Need Info on a Petrillo hull

Hi All,

I need a little help from the Swaylocks historians.  I recently picked up this 7'0" Petrillo hull, serial number F-1482.  From the info I've found so far, Frank Petrillo, Del Miller, Henry Fry, Jim Glanzer, Robert August, and occassionally Dale Velzy were the shapers for Petrillo.  I'm guessing that the "F" in the serial number is for Fry and 1482 is the number of the board.  If Fry was the shaper, the info I found indicates it would have been shaped in '71, the only year Fry shaped for Petrillo.  Can someone correct me if my guesses are wrong.

Also, the board has a fin system I haven't seen before.  Fin position is indexed on the box.  Can anyone identify this fin system?  BTW, I thought there was a thread on here somewhere with pictures of vintage fin systems, but I can't find it.  Can anyone pass on the title of that thread?

Any info on this board, or Petrillos in general would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Ray



The fin system looks like the “Variable W.A.V.E. set system” by Karl Pope. Not sure if Tom Morey was an active partner at that time. Quite possibly he was. Trying to date wide useage of the fin system in many brands I’d roughly say the years most commonly used were around 1968, 1969, 1970? W.A.V.E stood for “Water Apparatus Vehicular Engineering”.

I remember Petrillo and the magazine ads, but little else being that I’m a native Santa Barbaran, and they were down south.

Hope that helps a bit.

Petrillo’s were sold at the Frog House in Newport Beach in the late sixties, and early seventies.  Back then they sold there own wax too, “House of Mung” I never asked TK what that meant, yet I always wanted too.

 

Definitely looks like an adjustable WAVESET. I’m pretty certain that system came along later in the WAVE product line. Earliest I recall seeing them was 1969. And, the entire WAVE fin system was gone by around '72.

An exploded view of the system:

 

Thanks for the the info guys.

SammyA, that definitely looks like the fin.  Thanks for posting the ad.

 

Ray

Wow, what a cool ad!

Yeah, the system was flawed though… snapped one off on a bottom turn on a head high day at “Tanks” down the road from Stanley’s, and a good alternative on the right days.

My first custom board was a Petrillo. Here is some information that may help you with your board pedigree. Tom S.

http://stokednboard.surfingheritage.org/SnB_Brands_P_02.htm

_______________________________Text version

Petrillo (Updated:4/2008)

OWNER: Frank Petrillo, shaper

FACTORIES:
Costa Mesa, California. …c 1965…d 1971
Houston, Texas. …d 1971…d 1972

MODELS:
“Beach Break”, 10’0", Numbers 211 to ?.. c 1968…c 1968
“California Mini Gun”…d 1998…d 1969
“California Surf-Ski”… d 1969…d 1969
“Glanzer Model”… d 1968…d 1968
“Gyro” Figure 1, 8’0", WAVE Set fin. …d 1969…d 1969
“Gyro Freedom Tail”…d 1969…d 1969
“Gyro-Porpus”… d 1971…d 1971
“Island Gun”. …d 1969…d 1969
“Mini Gun”Figure 2 or Figure 3, Numbers 459 to ?..c 1969…c 1969

Figure 1

Figure 2 Figure 3

“Pathfinder”… d 1969…d 1969
“Sea Slug” deep single fin… d 1971…d 1971
“V-Bottom”… d 1968…d 1968

BLANKS:
Clark foam… 1968… 1969
Walker foam… 1969… 1969
Clark foam… 1969… 1970
Foss foam… 1970… 1971
Walker foam, high density… 1972… 1972

SHAPERS:
Frank Petrillo… 1967… 1970
Dale Velzy, occasionally… 1965… 1972
Del Miller… 1970… 1970
Henry Fry… 1971… 1971
Jim Glanzer. … 1970… 1970

SHAPES: teardrop… 1971… 1971

LOGOS:
‘Surfboards by Petrillo’Figure 4. … c 1965… c 1972
‘Petrillo - Handcrafted Surfboards’ Figure 5 (Used on boards?). …c 1960’s…c 1970’s
‘Petrillo - Handcrafted Surfboards’ Figure 6…c 1960’s. …c 1970’s

Figure 4

Figure 6

Figure 5
‘Petrillo’Figure 7…c 1960’s…c 1970’s

Figure 7

GLASSING:

Stoked-n-Board™ Page 1 of 2 Petrillo_Ca.wpd

Color Flo. … 1972… 1972
Controlled temperature room. … 1972… 1972
Cut lap … 1967… 1969
FINS:
WAVE Set… 1968… 1970
Vari glass… 1970… 1971
Fin Unlimited… 1972… 1972
NUMBERING: [Reliability = 0]

(211) . … 1968

(459) . … 1969

If you have any information on this brand or the people involved, please contact the SnB Editor

Stoked-n-Board™ Page 2 of 2 Petrillo_Ca.wpd

 

We stopped in the MP Shop on Front St. one day after a full day of surfing.  Every board in there had a Wave Set as did the "Eliminator" I was riding at the time.  Dale Herds asked us where we surfed that day,  we replied; "Tanks". To which Dale said; "That's a gnarly little wave". 

I just picked up a Petrillo shortboard. Its a single fin with a modern style fin box. Looks to be pretty old. I figure maybe late 60’s, early 70’s maybe. On the stringer it has “SH 217”. Anyone got a clue who the shapers initials might be? Doesn’t match up with any info i have found on the internet. The shape reminds me of the “Morey Pope Camel”.

 

If it has a single fin box similar to those used today, the board would be no older than 1972. Photos would help. (A lot)

I worked at Petrillo in 68-69 and saw a lot of guys came through that shaped there but weren’t employed there. If my somewhat numbed recollection of that era isn’t too distorted, It is a possibility that it was Sam Hawk. I even saw Art Brewer the photog shaping with Jim Glanzer, making the knee boards that Brewer used to ride. This is just a semi-educated guess using a feeble memory of that time.

Keep in mind that that board certainly wasn't called a hull back then. It was a radical shortboard. Nowadays it would more properly be called a transition board.

I would love to see some photos of the bottom as well as the rocker.

If it is from 68-70 time period, it’s most likely the Petrillo Gyro model that were crazy popular at that time. The Gyro changed everything about surfing for me. A quick top turn, then release the fin into a controlled sideslip, I couldn’t get enough of doing it. The Gyro was my transition board from long to short. Please post up some pics…

Hopefully you can view a few pics of the board here…http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/837/sdc11878b.jpg/

 

I viewed the photos. Not much help given there’s no shots of the outline, fin box, etc. Add more pics.

A few shots of mine (does yours look like that?):

 

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

 

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More pics           http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/811/sdc11879l.jpg/

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/515/sdc11880c.jpg/

Fin box pic http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/29/sdc11882s.jpg/

Hi, I have a petrillo shortboard wich was my second board in 1985/1986, still can get no information about it as it onlny as the logo, nothing else is writen, no number, foam trade,size…nothing, it´s a tri fin box as txsurfbob´s… can you help me to find the year or something else???