RIP Tommy Lewis

Tommy Lewis and John Cherry - Cardiff Reef-1985

It sadens me to here about Tommy. i spent many a happy morning or afternoon surfing Cardiff Reef with Tommy in the 60's, 70's and 80's. I learned a fair amount about shaping and building boards from Tommy too. Tommy cranked out a lot of great boards from his Northshore-ish shaping hut out in Olivenhain, the same place he built his glass-over wood skiffs that he made his living fishing from.

I was absolutely jazzed when I got to buy his purple lobster skiff and beach-launch trailer from him in 1986. I think he charged me about twice what it was worth. Tommy was also a wheeler-dealer. But I didn't care.

I remember standing on the beach in the late 70's, watching Tommy standing in the back of his 15' skiff (also purple)with his hand on the outboard tiller. He was racing north and south, in and out, over and through the whitewater, looking for a break in the 10'-12' mostly closeout surf, just south of Georges. It was absolutely crazy. It took him about 15 minutes.....but he made it. Tommy Lewis was the BOMB! I'll miss him.

John Cherry

New 9-4 for Tyler Olson

Ready for Moonlight glassing. 9"-4" 16n, 23w, 14-1/2t x3. walker blank glued up by JC with 2-1/2" agave and redwood T-band with 1/4" stringers 7"out. Custom noseblock, tailblock and glass-on reverse-D template fin by JC. For Tyler Olson of Hermosa beach. Tyler's PV cove board. Aloha Tyler.

Fish Feeding Finzey

New school top..........Old skul bottom. JCWC fins and finsets.

Diamonds are Forever

Three framed fins...... and one glass-on for a yellow-tinted, Hobie, Terry Martin Legacy Model.

Dream Board

Pro surfer, Shaper Dave Yearwood of Yearwood Surfboards in North Carolina is a San Diego transplant who developed his superb shaping skills under the tutelage of Skip Frye.

This fish was Dave's vision of his personal "dream board". It came to life through the collaborative efforts and input of shaper Dave Yearwood, Dave's wife, co-designers, Skip Frye, Dave "Rasta" Rastovich, glasser Greg Eavey and fin maker John Cherry.

Dave wanted a set of experimental flex fins to compliment the progressive lines of his high-performance fish. Dave and I designed the fin. I built one set for the dream board and one set for Rasta to test drive.

According to Yearwood, his experimental "dream Board" performs as superbly as he had dreamed. Thanks for including me Dave. It was a pleasure.

8.5 glass-on for Holly

This 8.5 flex template is ready to be laminated. It's going on one of Steve Mast's 9-0 round-pintails. For Holly Yang.

African mahogany, narra, Peruvian walnut, flame maple, putpleheart.

Sliding the Simmons

Photo 1) Justin Phillips fulfilling the purpose for which this Simmons was built.

Photo 2) Justin Phillips fulfilling a purpose probably not anticipated by Bob Simmons at the time he had this 10-0, twin-keel, concave, spoon board design on his drawing board.

PHOTO'S: Tom English