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- Capt Fred Tootgundy was born in Los Angeles in 1948. Some of my earliest memories are of being at the beach at two years old. I remember getting sand in my eyes & mouth, but mostly the fire at night. My parents rented a house right on the beach at Manhattan during the summers of 1956,1957 & 1958. This is where I saw surfing for the first time, I was fishing on the pier about 7am. It was small & glassy, overcast .Then they (surfers) paddled out and hollered to me "Hey kid move out further on the pier so you don't hook us." I remembered being pissed off at these old guys on their surfboards (they must of been at least 20years old or so) I got my first board in 1960, a Dave Sweet foam board glassed w/ single 20oz.cloth used for $35.00. On a hot day water would squirt out like a fountain. I met Larry Sheflo, we relied on moms & dads for rides to the beach on weekends. Then we started riding our 10speed bikes approx 25 miles round trip to Santa Monica Beach, Towing boards on heavy homemade rigs. In 1962 I met Chuck Freberg he went to Larry's church he was 16 and had a car, It was a 1953 Ford Mainline,6cyl,3 on the tree, gas was 21.9 cents a gallon from the Mohawk Gas Station on 2nd st & Beaudry downtown. 1963. We were everywhere, lucky very lucky kids. Chuck was the most responsible nicest kid in the world why he put up with us and our pranks ,inspired by surf movies and silent film stars like, Henry Ford & Del Cannon, Ill never know. We Had a deal with Chuck and Larry's parents that we had to go to church on the road. We did in La Jolla in Ventura but we liked San Clemente best because Church had surf. When asked if we went to church we could truthfully say yes, sort of, well we were convincing anyways.surfed here untill 1968. Later on in 1968 I moved to Europe,whereupon I stopped surfing untill the spring of 1970 on my first surf trip to Morocco, Where I met Morocco's first surfer Omar at Mehdia Plage,11Km southwest of Kenitra. I surfed and lived in France and Morocco for several years until returning to California in 1976
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- As far as shaping goes, some of my early surf hero's were shapers, Phil Edwards, Reynolds Yater, Mike Diffenderfer. In 1963 or so I saw Harold Ige shaping a Dewey in Venice. I was an inland kid so my chances of being in a shop grem were nil. The first boards I shaped were in Morocco using stripped down English long boards. (Bilbo,New quay corn wall). They were stringer less. In 1970 I was riding an 8"0' Atlantic board shaped by surfing legend Charles Williams. I would later shape a board at his factory in St Ives, Cornwall. Thank You Charles & shapers John 'Runty' Ryland and Neil Reading from Queensland, Australia. They had shaped for Keyo & Shane. Charles was a Champion surfer a true craftsman and a great guy. Back in the states I rode boards Made by Mike Perry, Diff i rode a Diffenderfer in France, Robbie Dick, Dan Edwards, Then I started shaping again. Thanks to all you guys Robbie , Dean, Mike Perry, Greg Liddle, Lance Carson and Gary Holly, Kenny Polinsky and Diff . Special thanks to Glen Kennedy who made it possible for me to shape , using his room and tools, Love You Man.
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| Watercolor By Tootgundy |
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| Morroco Coastline |
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| Rick Rock & Tootgundy |
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| I moved to San Clemente to further my education, Chris Hawk, Rick Rock, Mark Ellis, Chris Kaysen & Midget Smith helped me along the way, thank you guys. Remembering the small kid times before there was Ventura Freeway, a Santa Monica Freeway, the Santa Ana freeway y ended just past Santa Ana. Times you could smell the ocean from miles away . The travel years, the years back stateside, Malibu, Ventura times with John Bonan. Till now it seems that as much as I loved to surf, surfing loved me back. Fred Wardy summed it up with his 'surfing Is' I'm going surfing, Ill send a postcard. One more time around. Back to the travel years,you guy's & girls Geoff White Aus and his lovely girlfriend Chris Jerems. Geoff had been in a surfer magazine article on the Seycelles way bacl in '65 or 66'. We got some fair sized left slides at Mehdia Plage.Greg, Tuck, Neville, Lindsay, Gil Scrine, Peter Russell, John D Ryland, Neil Reading ( Aus.) ,Mitch Soflfrico, Alan Wiesbecker& Perry Newton ( Hawaii), Dale & Audry (Calif), Ron Forkner (Texas),Shaper Mark Jackola (Hawaii),(you owe me a Pendleton Shirt)
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| Glen Kennedy |
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