I recently acquired a very nice vintage board that is shaped like a big-wave gun. Appears to be early 60s vintage, is pulled in at nose and tail, and 9’4" in length. The board is currently red, having been repigmented at some time in past, and nicely done at that. The maker’s decal shows a surfer shooting a tube, with the words “Surfboards by Freeman” on it. The board has a nicely glassed over laminated wood skeg, of the type frequently seen in early to mid 60s longboards. I am trying to identify the maker of this board, since I am unfamiliar with “Freeman” boards. I have already contacted Bob Freeman of the Cocoa Beach FL area, who informed me that it is not one of his creations; he additionally checked with two other well-know older surfers named Freeman in his area and they did not produce this board, either. I am hoping that some one of you may recognise this board or its decal, so that I can identify its maker and perhaps obtain some history on him. Any help in this quest would be most appreciated. Mahalo nui & Hau’oli Makahini Hou!
Happy New Year! After days of damp & foul stuff in the otherwise typically sunny Sacramento Valley, the sun is out amazingly on this first day of 2005. Thanks for this comment on the Freeman board. Pretty much congruent with my surmises to date. I have no allusions that the board is a ‘storied’ product, of course, but it would even be nice if someone recognised the label as that of a short-lived board line that failed to make it into the first part of the shortboard transition period. I used to do some surfing in the Pismo, Avila, and Shell Beach area of the NorCal coast back in the early 60s and thus have some familiarity with what was in the water at that time, in my area. The laminated wood skeg, glassed onto the board is very typical of the prevalent style of that time ('63-'64), as I recall, so it does seem to be of that early 60s period. Of course, my surfing abilities were not even as good as Dora’s were on a bad day, hungover, and with a splitting migraine. I did manage to look the part whenever there were curious high school girls around (this was a rare event, at best), however, posing ‘Duke-like’ with my board (a battered old Velzy) on the beach while waiting for the typical Avila 2 foot ‘Big Waves’ to build up, and was a 4th Dan Gremmie overall. Haven’t really been on a board since the early 70s, but I do find the history of our sport to be endlessly fascinating–given everything it’s been through since those cold, foggy Velzy days. Thanks for your input on this board. It, along with a bunch of others, are destined to adorn the walls of a surf coffeehouse on Molokai, in future, so I’m trying to get a few ID’s nailed down towards that objective. Hopefully someone else will have a “Eureka!” moment, upon seeing the Freeman label, even if it turns out to be nothing more than a cheap pop-out of the period.
Hi Doc: Well, it’ll end up in a coffeehouse on Molokai anyway, so perhaps it was actually destined to be a coffee table after all, hee-hee… The Menehunes work their mana in strange ways, it would seem (see attached).
sometime ago on this site someone posted a link to a site with all kinds of vintage surf logos Iseem to recall something that looked similar to your example.
Doc & Wahoo! Thanks, guys! This gets better & better. ‘Nancy Drew Mysteries’ and ‘The Hardy Boys Go Surfing’ be danged…we’re on the scent and away! Knew something would pan out on this, sooner or later! Cowabunga!
I had a board shaped for my son from a gentleman in Cocoa Beach. His boards are called “Surfboards by freeman” He is the owner of a local store in that area. You can probable contact him by phone or by e-mail. His store is call “go-surf”
Hope this helps. I have seen him on several occassions shaping the longboards that are often ridden at the streets in Cocoa Beach.
Thanks for that return, however I have already contacted Bob Freeman (Go-Surf) at Cocoa Beach and he claims that is not his label. He also asked several other active board shaper/makers with the last name of ‘Freeman’ in the immediate (Cocoa Beach) vicinity and said that no one recognises that particular logo. Strange! How many ‘Surfboards by Freeman’ would one think there could be over the past 40 or so years, eh? Unless the ‘Freeman’ in reference doesn’t want to own up to having made that particular board (unlikely), for some reason. At any rate, the search continues. Thanks again for the help and best New Year wishes for good sets and smooth slides.
Have you tried www.surfresearch.co.au/agc.html, quite a good reasoure lots of interesting stuff any way, mabyee his name wasn’t Freeman maybee he was just on the run from the surf police.
