hey, my uncle has an old g&s midget farrelly stringerless 9’6. this is the board i learned on (yeah, pretty lucky i know!) and he doesn’t ever surf anymore. i have tried to get him to sell it to me, but he wants to hang on to it for sentimental value. he says that i can use it whenever i’d like to, which i haven’t in a while because of a few minor dings on it which run the risk of water getting to the foam. i am currently getting those professionally fixed up, but i was wondering what people thought about whether or not it should be used or put away. i’ve done fairly extensive research on this board, mostly online, and haven’t been able to turn up much. i’ve narrowed it down to that it was probably made in the mid-late 60’s. i guess my main question is, is it worth too much money that i should be keeping in the house and not out on the waves?
Howzit barefeet, Ride it but be careful about when and where and try not to ding it and fix immediately if you do. You can't realize the future without knowing the past.Aloha,Kokua
You should definately surf it. Unless it is in perfect condition, what’s the deal with one more ding. I have a 9’10" 1968 Hansen Hustler, Blue cut laps, floral deck inlay, perfect pinlines. It’s a family board, we have owned it from day one. Surf it all the time, it’s got plenty of dings in it, but I fix them perfect everytime. I’m never gonna sell it…people ask me to sell it all the time, no way, it’s a family treasure…and it’s meant to be surfed. If it didn’t get surfed, my Dad would be totally pissed off at me. Nothing like seeing my Dads face when I tell him about this wave, or that wave on his old board.
Go ride the beast, just take care of it and it will out last all your other boards.
RIDE IT!!!
…I didn’t know Midget Farrelly ever shaped for G and S ?
Platty , cb-, ‘flowchild’ …
would you guys know / have any more info on THAT ??
As far as I knew , Midget was a Brookvale [‘surfblanks’] boy , and Gand S were in Cronulla [ about 35 miles south , across Sydney Harbour]
If it’s true , I [once again ] learnt something new today from Swaylocks …
…the Surfer’s Educational Website [‘s.e.w’.] … have to tell my friends to “s.e.w.” more, eh ? [THAT should get some LOOKS from my mates !]
ben
i say you ride it, ive got an ol’ '69, which im riding more than anything else right now. the old classics just got that indescribable feel to them…sharing the stoke with everyone else who has ridden the board
tommy
hi again barefeet !
can you take some shots of the board , by any chance , please ?
cheers !
ben
hey, thanks for all of the input! i’m definetly going to continue to ride it, i love the board so i was probably going to anyways regardless of its worth. it was built to be surfed like said above :).
chipfish, i don’t think farrelly ever shaped for g&s either, but this is just a farrelly model from g&s. i’d say it was made after he introduced the first stringerless foam boards in 1965.
anywho, i’ve posted some photos, enjoy!
and the logo…
thanks mate ! […are you an aussie, by the way ? …the background looks like platty or oldy’s place , that’s all !]
maybe it was just that GandS used his stringerless blank !
ben
Howzit?!? I don’t recall ever seeing one personally, but they were big in the G&S ads back then. That was the vee-bottom days, I think that Skip Frye brought the vee idea back from Aus. and G&S had a whole lineup of vee bottoms, Hynson series, and the Midget models. It must have been a business deal, selling the stringerless models in the U.S. Aloha…RH
http://www.surfresearch.com.au/mgordon_smith.html#Template%20notes
Midget was at the top of the pile at that time. He had won a world title a few years earlier. It makes sence that people would want his name on their product. I can’t recall reading anything saying that he shaped for them. platty.
WOW …HOW’S THE 7’7 ONE !!
GREAT info and photos …thanks Platty , and surfresearch [why didn’t I think of looking there first , before I asked ? [“search the surfresearch archives before posting a question , chip !!”]
That board is a gem. Ride it, but with much caution. Like Platty, i also have never known that Midget did some shaping (well at least one board) with g&s. That is a peformer and rare!
For sure you have to surf it, that’s what Midget shaped it for. and yes, Midget has been shaping for G&S in the sixties. If you want I can find out more. enjoy and take care of the board
chip- i wish i was located in oz, however for now i am on the east coast of the states.
miki- if you could get a bit more info, that would be interesting to know if he was the one that actually shaped it, no worries if not
thanks!
Lets see-
While it’s real debatable if Farrelly shaped that particular board, you could probably find out when it was made, etc, by contacting Gordon and Smith - http://www.gordonandsmith.com/surfboards/index.htm my call is it was shaped in San Diego by somebody working from Farrelly’s templates, etc. Nothing wrong with that at all, while a board Farrelly himself shaped is quite rare, it’s still a perfectly good board.
My understanding of it is that Midget Farrelly had his own surfboard company in Australia during that time, but he licened the design and use of his name to G&S for the US market.
Unlike a lot of surfboard companies, G&S has stayed under the same ownership, and as far as I know they still have the records, by serial number - which looks like #10906 there in the decal area. Though there were two that I know of that were shaped by Skip Frye in the mid to late '70s for a couple farrelly stringerless fanatics who just plain used up their old boards.
That’s an older one, what I think of as a ‘real’ one - mid-to-late '60s vintage. Again, G&S can tell you exactly when. Make sure the guy who’s fixing it doesn’t use Solarcrud or that sort of thing, that he does a good repair. Quite a few of the later Farrellys had vee bottoms, this one doesn’t, which is probably a plus. I also note what looks like a glassed on fin: many of the Farrellys had Wavesets, if I remember right, something else that indicates this is an earler board.
Midget is alive and well, apparently ( http://www.parkesaustralia.com/Farrelly.htm ), and owns the Surfblanks Pty (Ltd) foam blanks company in Australia with some participation in the South African company of the same name
By all means surf it, though carefully. It sucks when a board becomes an ornament, not a surfboard any more.
hope that’s of use
doc…
at a recent surf auction here in NJ there was a stringerless that i really wanted! i remember them as being real good riders in the 60’s —they were ‘model’ boards, midget got a couple of $ for each sold…i think he did pretty well on this model----ride IT
a chiropractor - videographer on this island has one too.
he bought it new in Jersey as a kid
he brought it to me for consultation and I admired it.
the stringerless feature made em prone to hyper flex
beyond the flex of the glass,watch out for the impact zone
I would also aviod leashing it ,as that could increase breakability.
beauty is not only in the eye of the beholder
but also in the heart of the admirer.
…ambrose…
dont wreck it.
you will feel terrible forever.
make a new one …wreck that.
Interesting thread. I also have a Farelley V-Bottom. Here is a link to it in the “Resources” section here on Swaylock’s.
http://www.swaylocks.com/resources/detail_page.cgi?ID=434
I’ve since done a fairly successful restoration of it, guess I need to update the photos of this one. (this board has a twist in it, not too uncommon for older stringerless classics).
I have another board from the same period, an InterIsland, 8’ rolled V-Bottom. This was another project of Gordon & Smith I’m told. Apparently Dick Brewer was involved to some degree in the business side of this G&S collaboration.
Thanks to Paul Gross for providing some of the background on these two labels.