Back in the late 60s there was a surprising amount of surf action going on in the smoke. Not actual surfing, the thames bore wasn't up to much , but surf suppliers and makers were there to kit out the well heeled inland surfers who could hack it to the coast every weekend. An oasis in a sea of grey concrete was Phil Jay's shop in Wandsworth which stocked his own boards plus an exotic and expensive range of hot foreign sticks like G&S, Weber and Bing.
1969
1973
1969. I used to have one of these Kaikis. I found it covered in car paint in a Falmouth boatyard. It was 7 1/2 foot, s deck and stringerless, and at the time I had no clue where it was made. From what I remember I thought it was Hawaiian and sold it on as it looked like someone had used the underside for target practice.
1972
'I had the misfortune of leaving Pembrokeshire straight from school to work in London for 6 months in the winter of 1974/75 (massive culture shock!). Used to catch the tube to Wandsworth to visit Phil Jays' on the rare occasion that I'd stay in London for the weekend. Bought my first 'state of the art' Gul winter steamer from there (3mm, scoop neck and stitched through) and clearly remember Phil telling me that it didn't matter what shape the boards were that he stocked as long as they matched the colour of the buyers car!
At the same time someone used to show surf films in Chelsea Town Hall on a Thursday night, seem to remember seeing 'Morning of the Earth' there. Spent most weekends driving home to west Wales with a couple of visits to Bournemouth. Also would like to claim that I was the first person to skateboard the 'Broadwalk' in Hyde Park, a few years later a hot spot for London skaters until it was banned.' Tim now sensibly lives in Pembrokshire and is still surfing.
Not reccomended by the Thames harbour master, but we managed to surf the wake of the Thames clippers as it broke (waist high) on a low tide sand bank outside the 02 Arena until they stopped all the boats until we moved away.
ReplyDelete