Bill Caster Tribute at Sacred Craft 2008
Bill Caster and my Dad were really tight back in the day and both of them heavily influenced me, not only surfing but in life. My Dad is one of the judges for the “shape-off” this weekend at Sacred Craft honoring Bill. It won’t be easy replicating those crisp Caster foils.
Anonymous
October 7, 2008Didn’t have the pleasure of meeting Bill or owning one of his boards, but always admired them in the mags. One of the best boards I ever had “back in the day” was a 6’0″ rounded-pin single fin, with a 6-channel bottom shaped by John Kies at Encinitas with heavy inspiration from those Casters . . . . Rest in peace.
Anonymous
October 8, 2008I heard from a friend……
“If it’s a Frye it flys…..
But if its a Caster it’s FASTER….”
-Word.
Anonymous
October 8, 2008Rich Pavel aka King of the World. It’s been a year no communication. Takes your money and gets drunk for all I know. Never again amiga.
I ride a GH
October 8, 2008Why do all the burned Pavel customers haunt Surfy Surfy?
Anonymous
October 8, 2008Because they are pissed and have no place to go to purge the bile.
J.P. St. Pierre
October 8, 2008swell.
Anonymous
October 8, 2008casters, thats all i rode from ’73 until bill passed. wish i had kept a few of them. hands down the sweetest shapes around. still remember the local kid in puerto, in perfect broken english, ‘casta go fasta”
Anonymous
April 24, 2009I have a rare board my dad gave me after he passed away… It’s a Caster. 1965 was the year it was shaped, shortly after Caster made this board he left to go serve the country in Vietnam. #1143 is the number inscribed on the middle stringer. It’s obviously a tripple stringer, weighs 38 pounds, in mint condition. I recently have paddled it out and it is truly amazing to surf such an old board… to think of surfing a board when at the time it was made, there was no such thing as a wetsuit… This board is awesome… it turns great for a single glassed in fin… I have learned alot about Caster after my father passed away in January… My dad surfed this board in high school, he graduated in 1966…. He went into the airforce after high school and slowed his surfing down tremedously as he raised a family and started his career… The last time it was in the water was in 82 at Sunset Cliffs. I was on a boogie board, only 7 or 8 years old, following my dad on this classic board…. Now I surf it. It’s crazy, but it is in flawless condition. It stokes me out to just drop in, make the turn and sit back and enjoy the ride…! Cudos to Caster and his family… what a great person. I’m proud to have legacy board from a time of one of the Great Shapers in San Diego!
Anonymous
May 2, 2009I remember making boards in south Sd and repairing a classic Caster board. One day I heard that he passed and I was still working on one for a guy that handed it to me and said “take your time… no hurry”. I finished the repair and held it under my arm as if I we headed out at cloudbreak Sloughs and I had this vision of laying into a hard cut back and just knowing that the rail would never hang up because of that shape style Bill Caster had. Damn – never got to surf one, but it’s weird… that dream cut back still stokes me. I should have went down the hill and took it out before giving it back!
Nelson
July 27, 2009I first met Bill when I was 7 years old. He and My step dad were best friends since Junior High. He was always patient with me, you had to be. He and my dad had me surfing by the time I was 11 years old. He made me my first custom board when I was 13. 7.0 diamond tail, all red.I still have it today. I also have one of the last longboards he shaped. He was a pretty humble man and always was totally cool to me, even when I was screwing up, which was pretty much all of the time.