Surf Stories

Mickey Fremont began shaping beautiful surfboards around 1970. He's also shaping surfboards in 2024! That's a long time! Now it appears he is bringing back those great retro 70's shapes for the modern day surfer to include in his or her quiver. Fifty-two years ago in 1972 myself & Ken Luerssen were heading to Europe and North Africa to surf. Even though Mickey was 3,000 miles away from us he was still able to fill a rush order for us to build 2 boards to our specs. My board arrived and was beyond my expectations and ultimately it handled all the conditions I encountered throughout four different countries. I know Kenny also loved his board.

It's a long amazing story which will be chronicled in a book soon...but somehow the photo shown below is the very first day my Fremont single fin touched ocean water. After a brutal paddle out, it also the very first wave I ever paddled for and rode on the spanking new craft. It was at the legendary "La Barre" just north of Biarritz in Anglet, France. Back then La Barre was called "The French Pipeline" known for its large cylindrical left handed barrels. It was considered the best wave in France. Nowadays La Barre has been reduced to a mere shadow of it's former status. This is because of the dreaded dredging of the harbor, installation of a huge jetty that blocks the swell and changes in the nearby river mouth. Here's a link to 3 minute video about that. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaqZqniQY6k

Back to the morning this photo was taken,...a surf day that almost never happened due to the local gendarme impounding our van and boards on our first day in Biarritz. But that's a long story which will be told in my book. I was the only one out at dawn that day. A couple of others tried but were turned back by huge sets of waves and gave up. Kenny had my camera on the beach with a medium range telephoto. It was still a little dark out. But fortunately Ken captured a three shot sequence of my first ride. This is the middle photo..a little dark & fuzzy but there I am going backside and christening my new 7'2" Fremont, on a triple overhead bomb of a wave.

The other two photos here were taken a few weeks later. I captured Kenny L. in liquid bliss on a perfect wave with off shore winds on a magical psychedelic morning at a beach break north of Biarritz at Bidart Beach. The remaining photo is of our little troupe of five misfits from all over the world, who called Bidart Beach home for a month. The two tallest surfboards on the end are the Fremonts. L. to R. that's Steve, Greg, Richie, Peter & Kenny.

Today I found out that Mickey Fremont's new website featuring his retro 70's style boards features these three photos from my camera and from our trip of a lifetime.

Eventually Mickey came out and joined us in Biarritz. By strange happenstance all three of were invited to the 1972 French International surfing contest at Seignosse Plague near Hossegor. The surf was great both days of the weekend event, with the second day being a solid 6 foot & spectacular. When the quarterfinals arrived all three of us were still in the game and surfing against some of the best in the world. Mickey ended up on the highest rung just missing out from winning and took 2nd place! Kenny and I were 5th and 8th.

So cool to see these photos on the website and it got me to think back and write about that amazing time in our lives. If you are interested in a classic new retro 70's wave riding vehicle, here is the link to the Fremont website.