My 1st Surfboard

My 1st board was a mid 70's - 6' Michaels Fremont single fin...double ender. My Dad bought it for $50 from a buddy in 1979...it hangs on the ceiling of my shop. Learned to surf that summer at Nauset Beach in Orleans, Cape Cod...down on the south end past the guards. My pops took myself and a buddy to Jasper's Surf Shop and we rented wetsuits for the 59 degree water...no leashes, didn't know what one was. After swiming a whole lot in the cold(er) water, we went back to Jaspers and he drilled a hole in the fin and put on a leash and we rented a couple of wetsuits. That was the coolest summer...one I will always remember.

3 or 4 years ago I had it in the window at the shop for display...got an early morning message from a guy claiming he shaped the board. Met up with him later and found out it was Mickey Fremont...now a lawyer in Encinitas, CA. He was in the area for a wedding and was trying to track down some of his old boards.  He grew up in NYC and he and a buddy shaped boards on the 3rd floor of his buddy's parents department store.  He hung in the shop that morning and shared stories of shaping boards in the 70s and growing up in NYC.  Turns out mine was glassed at the famed Channin Glass Factory in Encinitas...he could tell by the pinlines  He wanted to buy the board, but I wouldn't let it go...Mickey appreciated that someone wanted it as much as he did.  Meeting Mickey was way cool...a real nice guy and a piece of surf history.