It all started with the fish when the innovative shapers and board builders out there decided to revisit the past for some inspiration. In doing so they brought back some lost skills such as resin tints and hand foiled fins.The Fish Fry has been a place for these fine craftsmen to showcase their skills. We have seen some amazing boards as shapers have pushed the boundaries over the last few years. As this new look at the fish has evolved to its many forms, it has influenced other shapes and designs along the way.This has spawned a renewed interest in other board forms by this same group and a wider following.Notably the Mini Simmons, Hulls, old school Logs and Pigs. It is pleasing to note that there are an increasing number of people building their own boards as well.All of this is to be applauded and celebrated as a positive for surfing.So it is only natural that these shapers and board builders continue to share their skills with us and include these other shapes at the Fish Fry.It has truly become a melting pot of ideas for like minded people.

Fish Fry 5 - 2011, a great day had by all once again.

Tom Wegener finless fun




Tom with plenty of demo boards

Sam Yoon with his latest big fish waxing up to give it a run.

Nice Sammy

Von Weirdo surveys the days offerings

A few logs showed up with guys on their way up to Noosa for next weekend. Not ideal but it is a public park .

A picket fence of finless boards - Seaglass

Sage Joske with his Olo and Alaias and a great rider of both.

A nice school of Valla fish.

Fins to get your head around...



Jesse Watson and Jordie Brown get down to details


Some of the best foiled wooden fins in the business on the Valla boards

Tom and Carl discuss the finer points



All these shots a by : Mark Sutton/Board Culture. Thanks mate for your support and help on the day.
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Fish shapers night at The Gold Coast Surf World Mueum

A great facility that the Gold Coast should be very proud of.

Ryan Lovelace , Point Concept Surfboards from Santa Barbara .

Rich "Toby" Pavel from San Diego and the proud owner of "The Green Room"

Jordan Nobel , Note Surfboards from Victoria



A great night was held on Saturday night prior to the Fish Fry on Sunday. What a great facility and how relevant to be gathered there surounded with such an extensive collection of surfing history .Rich representing the older guard and Jordan and Ryan the new young guns taking us forward is so good. Young guys , hand shapers and passionate to the core. They all had a great message and some interesting questions were put to them.
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Ronnie has one all polished up for the Fry


Great looking boards by Ronnie Goddard for the Fish Fry in a couple of days. Balsa and redwood rails with Ferrari red laminate. It looks fast.Great to see the support we have for this years fry with guys like Ronnie building boards especially for the day. Unreal efforrt that is much appreciated.
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Now this is a quiver ...

" Big " Steve Schirmacher just sent me this shot of his Rich Pavel quiver. Impressive by any standards.

" This is almost all of my Pavels minus two or three. The fourth board from the right is honestly, the best twin fin board i've ever ridden in my life. Rich spent a whole day making the template for it and this board was the result. I'm hoping the 7'5" will be just as good considering it was kind of a fluke that it ever came into existence. Rich is going to make me a 7'7" when he gets back. It will replicate the board (#5 from the right) only it will have a bonzer bottom like the (#2 board from the right) and he will also shape me a smaller version of the green fish Simmons tri. When he is out there, you definitely should have him shape one of the big fishies. They ride incredible! Actually, every board in this shot works insane!
So from R to L, 6'1" Keel hauler with Gephart fastback keels, 6'5" flexdialer with canard cutawy lok box, 6'9" Quad with a very neutral bottom (like a Keel) and Gephart quads, 7' magic long fish with Gephart straight back keels, 7'2" quad with Gephart fins and speed dialer bottom, 10'11" fish Simmons tri with john cherry fins, 11' big swallow tail single fin, and the original 10'11" fish Simmons quad with gephart fins."
Steve you are a lucky man.

Rich has been busy building more boards for Steve , big and small.

All hand shaped


I pick Rich up from the airport tomorrow morning and look forward to having him stay a while. He is keen to shape a few boards while he is here as well so if you are after a classic board like Steve , Rich is your man. There is no one here in Australia apart from Dick Van Straalen that shapes these sorts of boards on a regular basis as far as I know. And you certainly don't see them very often if they do. So a great opportunity to talk to Rich on the weekend and meet a very talented and interesting guy for sure.

Check out Steve's blog at : www.the-big-slide.blogspot.com
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Boards for the Fry

Jesse Watson , from Black Apache Surfboards has been busy finishing a couple of sweet boards for the Fry this weekend. A 5ft 6" Simmons and a 5ft 11" Fish

Some nicely foiled fins from some ply I gave him a while ago.



Check Jesse out at : Black Apache Surfboards
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6ft 6" finned or finless

Made to be finned or finless , will have to wait and see how she goes.


6ft 6" x 22" and 1.5" on the stringer

The nose is inspired by a Greenough spoon , hull entry and full length concave.

The tail is inspired by the Alaia and flaired rails like a body board

It all blends together to make an interesting fun board. The fins are 6" long and 2" tall 5" up from the tail.

Full concave deck and side cut rail line.Some ideas I have had an thought why not just build it and see how she come out.
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Mini Simmons for Shane

I shaped this 5ft 4" x 22.5" Mini Simmons for a mate of mine Shane
and he then did the art on it.


All ready for the Fish Fry next weekend
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An insight into Ryan Lovelace

Ryan Lovelace - InnerViews from www.KORDUROY.tv on Vimeo.



This is a short clip filmed by Cyrus Sutton of Korduroy Tv on Ryan who is coming out from Santa Barbara for the Fish Fry this year. He will also be a guest speaker on next Saturday night at the Surf Museum. Cyrus will just miss being here himself , but will be at Noosa the following weekend to show his new movie Stoked and Broke.
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Roger Hall from New Zealand gets ready for the fry .

When it comes to going the extra mile and effort for the Fish Fry , Roger surely sets the bar pretty high.Here below is the workings of his latest board for this years Fish Fry.

A combination of foam and wood like you have never seen. As if it is not hard enough to work with the differing densities of a variety of timbers and then to add the foam as well.

How the resin brings it all to life...

A sanding nightmare for most of us , but just something to be done for Roger.


Roger builds beautiful detailed custom boards all day and this is him just stepping it up for the Fish Fry in his own way. Mate my hat goes off to you once again and like everyone I can't wait to see it in all it's glory next week.


A lot of planning and time goes into a project like this especially when you are running a small team building great boards all day. Check out what Roger calls his regular boards :
www.surfline.co.nz

A big thanks to Mike for the pics above. He will be coming with Roger once again and just fizzing for the opportunity to surf without a wetsuit after a summer in the land of the long black raincoat.
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