List of Wardy boards in Appendix B

Photographs by:
Krystal Mora: 1–3d, 5–5c, 12–12b, 18d, 36–36c, 37–37b
Warm Studio (Kyle Blatchford and Serena Lutton), Costa Mesa, CA: 6–6c, 8–11c, 13–13e, 14–14d, 16–16e, 17–17e, 18–18a, 18c, 18e–20d, 24–25e, 28–29e

Unless otherwise named, boards are from three private collections, identified as 1, 2, or 3.

All boards are foam unless balsa is noted.

The measurements given are the lengths.

(FW) indicates a quotation from Frederick Wardy.

See the “Wardy Surfboards″ essay for further information on many of these boards, their fins, and discussion of their construction.

1 to 1d. foam and two balsa, priv. coll. (1), as of, and photographed in, July 2017.

2 to 2f. priv. coll. (1), as above

3 to 3b. priv. coll. (1), as above

3c. to 3d. Joey Hamasaki endorsement signature (laminant) with Wardy logo and full view on the floor, priv. coll. (1), as above    

4 to 4c. balsa, Collection of the Surfing Heritage and Culture Center, San Clemente, CA

4d and 4e. balsa, Collection of the Surfing Heritage and Culture Center, San Clemente, CA, shown at the Huntington Beach International Surfing Museum, Huntington Beach, CA, in an exhibition entitled “SURF2SKATE,” 2018.

5 to 5c. balsa, priv. coll. (1)
c. Some laminated wood fins were “beaded,” meaning they were covered with fiberglass, with a strip of the fiberglass extending from the wood on their perimeters. This helped to protect the wood from being damaged by water.

6 to 6c. balsa, 10', priv. coll. (2)
c. “More of a slant to the left (toward the nose) might have been better with this fin.” (FW) 

7. balsa, 7'7″, Collection of Jim Cocores
“This balsa board is small relatively speaking and was probably made for a young person.” (FW) The fin is not shown because it replaced the original.

8 to 8b. 9'6″, priv. coll. (2)
b. The logo on this board is the first type used by Wardy. He drew it by hand, and a copy on paper (laminant) would have been then fiberglassed onto a board.

9 to 9e. 9'4″, priv. coll. (2)
b. “When applying the fiberglass to the shaped foam, we put four layers along the perimeters of the boards and two layers on both the top and the bottom of each board. With exposure to the sun, the difference in the thickness of the layers caused the foam to age differently. Typically, including here, the areas with two layers over the foam turned darker over time.” (FW)

e. “In general, to achieve overall balance, we moved the fin up from the end a small amount because the widest point of the board is closer to center. The fin works beautifully with the board shape.” (FW)

10 to 10e. 10', priv. coll. (2)
“This is a ‘stock board’ in that it has four layers of fiberglass and no tail block details or paint job anywhere, just a straight aesthetic and a nice-looking board. One or more stringers down the center of a board is a t-band. Redwood and/or balsa were usually the wood choices for the stringers.” (FW)

The 10' length of this board would have suited a tall person.

11 to 11c. 9'10″, Collection of Jim Cocores
“The black tip at the nose was probably added later, perhaps after damage to the nose. The nice-looking fin blends into the body of the board very well.” (FW) 

12 to 12b. priv. coll. (1)
This board, which has a wide balsa stringer, is the beach break type, which was designed for shallower water than was sought for other longboards. Often referred to as “beach break″ boards today, these boards show up in Wardy’s advertising in 1965. They were basically smaller surfboards to be used close to the shore. 

13 to 13f. 9'8″, priv. coll. (3)
e. “This board has a nice fin. Everything flows beautifully.

We did a lot of experimentation with fins. The possibility of many variations with fins made it interesting and exciting. I used to ride a lot and trusted myself more than anyone else to try out fins, but I also asked Dave Martin and Ron Sizemore, one of my crew, to help to test them. Both Martin and Sizemore were outstanding surfers.” (FW)

14 to 14d. 10'4″, priv. coll. (2)

15 to 15a. from a photography shoot at Main Beach, Laguna Beach, CA, July 1965 (coll. unknown)
This board had seven stringers. Main Beach was not far from the Wardy Surfboards shop. The shots were produced as 2-inch square slides. Still in Wardy’s possession, they were used for these digital images.

16 to 16f. 9'6″, priv. coll. (2)
Wardy did research on putting lines on boards and believes that he was the first to use a Rapidograph (a draftman’s pen with permanent ink) in surfboard making. In the case of Fig. 16, he has noted that “the lines were only part of the aesthetic, which included redwood stringers. The redwood stringers were likely the same or nearly the same shade when the board was made; but once the fiberglass was applied, the redwood sometimes had a different shade.” (FW)

e. The outside lines at the top of the tail do not take the curve as the redwood does so they retain their straightness.

17 to 17f. 9'6″, priv. coll. (2)
Here there are two outside stringer units, each one-eighth of an inch of redwood. Down the center is a two-inch balsa stringer, with one-eighth of an inch of redwood on each side. The board has a blue fiberglass tail block, its color matching the fin.

18 to 18g. 10'8″, priv. coll. (2)
The outside lines were drawn using a pen.

d. Tail blocks were decorative but also protected the board to a degree. The process usually involved gluing together three pieces of laminated wood to create the tail, cutting off a small part of the end of the board, gluing the tail in place, then shaping it to fit the board. In some cases, laminated wood and fiberglass were used for the tail block, with the color of the fiberglass matching that of the fin.” (FW) 

19 to 19d. 9'2″, priv. coll. (2)

20 to 20d. 10'3½″, priv. coll. (2)

21 to 21b. Collection of Jim Cocores

22 to 22c. 10'2″, priv. coll. (2), restored by Randy Rarick

23 to 23e. 9'7″, priv. coll. (2), color restored
d. This foam board has an unusual use of balsa.

24 to 24e. 9'5″, priv. coll. (2)

25 to 25e. 9'7″, priv. coll. (2)
d., e. “This fin flows into the board. I played around with this sort of thing a lot.” (FW) The fin probably dates from 1964 or 1965.

26 to 26c. Collection of Jim Cocores

27 to 27c. 9'6″, Collection of Jim Cocores 

28 to 28d. 9'4″, priv. coll. (2)

29 to 29e. 11', priv. coll. (2)

30 to 30b. taken following a photo shoot, April 23, 2022, priv. coll. (2)

31 to 31c. as above 

32 to 32a. boards behind the scenes at the photo shoot noted above, priv. coll. (2)

33 to 33e. from the July 1965 photo shoot at Main Beach, Laguna Beach, referenced above. One of Wardy’s crew members, Bob Spencer (aka, The Fly or Jean-Pierre van Swae), is pictured here. The fin in 33e was chosen for the cover of The Surfer’s Journal (June/July 2023, 32.3) in conjunction with an article by Lance Conragan, “Uncommon Skill & Meticulous Attention.”

34. from the Main Beach photo shoot.

35. balsa, as above 

36 to 36c. priv. coll. (1)

36d to 36f. from the Main Beach photo shoot

37 to 37b. priv. coll. (1)

38. priv. coll. unknown

39 to 39a. 9'7″, Collection of Lance Conragan

40 to 40b. 10'6″, Collection of Dr. Barton H. Wachs

41. Collection of Ken Hall

42 to 42a. in an office area of McKenna Subaru, Huntington Beach, CA, priv. coll.

43 to 43b. hand-shaped by Wardy at Hobie’s factory in San Juan Capistrano, CA, in 1997, showroom of McKenna Subaru, 2023, priv. coll.

44. Mike Armstrong with a Wardy board, photograph from the archive of Randy Rarick

45 to 45c. priv. coll., South Carolina

46 to 46a. Bill Longenecker and his Wardy board, Collection of Bill Longenecker, Florida

47 to 47a. Don Granada’s board in Southern California, after restoration by Randy Rarick on Oahu, 2022; Granada and Wardy with Granada’s newly received board, Long Beach, CA, 2022

48 to 48a. According to Rarick in an email to this author (July 4, 2023), this board was all original when it passed through his hands to a collector. He added: “I thought it was significant, as it was a factory green tint in really good original condition.” Photographs from the archive of Randy Rarick

49 to 49a. These boards were eventually restored by Rarick. Photographs from the archive of Randy Rarick

50 to 50a. belly board, Collection of Jim Cocores

51 to 51a. belly board, with aged wax, Collection of Ryan Frisby

52 to 52a. skateboard, Philippine mahogany,  same skateboard as at the Huntington International Surfing Museum, “Surf2Skate” exhibition, 2018, Huntington Beach, Fig. 4d and 4e

53 to 53a. a Wardy board to the left of the entrance to a surfboard installation sponsored by the Surfing Heritage and Culture Center at the Hobie Surf shop, Corona del Mar, CA, 2017; a view of another Wardy board (collection unknown) on a rack in the installation

54. same board as in 50, here in the current Hobie Surf Shop in Laguna Beach, 2023

55. Ron Sizemore and Wardy in the Laguna Beach Marine and Safety building, 175 North Pacific Coast Highway, with a 10'6” Wardy board from 1963 on the wall, given to Wardy on a street in New York City