Bro and Paul's quiver

This collection belongs to Bro and Paul at Diplock Phoenix surfboards . Most board factories have one or two old boards hanging around for various reasons - for reference, for display, or to surf on and go back to the roots for a while. Bro and Paul have more than most, which includes some pretty rare singlefins.

Don't know the make of this first one, two early 70s Bilbos and a Carl Hayward (Huntington Beach, USA)

rare late 60s Stuart of St Ives (Pete McAllum) , Tigger Newling keel fin and Tig stinger, and mid 70s early Ocean Magic by Pete McAllum.

Some great old boards here. I was surprised to see the Tigger Newling keel fin, similar to what Wayne Lynch was riding in the early 70s for a bit, and Nat Young was riding in Crystal Voyager. Added to that the rare Tig stinger and I thought Tigger should see these photos as he's usually pretty interested in his old surviving boards. This is what Tigger replied (he lives in Australia now) -

''Great to see those two boards surviving - a very unique pair. I do remember the keel fin. The keel was part of the original board design, not added later. I think I tried to ride one (maybe even that one) for a bit but I found it difficult to do my usual stuff - very stiff in turns and prone to spinning out. But it did go awfully fast in a straight line! Probably just required a different riding approach like the finless wooden boards (alaias) that are back in vogue (over here) now.
I think my inspiration for the keel design was Wayne Lynch who experimented with keel fins for a bit. I like the planshape - pretty much a gun for long fast waves.
The stinger is interesting too. Can't remember who it was built for unfortunately. Also more a big wave board, given that the stinger is so far up, making the tail pretty narrow, Ben Aipa was probably the inspiration for that one, Buttons (Full name - Montgomery Earnest Thomas Kaluhiokalani!) and various hot Hawaiian surfers popularized that design in the early 70s. I notice it has a fibreglass leash point between the swallows. That was a chunk of fin offcut laminated in to the deck with a hole drilled through. What I came up as an attachment point before leash plugs became available.


I was driving thru Murwillumbah (my nearby country town) and saw a pile of old boards lying kerbside in a heap for pickup in what we call the Council Clearout. I screeched to a halt and found a 6'0" Keith Paull squaretail single fin from the late 60s, a little sub 6'0" twinfin with a psychedelic bottom, and a big old vintage fibreglass surfski. They look good after a hose down and turps wax strip. At least 20 years of accumulated grime. The twin fin still had the original leash attached. A length of surgical tubing with a nylon cord up the centre.
Will send you a pic when I get organized. Maybe I have now caught the board collection bug, thanks to you. One thing is for sure, I am not going to find any of my boards at the kerbside over here.
I was happy to get the Keith Paull board as I knew the late great man: he visited Europe and Cornwall in about 1969 when he was then Australian Champion. He stayed at our house in Treyarnon and we once had a fun surf at Trevone with Corky Carroll from California who was travelling with him.''

Thanks to Tigger for giving details on his old boards, it really brings their history back to life and I'm sure the guys at Diplock Phoenix will be interested to read it. Good find for Tigger too getting those boards before they hit the landfill - the start of a collection ??

Wayne Lynch with keel fin, early 70s. photo by Rusty Miller.

Thanks to Shaun for taking all the photos - much appreciated.