Right so my uncle who has been wanting to learn to surf recently ( i think because he just turned 50 and wants to be "young again") was out garage sale-ing this morning and came across a, probably about 6'8", high winged, single fin, made by "shipley surfboards, cocoa beach, est. 1969". This board is Old, has be genuinely from the 70's and has some gnarly dings, and cracks, and even gnarlier repairs, but it is still in floating condition and looks like a lot of fun... he bought it for only $20 too! Anyway I was just curious if anyone new about who Shipley is/was, because I only vaguely know the name, but honestly I think I am thinking of Jack Shipley from Lightning Bolt, and I am pretty surf they aren't related at all...

Anyway will try and get pics of it tonight If I can find someplace bright enough in my house...

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Edited: 11/02/2008 at 08:38 PM by WarmWaterErik

the name Brewer and Shipley comes to mind..


as in Dick Brewer, me thinks.



or maybe that was a band... ?



i'm sure some old timer out there knows for certain.


arrrrrrrrrrr, sounds like an historic find

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Water dissolving...and water removing
There is water at the bottom of the ocean


Edited: 11/02/2008 at 07:57 PM by bob3000

yeah i thought of brewer and shipley, but as far as i know they never left the folk rock world to make surfboards.... Anyway here are som pics, sadly even the "studio" side of my garage was too dark and had use the flash, so there is some glare in some of the shots but whatever...

thier logo:





it had some stickers on it for so long that it cause a sort of photogram effect to the deck:




The Bottom...



the rocker profile...



the chewed up fin with rusted inplace screw



and now some the gnarled bits i mentioned








So that is all I got tonight, it isn't even mine and I am STOKED, I mean it would be like if he bought a rusted out GTO, or Nova, or something...I mean yeah it is beat, but it is such a sweet peice of nostalgia!

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that is a pretty sweet board, Id take the time to fix it nicely, then wall hang it.
Id probably surf it once in a while, but for the most part Id leave it on the wall.

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check it ! another ride
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I think we have a new breed of "armchair" hero, kennesawcon is an "armchair patriot"

I knew of a Shipley back in the late 60's early 70's. I bet if you got a hold of ole what's his name from Shaggs surf shop, he'd know more about the board and the shaper.

I googled him and got some interesting hits.

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"When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace." J.H.

Shipley was a real character.
I knew him well.
He was running the Shaggs up on Canaveral Pier at the time that I was on the Hobie team. I had a Cape job and Shipley would call me when the surf was really good ... "Hey, Freeman ... get over here, the surf is groovy and the rest of the team is already out."
Use to party a lot with him back in the day. He once found a bail on the beach... can't say much more bout that. He also did killer van custom work, back in the day, when big vans were converted, by adding a bed, wood paneling, 8-track 4 speaker stereos, etc.
He later made some surfboards. He didn't make very many. That one could be a lone survivor.


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... positioning and selection

Brewer and Shipley: here

From the look of the "S" on that logo, seems like he was playing up the Jack Shipley and Lightning Bolt "implied" association. Cool board!


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Chris Gotshall Photography

View samples of my work here:
https://chrisgotshallphotography.com

i have a board of the same brand. it has the same logo and everything. this is the only info ive found on  it

Now that's some info/story...good on ya freesurfs..

I gots this one in my garage. It's about 5'5". Big, fat, tail.



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Dora Hates You

Yep... Jim Shipley
classic late 60s surf dude
good craftsman


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... positioning and selection

When I rented the inside part of the old Light Wave Factory in Canaveral, I went to California with Jim and Kurt Wilson. Steve Holloway let Shipman inside MY factory, he trashed the place, I had a bitchin' Al Dove airbrush painting, he flipped it over to use the back side for a table on top of a resin drum, of course the painting stuck to uncured resin on the paint side, ruined it.

I never had any respect for him after that, used my place with out my permission, used my materials, never saw him again

I love hearing these old stories about surfing in the 60s. Sometimes I think I was born in the wrong era...

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"A man is a success if he gets up in the morning, goes to bed at night, and enjoys what he does in between" 

There are two Shipley's.

Jack Shipley lives in Hawaii and owned the original Lighting Bolt shop.

He's been judging pro contests for years until he was recently retired.

I've had dinner at his house many times in Hawaii and know him well.

The Shipley that was in Cocoa Beach was a different guy.



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Wooden Boards for Iron Men

right on Balsa Bill

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... positioning and selection

I lived in South CB ( 14th-15th Street ) and the area from the early 70's through 82..... I used to watch Jim Shipley shape boards at the "Old" CB Surfshop down by Fishermans Wharf, it was right next to the Mr. Grocer in a little tiny plaza by the putt putt golf, West side of the road just before the curve in A1A headed South out of CB towards Patrick. I had one of his boards...good ride!  The board you have is a classic single fin "Stinger"...one of his favorite shapes of the time. Gotta be worth something, and def a piece of the CB history for surfers.  I had a stinger also. He seemed like a mello guy and was always friendly to us Gremlins hanging around. I bought some OJ and Simms skateboard wheels from him too!  He even tried to start up a CB surf team ( 76 or 77 ??) at one point.  Just past his shop headed South was the Natural Art Surf Shop and of course , just before Patrick AFB was Quiet Flight Surf Shop.  Lots of good memories paddling out at the SandDollar Apts at 14th and 15th Streets        BTW...I believe Jim was friends with Greg Loehr (Pro Surfer and Skater who also shaped boards and helped get one of the first skateparks in FLA built...the "Paved Wave" in Cocoa! 

  Cheers!!

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SandDollarJohn

As noted by 14thStreetJohn, the high wings are a shape originally known as a Stinger. The first I saw was in Surfer Magazine. It was a Dick Brewer design featuring a stepped bottom, deep center tunnel like concave, and the ubiquitous "high wings". The idea was it would work like a hydro plane boat and ride like a wider board when traveling flat sections the perform like a narrow board when ridden on edge in steeper sections or while turning. The version provided to the masses eliminated the concave and step bottom (not friendly to glassing or sanding enmasse). While ridden impressively by guys like Larry Bertelman, Buttons, Ben Aipa they also provided a period of grotesque riding for only one move - speed down the line then lay down a huge "Bertleman" at the end of the wave (modern version is flap board up and down until a huge Arial maneuver can be done, even older version is run to nose to hang ten regardless of what wave is doing). These boards were also ridden with the fin all the way forward in the fin box. A lot of surfers probably liked them and rode them well. I thought they were not good boards.

Back in the mid 70,s I saved all my lawn mowing allowance I got from dad, and went to the Cocoa Beach surf shop that 14th street John mentioned and layed down $100 bucks for an awsome used Sebastian Inlet surfboard. Unfortunately it was hot. I brought it back to my local beach in Satellite and the guy it was stolen from Ray Call was right there to find it. He let me take it home cuz he said I had hot sisters but Jimmie Driggers showed up that evening and confiscated it.

I went back to cocoa beach surfshop and Jack Shipley told me "he bought the board in good faith and I was outta luck". Luckly Jimmie Driggers cracked the case and the thief who I decline to identify reimbursed my lost cash.

It all turned out for the good, cuz I took the money added about $25 bucks and got a sweet brand new Plastic Fantastic from the Outfit up by Ron Jons.

Actually the stinger design was invented by Ben Aipa for the south shore "townies" such as Bertleman and Buttons etc. Brewer and other north shore shapers had developed wingers some years earlier for big surf. They were winglike appendages like the stinger but much farther back on the board, usually in line with the leading edge of the fin. They were designed to give extra hold on big, steep waves, while the stinger was designed for the smaller less powerful south shore surf.

Man...did that logo bring back memories. Jim Shipley, hadn't thought about that name in a long time. In the early '70's Jim and his family managed the small apt complex on the corner of 15th St south and Orlando ave (A1A southbound). My GF and I lived on one of them. Jim shaped me a 7.0" single fin swallowtail. Bruce Williamson who also lived in the south Cocoa Beach surf ghetto area did an awesome flame airbrush job on it. Board rode great! I still have some old photos kicking around somewhere of me riding it on a good day at RC's. It might still be in the area, if anyone has it...please let me know. Jim was/is a trip. Yeah, he was a one of those guys who was just an all round craftsman, could do anything. He had one little thing we all thought was quirky. Jim apparently converted to Jehovah Witnesses and in the late '70's moved to the Carolina's someplace. Some years later I bumped into him in Cocoa Beach and he said he'd moved back. I asked what he's doing and he said that since the "Rapture" (or something) was going to happen leaving only Jehovah Witnesses on earth, he came back to Cocoa Beach so he and his family could "Claim" Cocoa Beach. Uh...Okaaay. Haven't seen or heard from him since. I have nothing at all bad to say about the guy...just (IMO) quirky.

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The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness -
John Kenneth Galbraith