Just looking for a little help, I’ve been trying to find out who shaped for Surfboards Australia back in the late 60s early 70s…I really couldnt find too much about them. I picked up this board a while back its a 2a Round Tail but theres no shapers name on it, its got a Waveset finbox. Just trying to get some history about this board, Thanks…sorry for the HUGEpics.
Try using the “search” function. This has been discussed, before.
Your board was probably made at G&S in San Diego. I worked there in '69 and '70, and Larry Gordon had a deal with Floyd to do Surfboards AU in the states. There were anywhere from five to eight shapers mowing foam all day long. Could have been any of them. Maybe Skip?
Mike
Don’t remember seeing this topic on Sways before (per the previous post) but, had one from the G+S period in '69/'70 and it was a great - almost magic - board…everyone knew G+S were doing them - they advertised in Surfer as such, I believe…in hindsight, would like to think Skip had a hand in it…6-6+/- round tail disc shape that rode like a dream - Florida East coast (it was a good fall/winter then). Sold it when I moved west and missed it afterwards…
Unfortunately…another of the trademarks/brands that has been pirated/ripped off to peddle Chinese pop-outs…
… it may have been discussed before, but pictures of cool old boards are ALWAYS welcome imho!!! Anyone else got any cool old transition pics???
I have an old Gordon & Smith longboard shaped by Floyd Smith in 1964 (I think) just before the “model era” took hold in the mid-sixties. I don’t think it’s a ‘stock’ board. I think it may have been the G&S ‘speed’ model as advertised in Surfer Magazine at that time. It’s only 2 1/2" thick with knifey rails and ‘cruises like a Cadillac.’
Maybe you can confirm for me my belief that it was shaped by Floyd Smith in 1964 (just before he left for Australia in 1965 to establish a G&S shop there, and just before Mike Hynson returned to G&S after making “The Endless Summer” and leaving Hobie to start shaping his ‘soon to be famous’ G&S ‘Hynson Red Fin’ model). The reason I think my board was shaped by Floyd is because of the characteristic numeral style marked with pencil on the top left stringer. His numeral eight was shaped like a ‘snowman’–two round circles stacked on top of one another. The number on my board is “8848+” so I have three good examples of what I am talking about. I have seen the same distinctive numeral eight on a G&S longboard for sale in Australia from about the same period when they were starting to ‘foil’ the fins. Mine is the old, straight back, barn-door style.
Any and all input from you Gordon & Smith officiandos will be much appreciated.
Great Lakes Surfer
PS In contacting G&S, I learned they did not keep very good records during those early years (not like Bing) and so were unable to be of any real help.
PPS Sorry, I can’t upload any photos–I can’t make them small enough to conform with Swaylock’s size restriction. If you’d like to see photos, please, email me at: Peter.Wittstock@Gmail.com
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I have an old Gordon & Smith longboard shaped by Floyd Smith in 1964 …I can’t upload any photos–I can’t make them small enough to conform with Swaylock’s size restriction.
Upload them to:
Then copy the links to them. No need to re-size, it’s done automatically.
That’s right. I was the traveling sales rep for G&S from '69 until the mid seventies.
G&S was making these under Floyd’s direction and although there was some internal competition on the sales and marketing end, in the factory they were just G&S’s with a different label and a different template. More that one or two got through with a G&S label on one side and a SA label on the other side. On the rare occasion that happened we would sell them in the PB Surf Shop.
Although the story we told, and stuck to it pretty good, was that this was Floyd’s seperate company, actually it was just one big happy family. Except out on the road, where Warren Bolster, the Surfboards Australia guy and me, the G&S guy battled it out. (I sure miss Warren r.i.p.)
We had different dealers in every town, with only one exception, and it was a true genius move on the part of Larry Gordon who figured out how to sell boards to more than one dealer in a market.
The ads in Surfer magazine all listed the same address (5465 Gaines St.) with bldg A added to SA’s address.
It would’ve been easier to keep up the marketing facade of seperation with a PO Box for SA. but Larry, being the frugal Scotsman didn’t want to shell out the extra $12 a month. Besides, as he explained it to me, there are no secrets in surfing so may as well be up front from the beginning and let everyone know that the SA’s were made in the same factory. Otherwise if you try to keep it a secret and then they find out it wouldn’t look good. The finanacial arrangement, he figured, was really nobody’s business.
I doubt Skip shaped any of these. He was usually pretty busy trying to keep up with his custom orders and making sure that no wave at PB Point went unridden.
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That’s right.
G&S was making these under Floyd’s direction…More that one or two got through with a G&S label on one side and a SA label on the other side. On the rare occasion that happened we would sell them in the PB Surf Shop. … out on the road, where Warren Bolster, the Surfboards Australia guy and me, the G&S guy battled it out. (I sure miss Warren r.i.p.)
I’d bet those mistake boards with both the SA and G&S labels would be worth a little bit, these days. Sort of like the misprinted postage stamps collectors crave.
“PB Surf Shop” ? You must know Bill Andrews, then?
I met Warren B when he was repping for SA. He was spending time on Cape Cod, and came to the beach all excited one day because a mag had printed one of his shots on the cover. I’m pretty sure it was his first. Damn good photog, he was. Pretty innovative, too. I think he was the first to experiment with the ‘split level’ view and also the first to use a ‘pole cam’.
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Quote:I’d bet those mistake boards with both the SA and G&S labels would be worth a little bit, these days. Sort of like the misprinted postage stamps collectors crave.
“PB Surf Shop” ? You must know Bill Andrews, then?
I met Warren B when he was repping for SA. He was spending time on Cape Cod, and came to the beach all excited one day because a mag had printed one of his shots on the cover. I’m pretty sure it was his first. Damn good photog, he was. Pretty innovative, too. I think he was the first to experiment with the ‘split level’ view and also the first to use a ‘pole cam’.
Sure I know Bill. Just got a “e” from him the other day. Check out his website: a day with Bill Andrews for some really historical stuff.
Warren was a classic and one of the great photographers. In his younger days he was a world class surfer. His dad was a diplomat and he spent his formative years surfing in Australia so he was the perfect guy to rep Surfboards Australia. A top East Coast surfer with Australian roots.
I use to sleep on the couch at his Cocoa Beach place at the Crescent Beach Apartments when I was traveling through. Other residents of the units there: Gary Propper, Bill and Marjane Feinberg (Oceanside Surfboards), Grog and Bill Bringhurst. Claude Codgen lived in a house a few doors down. It wouldn’t be unusual to see all of the above plus Mike Tabeling surfing at the break out front.
Hey Bill, you probably remember the SA team riders at the time, right? One of them currently lives a few doors down
from me, but he doesn’t like to get mentioned on the internet, so please refer to him in some obtuse manner…
He was riding for Hobie before switching to Floyd’s program; he says he went from knee-paddling a Corky Carroll
Mini-Model to ‘‘swimming’’ out on a super-thin SA, and he’s been ‘‘swimming’’ ever since. Still rides tiny boards, and
very, very well, too.
Yes. Of course. We won’t mention his name but he’s the only East Coast surfer to have a surf spot named after him on the North Shore.
I can vividly remember him standing in the shaping room with John Holly. John, with sureform in hand and our friend pointing to various places on the blank for John to perform his surgery.
The finished board, a short Surboards Australia roundtail with a hull bottom and quite thin, saw it’s first go out at Sunset Cliffs where he “swam” it out to the line up and shredded.
I see him all the time and he’s glassed a few boards for me lately. He still rides a tiny board and at the age of 60 he surfs circles around the kids on his 5’6".
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Sure I know Bill. Just got a “e” from him the other day. Check out his website: a day with Bill Andrews for some really historical stuff.
Warren was a classic
I use to sleep on the couch at his Cocoa Beach place at the Crescent Beach Apartments when I was traveling through. Other residents of the units there: Gary Propper, Bill and Marjane Feinberg (Oceanside Surfboards), Grog and Bill Bringhurst. Claude Codgen lived in a house a few doors down. It wouldn’t be unusual to see all of the above plus Mike Tabeling surfing at the break out front.
I know BA’s website, quite well. Gave him some scans of articles about his Ranch adventures with Stoner, some years back. Don’t recall if he used them.
I had some buddies who lived near the Diplomat in Cocoa Beach. Made the trip down there many a time. One of them worked for Twombly at his furniture shop.
One time, Claude asked me to shoot pics of him for some Sundek and Body Glove ads. When we finished the shoot, we surfed RC’s along with Tabeling, Crawford, and Dickie Munson.
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Yes. Of course. We won’t mention his name but he’s the only East Coast surfer to have a surf spot named after him on the North Shore.
His initials wouldn’t be FG, would they?
Do you mean to say that there was never a shop established by Floyd Smith in Australia in 1965? They made all the G&S boards and all the SA boards at the same location in San Diego to sell ONLY in the USA!(?) Was there any effort made to send at least some of the SA line to Australian suppliers?
Sammy,
Thank you for the “TinyPic” tip. I have succeeded in uploading my photos to TinyPic and sized them for “Forum/Discussion” use, but how do I get them to Swaylock’s? It looks like I need a Swaylock’s email address. I am failing to understand something about the transfer process. Can you detail a ‘step-by-step’ in order for me to post them with my narrative? Thanks much.
After you upload to tinypic, you’ll see a box with the URL for the picture. It will begin with “IMG”, in brackets. if you uploaded pics but didn’t save the URLs you’ll have to do it again. they assign random file names and you won’t/can’t search for them.
best to open a notepad file and copy each url into that, one at a time. After you have all the URLs for the pics, return to Sways and create a post. click on the “image” icon above the reply window here at Sways (Second icon from right). Enter each URL seperately.
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Do you mean to say that there was never a shop established by Floyd Smith in Australia in 1965? They made all the G&S boards and all the SA boards at the same location in San Diego to sell ONLY in the USA!(?) Was there any effort made to send at least some of the SA line to Australian suppliers?
Some of the other guys may know more of the details. Here’s what I know. Floyd Smith went to Australia and worked down there for some time in the mid 60s. While there, he produced boards under the G and S label, and also entered into an agreement with the person who founded Surfboards Australia to establish that brand in the US. So, the boards built at the G-n-S factory were sold in the US. There was a totally separate operation in OZ, run by the label’s founder.
Thanks, Sammy!
I think I finally did it.
Another question for the G&S experts: the sogo on my board is a little cock-eyed. Was the cock-eyed placement of the G&S lam in anticipation of a competition stripe wrap treatment that it just never received? I have seen other G&S boards that have the cock-eyed sogo placement in order to line-up with a competition stripe wrap. Maybe they thought this board looked good enough with just the three stringers. What do you think?
Also, note the ‘snowman’-like numeral eights on the stringer. Can you confirm that these came from Floyd Smith’s hand?
Do you think I am right in calling this board a Floyd Smith shaped ‘speed’ model; shaped in 1964; and a precursor to the G&S Hynson Red Fin?
Thank you for your expertise!
If there was a Surfboards Australia in Australia I never heard anything about it.
You’re correct that Floyd had moved to Australia to establish the G&S brand there. This was before I was involved with G&S.
He returned to San Diego in 1968 right about when I went to work for G&S. The Austrailian influence was very heavy here at that time. I don’t know who’s idea it was for the name but I know Larry had always thought that “Surfboards Hawaii” was a great name. With Australia and shortboards becoming so dominant in the market and with Floyd returning from down under as the resident expert on the subject, it was a natural. It was just one of those times when things came together. Floyd kept his Aussie accent going as long as he could and he was a great salesman and promoter.
I learned a lot from Floyd in those days. He taught me “The six steps of good shaping” and he taught me a lot about selling and promoting.