This was a nice pair of Bilbos on ebay. They actually went for similar amounts which might be a surprise looking at the conditions ;but the one in worse condition was the rarer of the two, a 1965 d-fin Bilbo from their first year of production . To find any UK d-fin longboards is very hard now (this one was found under a pile of builders rubble destined for the skip !). The other Bilbo here is a later 9 ft 6 from 1966 or early '67 with a more responsive fin ,in pretty tidy condition apart from a nose repair. They both went to the same buyer, as did the yellow Freedom below also on ebay. An expensive week ! and no it wasn't me who bought them.
This was a nice pair of Bilbos on ebay. They actually went for similar amounts which might be a surprise looking at the conditions ;but the one in worse condition was the rarer of the two, a 1965 d-fin Bilbo from their first year of production . To find any UK d-fin longboards is very hard now (this one was found under a pile of builders rubble destined for the skip !). The other Bilbo here is a later 9 ft 6 from 1966 or early '67 with a more responsive fin ,in pretty tidy condition apart from a nose repair. They both went to the same buyer, as did the yellow Freedom below also on ebay. An expensive week ! and no it wasn't me who bought them.
This was a sweet Freedom, great condition and colour, early to mid 70s.
Tony having some fun on the beach; check out his Bilbo with wooden noseblock and probably tailblock, a quality competition board from around 1966. 
here's a correction - the blue nose on the '66 Bilbo was put on by the original owner to be seen more easily for competition scoring.
ReplyDeleteThe Tony Cope photos were taken at Whitesands Bay, St Davids, Wales in 1966 - there were no other surfers there - we wondered if there were any local surfers at all ! The Bilbo only had a nose block, no tail block, and within a year no boards were being made with strengthening blocks .
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