the tale of a bolt

Roland Lansdale Spain 1976

Have you ever wondered what has happened to the old boards you have known in the past ? Are they still alive and cherished and being surfed , or are they covered in dust forgotten at the back of someone's garage; or worse still, twenty feet under slowly rotting away in landfill ? And what's the chance of coming face to face with them again ? Here's a tale of a board Alex knew well in the 70s, a red Bolt, which unmistakably popped up again at his local break 30 years later !-
'My mate Roland Lansdale, who grew up surfing at Bantham then went to OZ for several years before returning and lifeguarding at bantham, took me and a mate on my first surf trip to France and Spain in 1976. He told us about all the different spots that we could hope to surf. We hoped to be able to get some good swell, so we could go to Mundaka.

Back a few years before Roland had spent a couple of winters staying there. One winter he turned up and lost his board. While he was there ,there were a couple of Californians who had lived in Hawaii and worked for Lightning Bolt. They had made a board there and were travelling with it. The red Lightning Bolt. They left just after Roly turned up to go to Morocco, Their nick names were TreeBeard (big tall guy with beard) and Burnout! (too many drugs) while they were down in Morocco Roly lost his board. When they came back short of money Roly bought the board when they left for home.

We went down on our trip and surfed all the spots that Roly had told us about including Mundaka. We did the whole trip in an old Fiat 128!! that was a small rusty car. On our way home we had all of our boards on the roof on this small roof-rack coming back from Mundaka to Rosscoff when half way up through France a lorry clipped the roof-rack or the force of the air sucked the racks off!!! boards went everywhere! The bolt hit the tarmac and took the nose off. On return Roly and my mate Lawrence fixed the nose with a nice bit of mahogany he had.

A year or so later Roly decided to go back to Oz and sold the board to Bilbo Plymouth 1978. Roll forward to 2006. I was out surfing at Bantham on a nice 3/4ft day, on an old John Hall single fin board and I got a little cover up by the channel as a guy was paddling out, He commented that it was good to see that the ''old boards could still go'' and he had one in his van! a lightning bolt!
Back in the car park I found the guy parked almost next to me and asked if I could look at the bolt? He said yes, no probs it was a red one! I replayed its not 7'4'' Bat tail with a wood nose block? Yes he said, you know the board ? So I told him the story. He got the board in a shop in Bude about a year later, which he learnt to surf on and so has his son. He lives in Newton Abbot now after moving from Bude area. The surf shots of him are by Pete Ash in the Bude area.

Unfortunately I do not have his name as I lost all contacts on my last
computer!!

Roland 1976

The Bolt's new owner

Thanks to Alex for the pics and the tale !