Vintage Surf meet 2019 coming soon !

Vintage Surf meet 2019 coming soon !
Free to take part
We buy interesting old boards 60s/70s/early 80s in good condition. Email alasdairlindsay75@gmail.com . Also wanted - Surfing UK , British Surfer and Surf Insight magazines .
Above photo - copyright Rennie Ellis photographer archive

Thursday 28 July 2011

1980s Quiksilver shorts

If you were looking for an item of clothing that defined surfwear in the early 80s, for my money it would be these Echo Beach shorts , owned from new by Mark in Hayle. Quiksilver introduced the Echo Beach range of shorts in 1980, and the radical polka dots, harlequins, stars and checks soon set them apart from other companies whose products started to look way too conservative in comparison. The style came from the scene at Newport beach in California , 'the hottest hundred yards' which was producing explosive surfing and a look all of its own .Rockabilly meets punk meets polka dots and checks - what a combination ! Thanks to Mark for the photos.









Mark in his shorts at Holywell bay, early 80s










Echo Beach / Partners and Spade from gutobarra on Vimeo.





from Surfing 1979 .Main pic McCoy ripper Danny Kwock, one of the main figureheads of Newport beach surfing at the time.



Jersey's Renny Gould ,early 80s - the Echo Beach look filtered across to us in quite a big way.Photo by Alex W.





Now I'm not saying Damien Hirst was influenced by boardshorts - but he made coloured polka dots iconic again in the late 90s.

4 comments:

  1. http://vimeo.com/26376427

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  2. That is Renny Gould in the pic (Julie is his wife) Renny was British Champ in '87 and is 14 times Channel Island Champion!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. sorry about the mix up, glad alert people are reading this. Will rectify

    ReplyDelete