GUILHEM RAINFRAY

Guilhem Rainfray


"The article that changed my life, published at the beginning of 1970 in SURFER MAGAZINE. Diff explained many of the basics in shaping and the important things about design and construction. A lot of this still holds true. Articles in the mags were the only way to have access to shaping info back then because so few people were building boards in France and they were jealously keeping their construction "secrets" to themselves" Guilhem Rainfray




This is his current logo on the door of the shop. It says: "Knock heavily, please, I'm old and deaf..."

Guilhem Rainfray started surfing in Biarritz in 1966. He was living in Paris at the time but spending all summer holidays in Guéthary. During the summer of 1968, Nat Young came to France with those first "short" V-bottom boards shaped by McTavish.
Nat Young at La Barre late 60's photo courtesy of SURFER MAGAGINE

He immediately stripped an old 10' Barland and reshaped it into something around 8' with a pronounced V.


The 10' Barland being re-shaped in the garden. Guilhem's old friend Daniel Plisson (left) helped Guilhem glass it since he had some experience with building kayaks

Then, in January 1969, He shaped his very first board in his parents' flat in Paris. Foam was impossible to get in those days, so he went with balsa lumbers and a rasp, a block plane and some sandpaper. When he started to glass it, neighbors called the Fire Department because they thought that the smell actually was caused by a gas leakage.

That's how Guilhem got started in shaping and glassing. From then on, he made board after board out of any available material, mainly thermal insulation panels!. He used to cut them length-wise and glue some plywood stringer in while applying the weight of a four-gallon resin drum to the top of the blanks to bend some rocker into them. Then Barland the only French manufacturer at the time started selling blanks that they blew themselves under the CLARK Foam license. Those were officially called "second quality" but you might as well have called them "rejects" by today's standards. But they were actual surfboard blanks, not insulation panels.


A Difenderfer Surfboard shaped and glassed by Mike Difenderfer in a French garden

Mike Diffenderfer use to spend some time in France in the late 60’s and then again in the '70's. He did some shaping at Barland's. "I would spend hours studying closely his shapes as many of my friends owned a "Diff" ". Guilhem owns a board that Diff shaped for former French Champ François Lartigau in '69. The years of sun and disrepair have it in less than prime shape, but it is a Diff. According to various sources, Diff is said to have shaped it in a friend's garden with whatever tools were available there and glassed it too. When he was about to glass it, he found a peacock's feather lying on the ground in the garden and decided to inlay it under the glass. The board was originally a rounded pintail but the tail got cut into a square after the tail started to delaminate.


Tony Channin and Mike Diffenderfer at the old Del Mar shop early 70's. Diff was kicking his heel and getting ready to go to France

Guilhem started shaping boards for close friends at first. They would pay for materials and he would shape and glass it them for free. He specialized in semi-guns and guns for Guéthary, one of Europe's best big wave spots. A reef break that has been said to look like Sunset Beach. He would also shape other kinds of boards also as well. There a few guys in the beginning of Guilhem Rainfray's career in board building that stand out. One of those persons is Joël Roux, he started shaping roughly at the same time as Guilhem.

His parents had a fishing shop in Biarritz and he would put his boards in the window for sale.
A surfboard made by Joel Roux

"One day I noticed a very nice semi-gun with one of the first airbrushes I had ever seen." He went in to ask about how it was done. Joël's mother told Guilhem that her son was busy shaping "downstairs" and that he could go down and see him. So he went down an old stone stairway that led to some damp vaulted ceiling with no ventilation whatsoever. There was Joël's in his shaping bay covered with dust from head to sole.


Peugeot power planer

He was shaping with a very crude French Peugeot power planer. A power tool that has many attachments, you could change it into a drill, a sander, a grinder, or a planer, which is what Joel was using it as. Joël at this time was producing some very progressive shapes and he continued to do so for several years after. He was the one who sold Guilhem his very first real foam blank, a Bennett. Guilhem didn’t know how the hell he got hold of it. So, Guilhem got to know Joel and had him glass a few of his early boards. Today Joel is a well-known sculptor.


Joel Roux's 70's surfboard decal

Other early French shapers included Jacques Albert who was making fine swallow-tails around 1974/75. Then there was Baptiste Dupouey who was shaping under the Lightning Bolt license.


Guilhem Rainfray surfing Guéthary

One day in the early 70’s Nat Young and a few other aussies came to Guéthary.The aussie crew had met a bunch of Californian guys including Billy Hamilton. The old school stylist and the animal were surfing together with the waves at 8 to 10' and good conditions. Nat lost his board on a late take-off and went swimming after it for hundreds of yard (s)(remember, there were no leashes yet.

Guilhem and those around him were watching from the cliff some 3/4 of a mile away. They could hear him swearing between waves. Low tide Guéthary can be a long swim and most other surfers would have been exhausted and unable to swear so loudly. Everybody was laughing very hard on the cliff. Those were days when Guilhem would surf from 7 AM to 8 or 9 PM and someone would have gone to Spain to buy a sheep and they would roast it on a fire right on the beach and have a party there. Wine, music and girls and Guilhem was only 13 years old.


Ty page second from the right, Guilhem Rainfray second from the right

In 1976 when skateboarding having become very popular and was reaching its zenith. Ty Page and Mark Bowden arrived in Paris for skateboard demonstrations. Guilhem who was living in Paris at the time, through varies connections became the manager of the two and drove them around, setting up demos and autograph sessions.


Guilhem with a short board wing swallow.

After Ty and Mark returned back to the states and skateboarding started to lose its flair of the time. Guilhem continued to make surfboards. His shapes during the early 1980’s started to become more progressive and his shaping skills started to gel.

"In 1990 I started shaping under my own brand "Guilhem Rainfray Surfboards"and changed that to "Guéthary Surfboards" in 2000 mentions Guilhem. Today, he is into longboards, minimals, retro-singles and, lately, stand-up paddle-boards. Doing everything himself: shaping, glassing, sanding, pinlines, glossing, and polishing. Not making a lot of boards but trying to make each one better than the previous.


Guilhem Rainfray, Alex "Lob" Lobstien, and friends








This one was made last year with cloth inlay

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