INTRODUCTION by Mark Fragale

Welcome surfers to the third biennial Hawaiian Islands Vintage Surf Auction. The now well established Hawaiian themed exchange of classic surf items and the attending activities that surround this third gathering, have surely evolved into the most anticipated event of it’s kind.

Your host, Randy Rarick has gone to great lengths to make this year’s event, the finest ever! With more than forty-five years of involvement in most every facet of the surfing industry, Randy’s experience and deep rooted connections within the surfing world have yet again, unearthed a bevy of fabled and authentic surfing treasures.

Auction milieus continue to validate, then best confirm the most contemporary trends within the now shifting value structures of historic surfboards and memorabilia. The current “buzz” among collectors as to the celebrated surfboards of yore and the peripheral materials that chronicle the sport, portend a bulwark appreciation of the “transition” artifacts and the 1970’s genre. Many say and still others speculate, that surfboards built during this period are poised to match or eclipse many of the bench mark standards established for the esteemed surfboards constructed prior to the 1967-69 short board revolution.

Randy’s success in making this event a continuing reality is no surprise with his enviable credentials. Rabbit Kekai taught him how to surf at ten years of age in Waikiki in 1960. Dick Metz hired a then ever-green 14 year old to go to work in the repair shop for Hobie at Surf Line Hawaii, and later at the Greg Noll Surf Center Hawaii, where he went on to repair over 10,000 surfboards. He gained an invaluable knowledge as to the inner workings of the surfboard industry, the grand masters of the calling were his mentors. The revered milestone ‘Bing Lotus’ surfboard owes its very existence to Randy’s intervention with Dick Brewer. At 17 years of age he was the Hawaii State Junior Surfing Champion (the same year Jock Sutherland won the Men’s and Conrad Canha the Senior Men’s). Making his mark in the sport early on, he found a firm foothold in “surfdom” during the late 60’s/early 70’s.

Rarick continued to lay his stake deeper still in a career premised upon surfing. A Hawaii based team rider for the coveted ‘red coat” Dewey Weber surf team, he subsequently opened his own surf shop in downtown Honolulu selling Dewey’s lusted after, California built surfboards, followed by locally adapted home-grown shapes. Moreover, his incredibly adept skills in the water only gained him further recognition here and well beyond Hawaii’s shorelines.

I remember vividly the first time I ever saw Randy surf. The time was August 1970 and the place: Point Panic, a well respected body surfing stronghold that to this day, few if any ‘board’ surfers other than Randy were ever tolerated, let alone welcomed. I was a fresh transfer student from the mainland, newly enlisted at the University of Hawaii and just absolutely intoxicated with the intensity of the Hawaiian surf scene. Watching in awe from the rock pile above, Randy’s performance in the water that evening on one of his custom shaped sub-six footers was near flawless. His exceedingly well defined bottom turns mixed with exploratory journeys over areas of the wave I had never before seen traversed, let alone trespassed upon, was my personal preview to the future of surf riding. Add to this observer’s equation that the surf leash was yet to be standard issue and the logistics of the surf session in front of a fortress of rock became all the more clear. Further into the session Randy did eventually blunder and lost his surfboard to the taunting rock pile that lay in wait. Undaunted, he climbed up the rocks with the carcass of what was once his trusty surfboard, entered his van in the makeshift parking lot, then pulled out another freshly made copy, to go for it again. His time in the water that evening remains forever etched in my mindset.

The urge to travel and surf upon distant shores consumed Randy. In doing so, he set out to Australia, then South Africa, then the rest of the world, making friends and heaps of liaisons all the while. His journeys have yet to cease. After more than four decades of surf related travel through streams of time and place, the quest continues. At last count he had visited over 125 countries and surfed in over half of them. It is safe to say that when all is said and done with twenty first century surfing history, Randy Rarick will likely hold the unique and uncontested distinction as the worlds most traveled surfer.

During the bi-centennial year of 1976 Randy and former world surfing champion Fred Hemmings co-founded the first genuine vestiges of the world professional surfing tour. What came to be know as the “International Professional Surfers”(IPS) became the forerunner of today’s well know Association of Surfing Professional (ASP) tour. Nearly three decades later, Rarick still stages and directs the famed Triple Crown of Surfing events on Oahu’s North Shore each winter.

The man witnessed first hand, Australia’s, Hawaii’s and California’s first stab at the short board genesis. Consequently, his vantage point from the 1960’s/70’s transition period of surfboard design knows few peers. Several of the surfboards crossing the auction block at this venue were either crafted by him or share his influence from the 1970’s. His well-earned aplomb and interactions with the established legends, Dick Brewer, Nat Young, George Downing, Charlie Galento, Ben Aipa and countless others only add to the impressive resume`. Randy Rarick was no longer to be an observer of the developing progression of surfboard design by decades end, but rather a mainstream contributor to contemporary surfboard architecture.

Randy’s passion, dedication and fervent love for the sport that we call surfing is in large part the all-abiding reason why we are gathered here tonight. Although he will argue with me for saying so, he has truly become the quintessential modern day ambassador of surfing. May we all follow his lead so that we too might all give back something of ourselves to this all-encompassing diversion of riding waves that has given us so very much. On behalf of the world’s most traveled surfer and one fortunate enough to be called his friend, I invite all of you to have a fine time at the gala event in Hawaii. Enjoy your time here, yet still again, the night is for you the surfer.

Aloha and Cowabunga!

Mark Fragale
Surf Historian