Bilbo by Chris Jones

Here's a very clean Bilbo shaped by CJ, sent in by Henry. Its from '67 or '68 in the transitional period, when Chris was putting out his CJ model, usually at around 8 ft. This one is more of a pintail than the cj models though. Its got an unusual two tone deck and I like it when Bilbo did the overlapped logo - simple idea but looks cool. The condition on this is pretty amazing really, virtually no sign of having been surfed. Check out the flatness of the deck at the nose.

Where it all started for Chris, Great Western in Newquay circa 1963. Rob Wilson, Roger Mansfield, Colin Christian and CJ. This is one board that Chris would love to see again.

Mike sent in these nice photos taken by British photographer Corinne Day, who famously took a lot of Kate Moss early on in her career. The photo above looks like an Aussie version of Chris Ryan's place. Any photographers out there who want to shoot models with vintage boards I'd be happy to help...

70s Tris twin keel fish

Sporting my favourite logo in British surfing is this great early 70s kneeboard fish by Tris Cokes. It was found recently by Myles for under a tenner ! Good karma on that day obviously. It was probably influenced by Steve Lis' fish designs from the late 60s onwards, which were originally for kneeboards but guys like Reno Abellira started standing up on them and it revolutionised surfing. Myles' is very much a kneeboard, 5'3 x 20 1/4 with very pronounced scoop deck, wide thick swallow tail and tons of volume at the nose. I picked it up and its still super light after all these years of use. Nice original twin keels, and it looks like a wrist leash was worn by the owner - there's a leash loop up by the nose. A great little board, rare to see an original British one.

Lis Fish from Hydrodynamica on Vimeo.

One of Perranporth's first boards

Mike Newman has sent in this pic from one of his endless roves around Cornwall on photo assignments. This old relic is in Perranporth and Mike learnt a bit about its history ...

'According to Tom Tremewan, in the picture, it was known as ‘Chris and Bill’s board’, a finless, 12ft long, hollow wooden board, built in the late fifties by Bill Heath and Chris Thomson. They used to paddle it of course, but the more daring ones would stand up coming in at the end of a paddle. Certainly one of the first boards surfed at Perranporth. More info in this month's Cornwall Today 'Surf Spot' column.'
Keep up the good work Mike, its my shout next time we have coffee

Washed Out - New Theory from quatuorlindsay on Vimeo.

Conway bolt

Nice looking shape from John Conway, probably mid 70s from the Gul collection. John was a surfer who travelled widely, and often shaped in order to get the funds to travel. He was also influenced as a shaper by images in US mags like Surfer and apparently even sometimes traced board outlines from them. The lightning bolt on his boards of this era must have been influenced by the all poweful Bolt image in Hawaii at the time, and probably made the boards easier to sell. Everyone wanted to look like Gerry Lopez. I don't know if Bolt had any issues with John using their logo .... ; they let Ted Deerhurst use the bolt logo on his shapes back here , and as for the Phil Jay easy rider...not exactly something Lopez would ride at pipe.
Thanks to Alex for the photos

early 70s

Lord Ted with one of his British bolts, early 80s

Hot shot singlefin

One of Myles' boards, which he found many moons ago at our local Falmouth car boot. This board originated very far from there though, Costa Mesa near Los Angeles. Made in the classic very early 80s when California embraced the Echo Beach scene around Newport beach and boards had bright graphics and were short with lots of different set ups. This ones a round tail with double hips , single fin and needle nose. Classic graphics and checks of the era. It must have been a small company as it doesn't get any results on google. It measures 5'8 x 20 in.

Myles at Leven

Myles' boards

I saw my mate Myles today - he's a fellow painter and car booter of old. I've been wanting to feature his boards for a while, so he got a few of his finds out, some great boards, most of which he found for under £20, and some even under a tenner ! He is into boards under 5'10 and especially early 80s.I will feature the boards in more detail soon.

Check out the Tris twin keel kneeboard

classic wetsuit ads

logging meets echo beach, 1982

tonight Matthew we're going to be..........
Gul does stars in their eyes, choreography by Alex

Nigel hangin' loose at the stubbies

Now I am loving the style here, Paul Basford's perfect white suit and channeled OM singlefin. No flies on him !

Second skin delves into soft porn ...another of their ads involves a topless lady horse rider. Must have shifted a few suits ! Colin Wilson focusing hard on something unstimulating.

selection from Atlantic Surfer late 70s. Nice Tris in the foreground and kneeboard on the far left.

You don't see ads like these anymore - in some cases for good reason; but back in those days suits definitely had a bit more individuality, and you could spot a mate a mile away in the surf - especially Paul Basford.

swap meet

Lusty Glaze car park in Newquay, this sunday 9am - 1pm. Buy or sell, you never know you could get lucky! For more details see www.lustyglaze.co.uk

American girl, English car

Women's world champion, and later major surfboard collector Joyce Hoffman and her car of choice - or sponsorship - a Triumph spit

big collection

When does a board collection get out of hand ? I guess it depends how big your house/ storage is and how much time you can devote to enjoying the boards. At over 200 boards, this must be about the biggest private collection in Europe, belonging to the head of Reef Spain Enrique Artero, collected over 25 years +. And he's got a big lawn to display them on ! Lucky chap

Freedom thruster by Gordon Jackson

The passion continues to run strong for Freedom surfboards. Here's another by Gordon Jackson, made around the same time as Stephane from Biarittz's Freedoms. This one belongs to Iain, who has owned and surfed it since the early 90s, and has written a bit about its history -
'The date on it is 12.3.88 only a few weeks before those Freedom boards that you posted recently from France were made. Check out the number on the board 256 those boards were 292 and 300, it just shows how many boards they were pumping out at the Freedom factory in the late 80's.

My board was shaped by Gordon Jackson as well . A South African shaper who was in Jersey for only a few years before moving to Australia and becoming head shaper at Pacific Dreams Surfboards in Newcastle NSW, ( Matt Hoy's Dad's factory).
My board is a 6'4 x 191/2 x 25/8 and it still gets ridden when I go back to Jersey, as I now live in North Donegal, Ireland. My favourite thing on the board is the fins with the lettering which tie in with the design on the rail plus the board really goes well for on that is 22 years old!

This board originally belonged to John Hetherington Freedom's Graphic artist who then sold it to the late Stefan Elkin who sold it to me in the very early 90's. Freedom's factory closed in 1990 as far as I can remember I think due to fire regulations but don't quote me on that email Steve Harewood to find out exactly. As far as I'm aware now Freedoms shapers are now spread all over the world. Bobby Male was until recently shaping at NEV until the Firewires came in and he left. Gordon Jackson has left Pacific Dreams and is shaping Gordo surfboards in North NSW. Paul Grieves is now living near Hossegor and Steve Harewood still shapes going over to use Chops Lacelles factory at Beach Beat.'
Cheers Iain, classic board and good to hear more about the Freedom shapers. More Freedoms anyone ?