I believe this is the only board he owned so I don’t think he was “Old Stoney” This leads me to believe he bought it used. Probably in Malibu or Sandiego. I knew Mike Stone, Hawaiian and he surfed in Malibu. Maybe ??? It is in fairly good shape. Most of what you see is surface grunge. I was always told if you do not know what you are doing with antiques leave them alone for a professional. There is one small area I noticed that looks like it has been repaired. I haven’t decided what to do with this board. I have been considering putting it up on display somewhere. Appreciate the information. Thanks
I had an old G&S Hot Curl with an inscription that read "Another in a Long Line of Barney's Hybrids." The board did not have any type of Frye logo or wings like some I've seen. Do you know if Skip did any of the stock G&S boards without his logo on them?
It was 9'3" X 23" X 19" (N) X 17" (T).
It had the double flared stringer lay out. It had an orangish/red bottom /rails with yellow foam stain between the flared stringers on deck.
It was stolen from me from a barn in Topanga Canyon near Malibu back in '74. I heard that the guy was trying to sell off that board and several others but was never able to track it down. I suspect it will turn up one of these days if it didn't find it's way to the landfill by now.
The Hot Curl wasn’t a Frye shape. I’m pretty sure Dennis Benadum was behind that design. (correct me if I’m wrong, Bill). So, there would not be wings or any kind of Frye logo.
Also, the foam stringers were actually colored foam. It was all the rage late in the longboard era. Hot Curls were available with white, red, green, yellow, blue and maybe even black foam, as I recall. My 1968 vintage 8’8" HC has yellow foam, and a fin to match.
The first Hot Curls were right at the end of the longboard era. They were of the light glassed high performance variety of board so popular in late '67 and early '68. The curved wedged stringers gave them a distinctive look. I think the first ones were colored foam and some were white foam and some were actually resin tint to give the impression of colored foam.
Some had square tails and some had pintails.
The Hot Curls got shorter as boards in general got shorter. I had an 8’8 pintail with a psychedelic abstract bottom with those stripes they made by actually running a stick across the glass and putting fractures in it before the hot coat. I lost that board off the top of my van going across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel. Never found it again.
I don’t know if any one shaper/designer was responsible for the Hot Curl or not. I’m sure Larry was a driving force in developing the Hot Curl as he was quite active in desigh at that time. Dennis probably had some input as well as Paul Bordieri.
It was not a Frye design and I don’t think he shaped many of them if at all. He was very busy with his model at that time and probably didn’t shape any.
When I went to work for G&S full time the Magic was our hot design. It was Dennis Benadum’s baby. We also had a board called the Hot Curl but it was quite different than the original Hot Curl with the wedge stringers. It was more like the Magic but with a wider tail and a blunter nose. The rails and foil were the same as the Magic, And those did change somewhat over the period of 1968 to 1969.
We would use the name of a model over a several year period but the shape would change considerably from year to year. The Magic, the Hot Curl and the Gypsy are examples.
