COURTESY RANDY RARICK Surfer Randy Rarick is overseeing Saturday’s Hawaiian Vintage Surf Auction, which will offer for bid a vast collection of vintage boards, posters, art work and other surf memorabilia.

Surfing memories
up for auction

Every surfboard has a story
at Saturday's vintage surf auction

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By Tim Ryan
tryan@starbulletin.com

On the block What: Quiksilver Edition Hawaiian Islands Vintage Surf Auction Where: Blaisdell Center Pikake Room When: 5 to 10 p.m. Saturday, with 2 to 4:30 p.m. silent auction. Previews are 4 to 9 p.m. tomorrow and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. Admission: Free to view the collection. Bidders must purchase a bidding number, at $35 Call: 638-7266 or email surfpro@hawaii.rr.com On line: www.hawaiiansurfauction.com Note: Pick up a pre-registration packet from 4 and 6 p.m. Friday for a surf auction T-Shirt, VIP invite to pre-auction party at Dukes Waikiki, Hawaii All-Collectors Show admission, and other goodies. Also: Other collectors may take in the Hawaii All-Collectors Show 2003 in the Blaisdell Exhibition Hall 4 to 9 p.m. tomorrow, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Suday. Admission is $3.75 general, $2 for ages 7 to 11, and free for 65 and older Sunday only.

Nostalgia is many things: love for one's former self or a longing for a lost childhood. Our private memories give us a sense of life and add substance to our identities.

It seems like a quantum leap from personal memories to vintage surfboards and collectibles but each item has a story, a legend and more important, a history that not only connects the threads of surfers' lives but links them to friends and other devotees of the sport.

So even if you don't intend to buy any surf memorabilia at Randy Rarick's second Quiksilver Edition Hawaiian Islands Vintage Surf Auction on Saturday, any surfer or surf fan owes it to himself to spend some time walking through Hawaiian surf history, which includes 60 surfboards -- some valued as much as $15,000 -- art work, books, magazines, and Hawaiiana and collectible clothing.

"There are stories behind almost every item to be auctioned," said auction coordinator Rarick at his Sunset Beach home, where for the past few months he's been surrounded by some $50,000 in vintage boards dating from the 1920s through the '70s. "The boards may be priceless or not so much but the provenance, ah, now that is priceless."

Like what?

>> Former world surfing champion Nat Young's 8-foot-6 Dewey Weber-shaped board. Young rode the board in the 1969 Duke Kahamamoku contest at Sunset Beach. The board was also featured on the cover of Surfer magazine and in a separate poster. Its estimated value is $3,500 to $5,000.

"When Nat left Hawaii, he gave me that board because I was managing the Weber shop on Ward Avenue," Rarick said. "We sold it for about $75 and the guy I got it from bought it from Goodwill for $40.

>> Gerry "Mr. Pipeline" Lopez's famous red Lightning Bolt shaped by the surfer in 1976, which he rode in the Pipeline Masters. This is also the board featured in a poster of Jackie Dunn dropping in at Pipeline: $2,500 to $3,500;

>> Larry Bertlemann's 6-foot-2 Hawaiian Pro Designs board featuring a Pepsi color scheme: $2,000 to $3,000;

>> Wally Froiseth's restored 10-foot-6 Makaha Point big-wave board, circa 1960, signed by Froiseth: $3,500 to $5,000.

>> An 11-foot-3 Hobie Dick Brewer Model (1964), the most sought-after "big wave board in the world with an original cost of about $180. Only three dozen are known to exist: $7,500 to $15,000.

>> Woody Brown 10-foot-2 balsa big-wave board from 1950, one of he rarest boards to be auctioned. In original condition: $10,000 to $15,000.

"These boards have a lot of provenance, which allows the buyer to have something a little more special," Rarick said. "The history behind these is phenomenal."

That includes a 1954 Luis Hangca-shaped 9-foot balsa big-wave board. Hangca, a Hawaii lifeguard, was a member of the Hawaii team attending the 1956 Olympics in Australia: $2,000 to $4,000.

One of the oddest and rarest boards is a 1960 hollow-molded 11-foot board by Kenneth Choy, a former Aloha Airlines pilot and engineer. About 50 were made for rentals in Waikiki and another two dozen in private orders. Only two are known to still exist: $1,000 to $1,500.

"Kenneth was ahead of his time with this design," Rarick said. "I came across it and restored it, then called Ken and when he saw it he literally broke down and cried."

Rarick says finding the memorabilia is "like a big treasure hunt."

"People call me up to say they have something that might be historical," he said. "Some lady this week called to say she had some classic black-and-white original photos of Duke Kahanamoku, and she did and they're in the auction."

Rarick, who helps determine the items' values for owners, spent months in Hawaii, California and Australia "crawling through attics and under houses" seeking vintage boards. Most of the vintage boards have ridden their last waves and will be used as "wall hangers," he said.

There are other rare collectibles including a bathing costume, circa 1930, from the Moana Hotel; Paul Strauch's jacket from the first Smirnoff Pro-Am Surfing Classic; posters such as "Ride the Wild Surf" ($350 to $500), "Endless Summer" ($1,000 to $1,500); Ben Aipa's Duke contest trophy ($1,000 to $2,000); even Gerry Lopez's Skil Plainer that he used to shape his Pipeline Masters boards during the early 1970s ($750 to $1,200).

There also are rare etchings, prints and woodblocks from the 18th and 19th century depicting the first images of surfing.

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