H&H

Another of those Hendy and Harbers has come out of the woodwork ;well acutally this is the fifth one we've had on the blog - they're just becoming so common ! If only two hundred were made then seeing five isn't bad going. This one was sent in by Robin, who's had it for many a year. Its a 7 ft diamond tail, shaped by the infamous Buttercup ,Australian lifeguard who worked Fistral beach and did some guest shaping for H&H. Made around 1971, looks in some ways quite a modern template, especially the front half. Diamond tails didn't last for long and were soon overtaken by swallows around '73 and classic pins. This one has a replacement fin. Cheers to Robin.

Looks like a bit of an s-deck, tons of volume towards the rear

Liking the style of the happy couple's departure yesterday. I'm not a big one for weddings but actually enjoyed watching this one, and one of the best bits (apart from the ridiculous hats the women are obliged to wear )was them driving off in the 60s Aston Martin he borrowed from his dad. It was given to Prince Charles on his 21st birthday by his mum....the perks of being a prince. There are apparently some photos of Charles surfing in the 70s , anyone got any ?

some more Tig history

Tigger Newling has had a look in his old photo box and pulled out these classic shots, featuring a few of the beautiful boards he made in 1970, and I love the shot of him and Graham Nile on the way to the Worlds below. Thanks to Tigger and lets hope he does some more delving into that box.


Tigger and Graham Nile with Tig boards in Manly en route to the 1970 Bells beach World titles in Australia. Thanks to Roger Mansfield for the photo. At this time Graham was surfing Tig shapes.

From the same year - Tigger and his quiver of Tig shapes bound for Morocco and Portugal, January 1970.

Tigger on the yellow butterfly gun at Carcavelos, Lisbon, Portugal. Photos by Beverley Williams.

This is an old Tig that surfaced recently on a surf forum, great turquoise tint . This one says 'Neil's rasta special', though Tig can't remember which Neil it was. It's interesting to hear what Tigger thinks of these old boards. -

'' Every time one of these crops up I get frustrated by the fallibility of my memory. I am one of those people who think they can remember everything... but confronted by photos like this you realize just how much you have forgotten. Isn't there some saying about "Those who lived through the 60s..."
Anyway. I cant quite work out who Neil was, or the rasta connection. Could have been Kiwi Neil Wernham who worked as a spray artist at Tris surfboards, or Neil from Plymouth who was one of the Trevose Head Surf Crew. Or yet another.
The weird thing about this one, from my perspective is that the shape, and size are from my jolly good surfboards period around 1975/6. But the sticker is from the Tig surfboards period which ended in the late 60s. Frankly it just looks too sophisticated to be a Tig. And rasta seems more 70s somehow too.


I do have a really dim memory of one or two of my customers requesting the earlier sticker instead of the Jolly Good Surfboards sticker. Maybe that is it.

The green solid on the underside would be a repair.


That turquoise on the deck came straight out of my favourite tin of transparent pigment. A cure for Seasonal Affective Disorder way Cheaper than the airfare to sun and turquoise waves.

This is an old board Alex picked up recently ,which under all those layers of paint could be one of the first Tigs , from the late 60s.
Tigger was quite intrigued by this one - ''The red "Flames" board you have there is an interesting one.
Bit Battered and superficially modified by the look of it, but probably genuine. I don't really remember doing hand drawn stickers except right at the very beginning so it is probably a very early one 68_69_70 perhaps. It is possible that the original sticker faded and it has been redrawn over the top in pen.
I seem to remember I usually hand wrote dates on the stringer under the glass - just in front or behind the fin. 10th board for 1969 would have the number 1069, for example. Any writing like that lurking?
Looks to me like this is was originally a transparent yellow tinted board that has been glossed later in its life with solid red, then the flames. Very hotrod. You might want to remove the red and see what lies below. Give it to a sander in a surfboard factory for the added gloss coat to be be sanded off and you could even have it re-glossed. Some of the foam looks like it may have collapsed a bit. Had really dodgy foam in the early days. Lots of faults in it.
Very interesting. I quite like the shape. Alot like the boards I saw Michael Petersen and Wayne Lynch ride at the world titles in Bells Australia in April 1970 - I did some like that when I got back in the Summer of 70. What is the earliest date on the registration stickers?

Thanks to Tigger for his insight and old photos.

John Conway singlefin

Here's a beautiful singlefin by John Conway in Newquay, around 1969/70. The result of a recent swap with Pete, who got it from Revolver in the golden days when their racks were packed with old boards. This board was made during the more whacky times of the first transitional period, when shapers didn't know when to stop experimenting with shorter boards, and guys like Nat Young were surfing tiny boards, to his cost in bigger waves. The Conway comes in at a shade under 5'4 x 20 1/2 x 2 3/4, and is an s-deck. Perhaps it was made for a young rider or a short adult, who knows. Its certainly not a kneeboard.

Its a beautifully made little board, with full resin tints top and bottom, and glitter sprays on the rails and underside, with yellow pinlining. The yellow 'eyes' and around the fin were added later. It has a strip of glue rather than a stringer.

1973

Circle One by Peter Drouyn

Stephane from Biarritz has sent in photos of his 6'5 Circle One made by Peter Drouyn, Australian surf champ, outspoken visionary, outsider and many more things besides. Peter came over as a guest shaper in 1979 to work with Jeff Townsley at the Circle One factory in Crediton, Devon. He shaped a load of nice singlefins like this one; nice and wide flowing shapes with round tails. This one has a resin tint on the underside and an angular late 70s spray on the deck. Looks fun to ride, thanks Stephane.

Peter Drouyn today - yes things have changed a bit since the 70s. He says he always felt like a woman trapped in a man's body and so he decided to become a lady called Westerly a few years ago.
1979

1979 Atlanic Surfer

Roger Cooper twin fin

Roger Cooper , 1984 - photo by Alex

One of our friends in France Pierre has found this classic Roger Cooper twin fin. Roger was a man of many labels, starting I think with Zippy Sticks in the early 70s. This twin fin is marking the transition from the wide nosed and 'tasteful ' sprays of the late 70s to this thinner nosed , early 80s day glo powered craft. The High Performance label is very 80s too, when words like turbo , jet and stuff like that started to get used in graphics to tell you just how fast your boards was ! This one's in great condition, thanks to Pierre for the photos.

1980

1969. Roger was Isle of Wight champion back in the late 60s.

used and abused

This Creamed Honey is a project I've been on for what feels like a year. If I was organised I probably could have done it in a couple of days, but with lots of other jobs to do and a healthy dose of faffing around its just dragged on. Now its annoying me as I really like the shape and want to get it in the water. Probably I will get it ready with perfect timing to coincide with a long summer flat spell.

Its a board that was abused when it was young and had literally 30+ dings on the underside and rails, although the deck, with its white tint , is in really good nick, once the 90s tail pad was removed ! Its a thoroughbread under those dings though, one of Kevin Cross' magic Creamed Honey fishes, 6'8 x 20 x 3 , with a beautiful original gloss finish, and wooden fin - a little on the thick side, but you can't fault art.

Seven ghosts

An amazing recent discovery of a tidal bore on a remote Indonesian river, known as the seven ghosts by the local village

O'Neil Thurso Coldwater classic 2011 freesurf

Shaun Tomson twin fin

Shaun at Fistral for the Fosters, early 80s

Gee sent in photos of this great early 80s Shaun Tomson twin fin, which he picked up recently and had restored by Will Eastham in Newquay. Looks sweet now, and Gee even sourced an original pair of multi fins for it. Actually the first time I met Gee he was buying some multi fins off me - with a knackered 80s board attached. This is the first Shaun to crop up since I started the blog, so I guess they're pretty rare now. I've seen a guy surfing one at Godrevy - he said he bought it new in the early 80s and has just had it restored to ride again. South African Shaun Tomson was one of the legends of the Freeride late 70s era and into the 80s, and was world champion - but you probably know all this. His boards were distributed over here by an agent in Jersey - I think Steve Harewood of Freedom had something to do with it, and were sold in a few surf shops on 'the mainland'. The early 80s was a big time of pro model boards so Shaun, MR and Cheyne, being surf superstars of the time, all had pro models. This one has Clark foam and a classic early deck grip. I'm not sure who the board was shaped by. It sounds like Gee has some really interesting boards in his collection, mainly twin fins, which I hope we'll get to see. 1981 Rabbit and prawn at the '81 Gul Alder at Fistral

With Steve Harewood in Jersey, 1981. Thanks to a helpful contributor below, we learn that Tomson models were shaped by Steve Harewood at Jersey, and Steve even shaped Shaun's comp boards for the european leg of the tour in the early 80s.