board?
cheers, JD
was she full of shit or for real?
A lttle harsh eh? Full of sh#t is probably better reserved for some snake oil salesman or presidential advisor and not a salesgirl - “gal” is sooo World War II - in a respected surf shop. make amends.
Agreed.
the little gal working in the shop said they were shaped from agave??? was she full of shit or for real?
bitchin boards
i believe he gets the wood shipped in from equador, or some south american country
sorry, in advance, if i’m wrong…
his boards are beautiful and i have one in my garage 
Balsa comes from Equador. You can find agave growing wild all over So Cal.
I’ve seen it growing on the side of the freeway. You have to spend some time hunting all over the place to get enough stalks to make a surfboard.
Lighten-up! Your so politically correct you can’t smell your own cat box!
Salesgirl!!?? I am sooo offended. Salesperson if you please! Where’s the pooper scooper for that cat box? How about knarly broad? Vaginoamerican? Agave’s are all over California. Flowers then dies so it doesn’t hurt the plant to take the flower spike. Watch out for that juice. It does burn and the leaf tips will take your eye out. Mike
Back OT, Jim combines a shipwright’s wood skills with the best ‘‘shaper’s eye’’ in the world
and consequently is untouchable in creating this type of board. I’m glad people on sways
appreciate his work.
Mike
Jim’s a living treasure for sure…
what about this guy?
He’s the only other one making agaves in any volume that I’m aware of.
I can’t believe he actually made a movie about himself too…
http://www.lindensurfboards.com/
as far as this
all I can say is this one stupid picture is the sole reason why my brother was psychotically driving around oahu looking for more stalks like that… He also had me digging around Barbers Point with him picking up dead stalks of what he claimed was the “century plant”… If only all the homeless out west knew it was one of the sources for tequila…
I’ll have to make the drive up to SC to see the board. Is it for sell? Or, display? I’ve never seen a Jim Phillips other than photos. Mike
Here are the three that were auctioned off recently:
You can read about those boards here in a little article from Surfer Mag
Rooster, there are a few guys in SC that have JP boards, one is a brand new 12’ EPS with offset tbands but no wood boards. You can always look me up in Pacifica or go to the Log Shop to see some see some works in foam with incredible stringers.
Finally, attached is a shot, from my phone, of our booth at ASR last Sept. On the round rack in front is a Diffenderfer balsa/redwood Jim did (he used to shape for Diff) and a redwood/balsa/agave gun:
Full of sh#t is probably better reserved for some snake oil salesman or presidential advisor …
…or, Randy Rarick.
Anyway, here’s a shot of Jim surfing in the New Jersey State Open. Belmar, NJ. April, 1966.
Jim P with his balsa Simmons Spoon reproductions last fall at San O (he’s the guy in the jeans shorts)
The 2 Velzys on the left are Jim’s (yes, one’s a chambered balsa)
Surfboards Hawaii Model A shaped by Jim
Jim makes some tight / sick agave’s. Larry brings some stalks around . . . you have let them dry for a long while . . .
I rode my Jim Phillips semi pig this evening at Malibu until dark. It was pretty unreal. I’m surprised that it turns so well with that big D fin. It felt great. Had some long rides. Drop in, bottom turn, take a step or two up and trim the high line, back pedal, cutback on the shoulder, walk up again and ride to the beach. Paddle back out and repeat.
