sea hope

Another great interview via Glenn Sakamoto at Liquid Salt Magazine

Skip Frye is a leg endary surfer/shaper from the San Diego area of Cal i for nia. Skip is well known for his smooth style, affa ble per son al ity, and his tremen dous skill as a shaper. We spoke with Skip to learn about his life and love of surfing.

What was your child hood like?
I grew up in San Diego when it was small and quiet. I lived east of Mis sion Bay right on the edge of jackrab bits and horned toads before a tract of homes were built in my teenage years. As South ern Cal i for nia grew up, a lot of the wildlife was elim i nated. We really didn’t do any thing excep tional. Just the stan dard stuff like camp ing with my folks in the sum mer. The Boy Scouts and the YMCA were great train ing in swim ming that I could lean on and are impor tant for young peo ple who have an aspi ra tion to doing the surf ing thing.

When did you start surf ing?
In the spring of 1958. I am in my 52nd year of surf ing! It’s hard to believe, man – I don’t know where it went. It just went by.

Do you remem ber the first time you stood up on a board?
Pacific Beach. I had a friend who loaned me a balsa board. This was a year or two pre ced ing the advent of foam. The feel ing was unbe liev able – that’s why I’m still doing it! (laughs) It just grabbed me. I never really had some thing I really grav i tated to before. As soon as I stepped on a surf board – that was it.

What is it about surf ing that appeals to you?
Rid ing Mother Nature. The ocean. Just the fresh ness of it. It’s such a unique thing. Even to this day, I am still in awe and won der when I am watch ing some one slide down the face. I still get amazed by it.

Who did you look up to and admire when you were a young boy?
Mike Hyn son. I grew up with him and we were best bud dies. He actu ally shaped my boards for three or four years before I learned the craft and started doing it myself. He was a real go-for-it guy. A real for ward thinker and he always wanted to know what was going on and was into meet ing the who’s who of the sport. I was a wall flower, a shy kind of per son so I kind of tagged along with him. Because of him, I was exposed to the great peo ple and places in surf ing. I owe a lot of my expo sure to surf ing to Mike Hynson.

My first real influ ence as far as a hero goes, would be Dewey Weber. He was flam boy ant and flashy and quick. But prob a bly the main influ ence would be Phil Edwards. In fact, every body glob ally was influ enced by the way Edwards rode. He was also com plete in that he surfed and shaped.

There were other peo ple that came along,too. There were the Hawai ians like Paul Strauch. He was my favorite surfer of that time period. He’s still an avid surfer over at San Onofre with the Hawai ian Surf Club over there. He and Joey Cabell were two of the main peo ple from Hawaii that I really liked to watch and learn from. And George Down ing def i nitely. Down ing was a lit tle older than I was and I didn’t really expe ri ence him when I was in the islands, but I know of him and his influ ence. I really respect him as much as any body in the sport for his contributions.

hat is the great est thing you have learned in your life?
The great est thing I have learned in my life would prob a bly be my rela tion ship with Jesus Christ. The real ness of who He is, and what He is and His influ ence in my life. That’s it – there is noth ing else that is even close.

What are you most proud of?
I’ve been blessed. God gave me a rela tion ship with the ocean and I am blessed in spite of my early behav ior. My first mar riage suf fered because surf ing inter fered with my work ethic. I had to re-learn what my pri or i ties are in my life. Now, I try to reflect God’s love and light with every thing around me. It’s not easy – human nature goes against all of that. The water is a great way of see ing all of that. Like a crowded day at Mal ibu. (laughs)

Tell us about term “aloha”
It’s get ting more and more crowded out there every day as the sport grows by leaps and bounds. We have to learn about the aloha spirit. One thing that goes against that is com pet i tive surf ing. It’s in the media fore front so to a lot of peo ple that are in the water – they act like it’s a heat.

I used to com pete and in fact I have ben e fited from com pet ing in two dif fer ent eras. But I am not so much into that any more. I don’t really attend any of the com pet i tive for mat things just because I just don’t like that aspect of surf ing. I just like it when you go out with your friends and have fun and every body is num ber one. In the com pet i tive for mat, there is only one per son that really feels good about it.

How impor tant is style?
To me, I was nur tured that way through my surf ing. I just tried to emu late the peo ple that were styl ish and had style. I really think that no mat ter what you are doing or how you are doing it, as long as you are hav ing fun in the water. To me, the best per son is the one that is hav ing the most fun. You don’t nec es sar ily have to be stylish.

It’s the guys that are really flow ing with the ocean and are really smooth are the kind of peo ple I like to look at. Edwards, Hyn son, Cabell, and Dora. And Strauch in the islands – oh, those were the years! Unbe liev able. So flow ing and smooth and beau ti ful to watch.

Who do you feel are shap ing the path for surf ing today?
You got to go to Joel Tudor. A lot of the style and artic u la tion of a surf board with the surfers of the 60s – has kind of been lost. Tudor was one of the first guys in the mod ern era. I really enjoyed his whole pres ence in the water and his approach. Jimmy Gam boa of Mal ibu is really smooth, a lot of surfers at San Onofre like Colin McPhillips – I like his approach and atti tude. We also got a young guy here, Josh Hall – I really like his approach.

What about up and com ing shapers?
Josh Hall. Jeff McCol lum. Michael Miller. These young guys are together. Way more together than I was at their age! And espe cially in this day and age with every thing – soci ety being the way it is. It’s pretty excit ing to see the way these guys are honed in.

What’s your favorite board these days?
The 11 foot ers. It was March of ’90 when I first crafted those blanks. It was the most stoked I have ever been – just the speed and glide on those boards was such a feel ing. It is the 20th anniver sary since mak ing those boards.

What was the inspi ra tion behind your famous winged logo?
I think I saw it in a mag a zine. Duke (Kahanamoku) had shaped this one red wood board that had a “V” with wings that were com ing off of it that was chis eled into the deck. I worked at Gor don and Smith learn ing my craft and in ’66 I wanted to make a model. It was the model era – every one had to have a model. The graphic artist at the time was an older lady. I told her to draw me up some wings and that what she came up with. I’ve had it ever since. I think it con veys what surf ing is – like fly ing along. And I’ve always been told I surf like a pelican!

What kind of music do you lis ten to?
Well there are two gen res of music that I like a lot. One of them is gospel – the African-American por tion of it. I actu ally spon sor a gospel radio sta tion, 1040 AM in San Diego. This sta tion keeps my faith. And I also like the energy that is in the African-American churches.

I actu ally got in trou ble when I was being inter­viewed and I should have answered the Beach Boys but that never really did any thing for me. It was always Otis Red ding or Wil son Pick ett. And James Brown was the ulti mate. The other genre that is my favorite is Afro-Latin, or Cuban music. Peo ple like Pan cho Sanchez or Tito Puente. Tito Puente was always a favorite. In fact, the day my shop closed, he died.

Of all the places you’ve been, which is your favorite and why?
I’ve got ten to go to a lot of places. I like the Caribbean a lot. I got to go to Puerto Rico for a World Con test back in ’68. Aus tralia and New Zealand are fan tas tic. New Zealand espe cially because the peo ple are the most hos pitable I have ever encoun tered. I’ve been to Costa Rica. And I want to get over to Hawaii before I get too old and surf Waikiki on a big board at all the breaks. On a big board it would be epic. Like the Duke.

What’s your favorite meal?
I like Mex i can food a lot but I’ve been try ing to eat a lit tle health ier. I eat sal ads a lot. I like sushi. You know, you get to a cer tain age and your weight becomes a prob lem. If I didn’t have to watch my weight, it would prob a bly be a cou ple of beef tacos and a bean and cheese bur rito! (laughs)

What’s next for Skip Frye?
Just keep doing what I am doing. Surf ing and shap ing. Get ting closer to God. I’ll be 70 in lit tle over a year and just want to live out my life in the right way.

Pho tos of Skip Frye pro vided by the mak ers of the film One California Day.