Creamed Honeys by Richard Harvey

Here are a couple of Creamed Honey singlefins shaped by Australian travelling pro Dick Harvey, now better known as Richard Harvey, accomplished shaper and artist based on the Gold Coast, http://harveysurf.com/ . Richard won the Australian titles in 1973 at Margaret river, beating the hot favourite Michael Peterson , and while travelling he spent a few months in 1975 at Braunton shaping for Creamed Honey. I contacted Richard and he has kindly shared his experiences and photos, see later.
This board is a very tidy singlefin from the Gul collection, with a nice pink tinted deck , a sleek looking shape showing the Australian influences. Looks like the logo was changing a bit at this time too.

This 7'8 is from Henry's collection ,a similar shape with a rounded pin tail and plywood fin. Again a different logo but with the same Dick Harvey laminate. Harvey made quite a lot of these boards in a short amount of time for a big shop order and make some money to keep adventuring. Thanks to Richard, Henry , Alex and Gul.

Richard delivering a tasty looking quiver of Creamed Honeys. Old photos courtesy of Richard Harvey.

Kevin Cross with a new batch of boards, mid 70s.

Richard has written a book about his experiences called Spirit of Adventure, available from his website. Heres an extract from a chapter called 'winter shaper' about his time at Creamed Honey-

'Returning to England after spending Christmas in Morocco, it was a relief to be back in an English-speaking country. Kevin Cross and a travelling mate, Bruce Palmer, had offered me some surfboard shaping work. I needed money for the next adventure, so I took the job.


After getting used to the winter water temperatures in Cornwall I headed up to Braunton, just inland from a great surf spot, Croyde. My main assignment was to shape enough boards through winter to supply the local surf shops for summer, which was still about four months away. Working for a label called Creamed Honey, I settled into the factory. It was just on the outskirts, about 300 yards from where I was staying in the centre of town.


The factory was a mixture of old stone, possibly the remains of an old bakery, with a few more additions of corrugated iron forming a shed where the sanding and wet rubbing was done. My shaping bay was set way back in the bowels of the factory, only large enough to fit a set of shaping stands and not much more. I was shaping about 20 boards a week, or four a day, and with the surfboard blanks being quite unrefined in their shape, it meant that I had to cut off quite a lot of foam with the electric planer before being able to get down to shaping in the finer detail.


My daily plan was to do all the rough shaping in the morning, head home for some lunch, then back to the factory and have an easier afternoon, fine-tuning. It was still winter, the weather outside was freezing with occasional sleet and snow, so I didn’t mind spending my time in the shaping bay. Cutting four blanks down to size each day would leave quite a large amount of white foam dust around the walls of the small shaping bay. Foam shaped off the blanks by the electric planer would keep the bay quite warm and insulated from the cold outside. A pair of boardshorts and a singlet was all that I needed to work in. Most days I would run the few hundred yards back home for lunch as there was not enough time to get cold.


One particular day the air compressor wasn’t working. I used it to blow the white foam dust off me before heading home. Coming out of the factory I noticed it was snowing, not very heavily, just a few flakes floating down then melting when they hit the ground. I headed off at a fast jog back through the centre of town past its few shops.The next day was the weekend, so I had a break from shaping and decided to get some supplies from the local grocery store. On walking in several people stopped and looked sideways at me, pointing and whispering to themselves. After making some discreet enquiries as to what was going on, the friendly shopkeeper explained how the word had spread about the crazy Aussie surfer who was running around town in shorts and singlet all covered in snow.


From that day on I didn't bother to use the compressor to blow the foam dust off me, it kept them whispering. It wasn't until the weather warmed towards summer that the townsfolk realised I wasn't so crazy.


It was early June and we had just experienced two weeks of clear blue skies, I mentioned to one of the local surfers that it was going to be great when summer comes. With a wry smile he said "That was summer". I left England within the next two weeks headed for warmer climates much to the pleading of Kevin Cross to stay. He had sold our whole summer production of boards to a big surf shop and was left with no boards for himself.'

Richard near the factory.

Plastic Atlantic

Here's another of those elusive Atlantics of St Ives. This one is Gavin's second Atlantic , just under 7 ft and with down rails from around 1970. We worked out this board had the same owner as my orange Steve Harewood Freedom - they were both on the same stall at Hayle car boot. This board has the classic bubbly logo and on the underside is changed to 'Plastic Atlantic' , a play on the US label Plastic Fantastic ? Its got a replacement fin but still has the pain inflicting bungee leash.

Jeff Hakman poses for Plastic Fantastic in 1969. I'm sure he was actually dreaming of riding a plastic Atlantic..

Vitamin Sea by Chris Jones

Here's a lovely Vitamin Sea shaped by Chris Jones ,owned by Alex. Its got some really skilled airbrushing on, and while the underside has an intricate bubble design which must have taken ages, I really love the colour grades on the deck, relatively simple but looks great.
Alex says its from around 1982, shaped by the great CJ in Newquay. Alex did a board colour design story for Surf Scene around that time, and took lots of shots of these boards and the New Zealander sprayer ,plus boards from Tris, OM and Fluid Juice.

Vit. Sea sprayer Andy Cranston, Surf Scene 1981.

From Atlantic Surfer 1979.

Making the most of it - Bantham last night , photo Alex Williams

I'm going to start putting in some music clips and videos from the 60s to the 90s, mainly because I love old music, but also because I think culture clips from their time brings these old boards back to life. Here's a bit of 60s garage with a beautifully random surf lifesaving film which looks more like a mating ritual.

a nice Tris

Here's a rather nice Tris which was on ebay recently with a rare large scale spray on the underside.
This one is a 6'3 from around the early to mid 70s with artwork by New Zealander Neil Wernham, shaped by Tris himself and glassed by Johnny Manetta. Obviously with that spray its a custom board ; nice laminate ply fin and one of the finest logos on a surfboard.

Late 70s, check out the tail on the board by the window.

Vitamin Sea thruster

Here's an unashamedly late 80s rad board from Tad ( Ciastula). Its certainly eyecatching and although its not the most tasteful spray in the world I love it compared to most of the very plain thrusters of the 90s which lets face it don't have bags of character ( I may be eating my words in ten years time !). Vitamin Sea of Newquay was a big rival to Bilbo in the 70s and was commanding the Newquay market with Ocean Magic by the late 70s/ early 80s. Its nice to see a late 80s board in such good condition, most got trashed within a few years. This one's from the Gul collection.

From Surf Scene 1989

Creamed Honey

Here's an early 70s Creamed Honey with a pretty green tint designed by Kevin Cross . Kevin was an Australian lifeguard who shaped and had a shop at Watergate bay under the 'Silverwings' and 'Kevin Cross' labels .He then moved to north Devon and started up Creamed Honey with 1975 British champ Bruce Palmer. This board is from the Gul collection, photos by Alex.

More French collectors

I've had an email from Guilhem Rainfray from Guethary who runs Guethary surfboards and is a fellow collector. He's one of the founders of the Vintage Surf Club of France http://vintagesurfclub.blogspot.com . Check out the board collector who lives in the barn house - a perfect pad for a collection. This is his friend's Tiki from 1974, a nice old singlefin with Tiki's shortlived parrot logo. Note the rubber stick on leash plug.

Founder Tim Heyland at the original Braunton Tiki shop, early 70s.

You may remember I showed a Bilbo skateboard a few months ago and said it was the first European made board. Apparently the French got there before us says Guilhem, making Midonn in 63/64 and Kamikaze. The first boards to hit France were probably US Makaha imports with clay wheels in early 60s. The board pictured is his early Midonn.

Keo surfboards

There were such a lot of surfboard makers in the UK in the 60s and 70s that theres still quite a few I haven't mentioned. One is Keo, who made custom and more affordable popout surfboards and kneeboards ,and bellyboards. I can't find anything out about Keo so can't be sure where they were made - Cornwall or Devon is a pretty safe bet. This one is from Alex's collection, an early / mid 70s single fin.

I picked this 70s Keo bellyboard up yesterday, like the logo and the wierd figure.