surfboards Great Britain singlefin

Good looking double ender shaped by Tim Heyland for the short lived Great Britain label which ran alongside Tim's Tiki label. Shaped around '71 /'72 at the Braunton factory. Tim travelled alot back in the early days and picked up contacts and influences from the US and Hawaii which helped Tiki become a major brand. At this time his shop had the US distribution rights for Gordon and Smith, Bing and Weber. This board is from the Gul collection. A perfect logo for the British surfer.

Above and below, Tim on his travels late 60s/ early 70s.

1969 advert

A mate came over to photo some of the boards today so I took the opportunity to get my camera out too. Always love to see the different tints hitting off each other in the sunshine, the colours never seem to lose their intensity .The t&c's almost too bright to look at , but even the early 70s boards are still really strong.

Bilbo 6'5 singlefin

Bilbo 6'5 from around 1969/70. Alex got this one from a chap who lived in middle England and only used it on his yearly summer hols to Newquay or Cromer. This sort of owner usually means a pretty good condition board - if there was no surf that week the board wouldn't get used that year etc. This one has the late 60s Bilbo fin system and an unusual later addition of a leash plug on the underside behind the fin !

pocket rockets 1969

Old Bilbos never die , a lot are still out there somewhere....

painting exhibition

You may have noticed I haven't been putting as much on the blog as usual over the last couple of weeks - mainly because I've been finishing my paintings for the exhibition. It starts this friday at 6.30, all welcome so come and have a look . All proceeds of the painting at the bottom will go to Surfers against Sewage , and will sell to whoever submits the highest bid over the first week of the show, so please dig deep to help keep our seas clean !

The blog will be back to business as usual next week, still got loads of boards from various collections to put on.

sheep surfing at Godrevy

Meant to put this on a while ago and forgot. How could I forget farming's answer to Kelly Slater ? Sorry Mildred.

bellyboards

Nice board from Sean, probably 60s with classic girly logo. Because of this its one of the few boards which is allowed in the flat.

Bellyboarders today, John Isaac - the cat in the hat, and fellow proners. The World bellyboarding championships is at Chapelporth on 5th september, and has two categories, juniors : under 60s and seniors : over 60s.

Old postcards of bellyboarding at Bude, and we think we've got a crowd problem now ! At least back then everyone could ride the same wave.

Crooklets , Bude. The right hander is ignored in favour of riding the soup.

The woodward skimmer, quite a name and a board Alex has had for years; not much risk of nose diving -see below.

Piran singlefin by Martin Geary

Henry has sent pics of his clean mid/late 70s singlefin. Its shaped by Newquay surfer Martin gearbox Geary for Piran at Perranporth. Martin had his own labels in the early 70s - Martin Richard and Outer Limits, and was working with Ocean Magic in the early 80s. This one is numbered as Piran's 41st board and is 7'10x 21 1/2. I had a Piran stinger which I stupidly sold a few years ago and is now in the Surfing Museum, its one of the few I regret selling but I know its in good hands with Peter.

From surf scene 1981.

Martin at fistral mid 80s

Daily Telegraph magazine 1969

The first cover story on modern surfing by Britain's mainstream press ? Possibly. August 1969 Telegraph magazine, written by sports writer David Miller and set in Jersey for the European champs. The main surfer interviewed is Jersey local Barry Jenkins from Freedom surfboards. The writing is obviously by someone who doesn't surf and as usual glamourises the danger and the lifestyle, it also has some dubious bits of information like- surfing is a bit like riding your bike with your feet on the handlebars- and- Wayne Lynch is said to have looped the loop on the inside surface of the tube. But its a good piece about what was going on at the time and how many surfers there were - 10,000 in Britain in '69, 3,000 in the BSA , more than I'd expected.

Cheyne Horan v Tom Carroll 1984 Bells

Vitamin Sea by Chris Jones

1982 Cheyne Horan model Vit sea, shaped by Newquay shaper Chris Jones. Around this time the Aussies were doing very well on the world contest scene and it made good financial sense for Vit Sea to bring out some Australian pro models under licence. First came Bronzed Aussies, and then Mark Richards, Cheyne Horan and Rabbit Bartholomew Hot Stuff, all made by local shapers. Chris shaped most of the Cheyne models in Newquay, most of them weren't as radical as the boards Cheyne surfed although Chris did make some single fin Lazor Zap models, now very rare.

This one is 5'10 x 20 1/4 x 2 1/2 , numbered CH 12 , with great artwork from Andy Cranston. It has classic stickers from the late 80s/ early 90s on the underside , which is pretty plain compared to the deck, and nice transparent multi fins.

Cheyne and Larry Bertlemann at Sunset

From Tube News 1982

Carwyn Williams on a Cheyne Horan model at Langland

one of my favourite Pink Floyd tracks, from 1968, a similar year to the Hawke below.

Hawke bros single fin

Was having a look on Oz ebay for Hot Buttereds and noticed this beauty, swinging 60s in full measure ,if Austin Powers had a surfboard ...

Its made by Hawke bros, WA and is a little under 8ft x 23 ins , late 60s transitional .Would love to go for a cruise on this one.