APPENDIX C

Observations about Wardy surfboards
by writers on surfing and others

Authors from Petersen’s Surfing Yearbook (issues 1 and 2) and Gerry Lopez, Greg Noll, Randy Rarick, Lance Conragan, Jim Cocores, Ron Sizemore, Chuck Bassett, Paul Rappaport, Larry Howlett, Carl Samo Abejon, Bill Longenecker, Rev. David Tamaoka, Ken Hall, and Dr. Barton H. Wachs.

“Interviews with the Greats,” Surfing Yearbook (Petersen’s, 1963), p. 57, “FREDERICK WARDY.”
“Situated under a picturesque eucalyptus tree on Forest Avenue in Laguna Beach is the headquarters of “Wardy Surfboards.” Frederick Wardy, the owner, is a soft spoken craftsman of 27 who probably would have been successful in many other fields. A former student of UCLA and a graduate of the University of Hawaii, “Wardy” has his high school teaching credentials in the field of language.

Surfing and making balsa boards (while still in school) for himself and friends was the beginning for Wardy in the manufacturing business. His company, with a branch in Pasadena, is now considered among the top in quality and quantity. Still single and an avid athlete, Wardy feels that while surfing is one of the greatest individual sports, it shouldn’t be the only sport or interest in the lives of some of the younger surfers. Reading good books, dabbing with a paint brush and other activities help keep Wardy busy. He also enjoys swimming, handball and volleyball.

Wardy still loves surfing and making surfboards, but advises, “Don’t let the sport dominate your life. Be careful not to use surfing just for status or recognition. Keep your life in balance and go surfing for the pure enjoyment of the sport.”

Richard W. Graham, “A Look at the Boards,” Surfing Yearbook (Petersen’s, 1963, p. 74, “WARDY.”
“The name “Wardy Surfboards” has been popular in surfing circles for approximately seven and a half years now. In this period of time, Frederick Wardy has built his boards without the use of gimmicks in shape or color to draw attention to his product. The Wardy Shop at 806 East Colorado Blvd in Pasadena has become as well known to San Fernando Valleyites as his shop in Laguna is to the beach community.

Wardy makes a board that features a six month written guarantee against foam discoloration, the fin breaking off, or the board breaking in two. All Wardy boards are hand sanded where the two layers of glass overlap, according to Bob Machado, one of the industry’s top glassers. The hand sanding of the overlap causes the glass to blend together more than if it were merely cut with a blade.”

Dick Graham, “All About Surfboards,” Petersen’s Surfing Yearbook No. 2, 1965, p. 117, “WARDY.”
“Frederick Wardy has been manufacturing surfboards for approximately nine years. After becoming interested in the sport at an early age, he decided to experiment with some of his ideas and theories. He started off by making boards of balsa wood, and later, of polyurethane foam. Although the operation has expanded greatly through the years, the main shop is still located in a red, barn-like building in Laguna Beach at 525 Forest Avenue. The most recent expansion is the opening of a Wardy Surfboards in Honolulu, located at 1610 Kalakaua Avenue.

Although operating on a much larger scale than in the early days, Wardy and his competent staff still devote maximum effort to the most minute detail in connection with each individual surfboard. Surfing has grown tremendously since then, and the industry has grown with it, but a Wardy surfboard is still ‘custom-built’ board made by skilled craftsmen. Then men who built these boards are Bob Machado, glasser, and Stuart Burgess, sander.

The materials that go into the boards are polyurethane foam manufactured by Clark Foam Products (and balsa wood), a durable, 10-ounce fiberglass cloth with a flat-weave finish, and an isopthalic [sic, isophthalic] resin. Each board carries a guarantee against breakage, and is designed for maximum performance, speed and maneuverability in all types of surf—special shapes being available to follow individual requirements at no extra cost.

However, not satisfied that a better board cannot be built in the future, Wardy and his staff members maintain a research and development program in which new materials, techniques and theories are constantly being tested.”

GERRY LOPEZ (well-known surfer, surfboard maker, and writer about surfing)
Our Surfboards Then & Yet Becoming (www.gerrylopezsurfboards.com/blog/2014/4/9/our-surfboards-then-and-yet-becoming) 
“Wardy was a classic old style surfboard builder, instilling his own high quality work ethic in all who worked for him. Every board was a masterpiece of perfection in every stage. The building process began with the shape, then progressed to the finely detailed wood tail blocks and fins, beautiful and clean laminations, and the buffed high gloss finish. Although he didn't know me, Fred Wardy had the same effect on me as he did on his employees. His finely crafted boards gave me a standard of surfboard quality to aspire toward when I began to build my own boards.

John Thurston's Wardy shop was different. Right away he welcomed us and didn’t mind us hanging around after school. Every day we would show up, touch all the boards, ask a million questions and wish we could own one of the gleaming beauties. Finally, after a lot of mowed lawns and pulled weeds added to Christmas money and whatever savings I had, my father put up the balance and I got a shiny new board. John had been a shaper and laminator for Fred Wardy at the Laguna Canyon factory before coming to Hawaii. Rennie Yater also had worked for Wardy briefly before moving to Santa Barbara and starting his own Yater Surfboards Company.”

In February 2022, Lopez elaborated on his memories about Wardy boards in an email to Lance Conragan, who forwarded it to this author on February 20, 2022.
“It was no surprise when I heard that Wardy moved to NYC and became a successful artist. I was only 14 years old when I became familiar with his work. John Thurston moved to Honolulu to open a Wardy Surfboards shop on Kalakaua Avenue around 1963, just down the street from my high school. The boards on the rack were each unique masterpieces of perfection in every stage from blank, shape, glass job, finish work, everything. . . . I owned a beautiful light green tint, 3” redwood stringer beauty in my sophomore and junior years. All the boards in that shop were finely crafted works of art that gave me a standard of quality to aspire towards when I began to build my own boards and especially when Jack Shipley and I started our Lightning Bolt surf shop.”

GREG NOLL (well-known surfer and longboard shaper)
In 2007, Greg Noll gave his opinion of Wardy’s work when speaking with Lance Conragan. who recounted the conversation in a blog in 2012. After “thumbing” through Drew Kampion’s Greg Noll: The Art of the Surfboard (2007), Noll “dished” on surfboards and his decades in the industry in general. When Conragan asked him about Wardy, Noll replied: “‘Wardy was more than a surfboard shaper, he was a friggin artist, his boards were perfect! And he was the nicest damn guy you could ever meet.’”

RANDY RARICK (well-known surf historian and restoration specialist)
From an email (June 18, 2022) to this author for use in “Wardy Surfboards” on this website.
“I had the pleasure of visiting the Wardy dealership in Honolulu in the mid-60’s. John Thurston was the manager, and the shop was located on the mauka end of Kalakaua Avenue at the start of Waikiki. At that time, there were only two manufactures locally, being Surfboards Hawaii and Inter-Island Surf Shop, which then became Surfboards Makaha. So, the mainland manufactures had dealerships, with Surf Line Hawaii carrying eight different mainland brands and Hobie and Greg Noll being represented by stand-alone dealerships. So it was a big deal when Wardy opened up a shop.

I remember a very young Gerry Lopez rode Wardy’s and also Roy Metzger, who was one of the hot guys in the mid-60’s.”

From the same email.
“Since I was one of the repair guys at Surf Line Hawaii, I had the opportunity to repair thousands of surfboards and invariably a number of Wardy’s came into the shop for repairs. I was always impressed as to what clean glass-jobs they had and the cool stringers. Whereas a lot of the other brands relied on colors, radical fins and other gimmicks, the Wardy’s were always very understated and conservative. They let the shapes and quality of the glass work do the talking for them. Subsequently, you see a lot of ‘clear’ Wardy’s.

Fast forward, fifty-five years later and when it comes to full restorations of Wardy’s, they are one of my favorite boards to work on. The quality of the glass work means they held up really well. They have a unique swept-back fin template or the even more unique ‘reverse’ fin template. Black only logo and as mentioned, lack of color work makes them an easy board to work on. To date, I have probably restored a few dozen Wardys and all have been exquisite.” 

In conversation with Wardy in person (February 2, 2022) while on a trip to California. Rarick talked about the “quality of the materials used” in Wardy’s boards and how they “have held up very well.” He also noted that, “The glass work is amazing, and the double classing technique added to the strength of the boards.”

LANCE CONRAGAN (longtime surfer, surfboard collector, and writer about surfing)
From a longboard blog in or about 2017, under the name “Surfnfish.”
Conragan recalled purchasing his first Wardy board in San Francisco in a shop that carried Wardy boards. Among his remarks are: 

“The board was magic, and really helped me up my game. Of all the longboards I ever owned back in the day, which included a Weber Performer, Bing Lightweight, Trestle Special, Hansen Master, and a couple other gems, the Wardy is the one I wish I still had today.”

Conragan revised his comments about acquiring a Wardy board and added other commentary in an email to this author, August 23, 2017.
“My first custom surfboard was a Wardy, ordered from Al Giddings at the Bamboo Reef Dive Shop in SF early summer of ‘64. Al later sold the business and became the go to underwater film buyer for Hollywood films starting with the movie Jaws.

I had saved my lawn cutting $ for over a year, folks kicked in, and I agonized for a month before placing the order: 9’8″clear, T-band center stringer with 1/8″ outside stringers, two thin diagonal racing pinlines, 7-piece tailblock, and a first-generation speed skeg. 

When the board finally arrived after a several month wait and I paddled it out for the first time, it instantly became the best board I had ever ridden. Superbly balanced, ‘neutral’ handling, easy turning and fast down the line. That board created a lot of memories over the next few years including for the transplanted Hawaiian gal who needed a board and became my girlfriend . . . she liked the board that much . . . lol.

Over the decades, I surfed, travelled the world extensively, ordered well over a hundred custom boards from some fine shapers including some of the ‘big names’—and if I could have a single board from my past, it would be that Wardy.”

While preparing his article on Wardy’s years as a surfboard maker and then as a painter and sculptor for The Surfer’s Journal (32.3, June/July 2023), Conragan wrote in an email (July 15, 2022) to this author about Wardy “not being satisfied with the status quo” and that he “wanted to find ways to improve board building.” He continued with:

“Wardy was just plain interested in learning how to make things and how things work. He tinkered to find out what made a difference in shaping for speed and for different sizes of waves. Not only did he take the initiative to teach himself how to make boards, he developed new ways of making them and taught many others who went on to own their own shops or work for others. It was hard work, and he became one of the best. His longboards gave scope to his ingenuity and creative energy, his sense of both sculptural and graphic design, his engineering skill, and his perseverance and openness to experimenting with and mastering new mediums. Money does not seem to have been Wardy’s primary motivation as much as a love of experimenting and making things and the pleasure of the process.”

Conragan on the surfing history of “the tribal Elders” (surfboard markers of the mid-to-late 1950s and the 1960s), from an email (August 15, 2017) to this author. 
“All of this [the worldwide interest in surfing in a short period of time] started from a small handful of pioneers, craftsmen and artists only several generations removed, the tribal Elders whose impact on the tribe has been vast. The more we can learn about the unique, individualistic spirits that brought our Elders to the water’s edge, the richer the history of our tribe is.

And may I say that I personally recognize the value of your efforts [this author’s] to document this story about Frederick Wardy, his unique nexus of surfing and art.”

With the perspective of learning the extent and stylistic characteristics of Wardy’s output as a painter and sculptor during his many years in New York, Conragan connected the two parts of Wardy’s professional life, from an email of June 20, 2022.
“The evolution of his designs prefigured his subsequent, continual experiments as an artist with color, gesture, line, rhythm, space, etc. He had already trained himself to see beyond a block of wood or a plain surface. Later, when he went to New York at age thirty-six, he was very excited and full of energy. His physical abilities, already long demonstrated in swimming, surfing, and hard work, added greatly to the physical process of painting large canvases and sculptures and to his tremendous output in many mediums. He also brought his sense of quality, superb sense of design, and love of sculptural form, color, and line with him.”

JIM COCORES (owner of the Thalia Surf Shop in Laguna Beach from 1995 to 2010,
and a major collector of surfboards)
Email to this author (June 17, 2022).
“I’ve owned many surfboards and since I began collecting in the 1980s, and Wardy Surfboards is the only surfboard company I've been partial to. I also love the advertising images of Wardy Surfboards and have collected some of them, including those I displayed as a group at the Thalia Surf Shop.”

From the same email.
“When I grew up in Alhambra [about eight miles east of Los Angeles, about five miles from Pasadena], there were not a lot of surf shops around. A good friend of mine and my cousin John and I used to visit the Wardy shop in Pasadena. We learned a lot about surfboards on each trip. We saved our money, and then the three of us went to the Wardy shop and we each ordered a custom Wardy surfboard. Mine was a beach break model.”

RON SIZEMORE (former crew member of Wardy Surfboards)
Conversation with author (Aug. 2022).
“Wardy surrounded himself with people who were genuine craftsmen and who took an extreme amount of pride in what they were producing under his employment. Everyone took a lot of time and effort with what they were doing for him. It was a genuine pleasure to work for Wardy.” Sizemore has also emphasized that the crew members worked together easily, ascribing that to the fact that “They were nice people.”

CHUCK BASSETT
Email to author (May 3, 2023).
“My first Wardy was a tee-band stringer design with an all-glass pigmented fin that was very popular at the time. The second Wardy had a solid redwood stringer. There were several others I owned around that time. Whenever I was doing a repair job on someone’s board, I reluctantly loaned out one of my Wardy’s. Lucky for me, I got my boards back. Riding a balsa wood Wardy was like driving a luxury car. A very smooth glide compared to a foam surfboard. My circle of friends and I would usually see Ron Sizemore surfing Doheny on a Wardy and of course we wanted desperately to surf just like Ron.”

PAUL RAPPAPORT
Email to the author June 14, 2023).
“I began surfing in 1962 at the age of 14. I had seen the movie Gidget Goes Hawaiian and thought, “You get to ride waves like that and when you arrive back on the beach cute girls are waiting for you in bikinis?? I’m in!!” I realize that my generation caused the Southern California surf scene to explode and that we were responsible for the overcrowding that began on adored breaks like Miki Dora’s treasured Malibu. For that I apologize. But the way things were happening, it was going to be hard keeping something as beautiful and spiritual as surfing a secret. Besides, if it weren’t for guys like me, visionaries like Frederick Wardy wouldn’t have been able to bring their artistic visions to life. And when we are talking Wardy, we are talking visionary and art.

When I was 17 years old, I sold my used Hobie for another secondhand board, a Wardy. Blue-collar kids like me could only afford one board at a time and not until my fourth surfboard was I able to purchase a brand new one. Long before social media and the internet, if you didn’t go to a shop, you bought and sold by word of mouth. Some kid knew some kid who knew some kid—you get the idea.

The Wardy, even pre-owned, was a big step up for me. My previous two boards, although adequate, were pretty basic shapes. When I went to visit the fellow who was selling the Wardy and first laid eyes on it, I was entranced. Stunned really. It was so beautiful I couldn’t take my eyes off it. Not beautiful because it had cool color patterns, intrinsically beautiful because of its simplicity and shape. It was your basic clear board, just foam and a stringer. But that was where basic ended. The board was made with the whitest foam I’d ever seen which showed off the quarter inch redwood stringer in an elegant fashion. It had that great Wardy logo in black about a third way up from the tail and boasted a black fin. So, snow white with black accents—and the rich looking redwood stringer the star of the show.

That crisp striking look was what you saw on your initial glance. Upon further inspection you began to appreciate the sculpture. I’m not sure if Wardy shaped it himself or if it was done by one of his trusted hands, but whoever shaped it was really going for something special and they achieved it. At 9’6” it was thinner than most boards of that era and had very little rocker. Looked revolutionary. Even without a lot of volume the outline was broad enough to make it an easy paddle. The pièce de résistance was the nose. It was wide and the thinnest I’ve ever seen to this day. The foam had been shaved down so thin that if I held the board up to the sunlight and put my hand behind the nose, I could see the outline of my fingers.

That was the thing about Wardys, they weren’t repeated model shapes named after a particular surfer. Each was individual, had its own soul. Having spent my life in the music business I would describe it this way. If Hobie was The Rolling Stones, turning out good surfboards albeit in an ultra-commercial style, Wardy was like Lou Reed’s Velvet Underground. Hip, cool, eclectic, even a bit eccentric. I am not surprised that Frederick Wardy went on to be a great painter and sculptor.

The way that board operated in the water was unreal. It turned beautifully and when you got up to that nose you could just stay there for your whole ride watching the water plane away from each side. It was on this surfboard that I found my style and became a good surfer. I spent many days at Doheny Beach taking beautiful right handers, running up to the nose, crouching down to a cheater five, and just staying there in trim across the face of the wave on rides that seemed to last forever. My only challenge came at rocky breaks like Salt Creek where I feared losing my board on a big day and having that gorgeous nose crack up on the rocks. I was more concerned for the board than my own safety.

On a side note, my father was in the reconditioning 55-gallon steel drum business in Los Angeles. He bought used drums, cleaned them up and sold them by the hundreds to eagerly awaiting oil, paint, chemical, and food companies. When I told him that all the surfboard shops used resin and acetone that came in drums, he asked me to work up a route for him that I could travel once a month buying up all their used barrels.

I drove a huge truck with bars along the sides to which were tied ropes that held rows of drums in place. The truck was 40 feet long and had eight speeds forward and two speeds in reverse. An overhang on top of the cab was handy for adding an extra 24 barrels. The truck fully loaded held 200 drums.

One of my favorite stops was Wardy’s. The shop was in a mysterious barn. You couldn’t see inside so I always felt like the surfboards being designed in there were top secret. Made me feel even more special because I owned one.

I still own my original WARDY IS KING blue T-shirt. Back then all the surfboard builders had their own slogans, “The Best,” “The Greatest,” etc. And all us guys teased each other relentlessly about who had the best surfboard. I always had fun piping up with, “You guys can say whatever you want, but Wardy is King!”

LARRY HOWLETT
Email to author (June 27, 2022).
Visiting Wardy’s shop was “one of the most wonderful connections I have ever had, one that changed my life from thirteen to the present,” he says and adds, “Boards like mine made during the 1960s touched many lives.” After talking by telephone with Wardy in 2022, Howlett emailed him the following: “Thank you, Fred, for a lifetime of surfing memories—There is only One ‘First Surfboard,’ and you, my friend made it so very special even to this day.”

CARL SAMO ABEJON
Email to and conversation with author (June 10, 2023).
“All my Wardy boards were great, medium glass weight and strong. They turned well and trimmed nicely. Even at a young age I could tell there was thought and knowledge put forth. New designs were mostly subtle, and I was playing catch-up! I do remember an 8’6” yellow color that was nimble. The Joey Hamasaki model held trim great through tubes, and nose riding was superb, but my all-around fav was the 3-stringer parallel railed 9-footer. I first bought a new Wardy at the shop in the alley behind the bowling alley in Pasadena. I had gotten into the Midway Club, and they told me about "Wardy in the alley"! The shop was tiny!!—a little quaint. It had some posters and I think netting with palm fronds hanging down. Most of my boards were 9 feet or longer. A few 10 footers helped me get in the wave early and speed trim along! The shorter were more maneuverable, but the longer ones were great cruisers. They didn't bounce in larger waves!”

BILL LONGENECKER
Conversation with author (Sept. 22, 2022).
Longenecker, who grew up in Florida, visited his brother in Laguna Beach in June 1964 and remembers, “The other goal was to go to the Wardy Shop ‘under the eucalyptus tree,’ as one ad said, to order my first truly custom surfboard.”

Longenecker thinks he met Wardy then and recalls his experience at the shop: “I did go through the process of describing just what I wanted to guys who were very nice and patient. My new board arrived [in Florida] by truck about three weeks later, and I took it from the box to the ocean within minutes. I was the very proud owner of the only Wardy surfboard in our community, and maybe in the South.”

REV. DAVID TAMAOKA, Senior Pastor, Grace Fellowship Hawaii, Waipahu, Hawaii
Email to author (October 26, 2021).
“I took one look at it, knew it was special, and just had to have it. I rode it for over four years and got it down, wired. Randy [Rarick] saw it when I surfed Sunset [Beach] with him and a friend and told me it was a great board, especially with the ‘Hawaii’ on it.

The board was just what I have grown to love: Classic. Good solid weight for trimming and gliding. Straight rocker for easy paddle and early entry. The narrower nose with no concave made it trickier to noseride, but I figured it out. The wider point back with that beautiful D fin made for nice, slightly pivoted turns, but could still draw out of the arc a bit too. It was a head turner, which was a bonus, everyone would ask about it at the showers. They would say how amazing it looked, especially for its age (mid-60s). That board will be unforgettable.”

KEN HALL
Email to author (May 17, 2023).
“I wanted a Wardy Surfboard because it’s an iconic name in the surf industry and Fred’s boards are works of art. Mine is prominently displayed in our home and I love showing it off and talking about our friendship with the Wardy family.”

DR. BARTON H. WACHS
Email to author (May 25, 2023).
“In 1965, I became familiar, like so many of us who lived in Long Beach and further south, with Wardy Surfboards. It was fifty years later when the legend walked into my Long Beach office. It’s been fun and a privilege to be able to see his 10 six in my home and hung high on a rafter.”