car boot sale classic

 Today's bargain of the day must be this Graham Nile from the mid 70s. It was bought this morning by Danny at a car boot near Liverpool for .....a huge £5 ! Yes it does still happen. All original board with bungee leash and registration stickers running from '78 to '88. Danny doesn't even surf, he just thought it would be a good bit of decoration to hang in the roof of his man cave. For a haole he scored well !

 Graham on the cover of Surf back in time when a surf mag cost 15p !

Graham at Watergate 1976. Photo Alex Williams.

North Devon boards

A couple of nice boards here from the North Devon surfing hotspot of Braunton / Croyde. Tiki was one of the first major makers to set up in the area (in the late 60s) and this board is a Tiki 'Nomad' from the early 70s. The board uses the new slimmer fin made by Bilbo in 1972/3 so that helps with dating it. I've seen a handful of these Nomads and they're all quite a simple shape like this, mainly with pintails. Like the purple full deck tint, quite unusual colour. The logo uses a bird - which must be one of the most popular graphics on a surfboard in the 70s - must have been something to do with the freedom of flight along a wave ..
A good original board from Paul's collection, complete with vicious looking leash.

This Palmer singlefin made in Croyde has been sent in by Alex. Bruce was an Aussie who came over in the mid 70s , at which time he became English champion (how did this happen if he was Australian ?) and produced boards alongside his friend Kevin Cross who made Creamed Honeys. Both of these labels made fast slim shapes with very good build quality and finish , and are sought after now. The shapes are obviously very Australian inspired, and usually had laminated ply fins.

 1978

1976

Return of the pig

The pig revival is in full swing now , notably through Geoff McCoy's shapes, but the design, in different guises, has been around for decades.On Tony's recent trip to Oz, his daughter's neighbour brought round his McCoy 5'10  saying 'this single fin pig is the best board I've ever had, it catches everything so easily, and its the fastest and quickest turning thing around'.
This made perfect sense to Tony - '' I have been banging on about Pigs for 50 years, since Deans I made hollow ply ones in 1963, when we were both 18 ( 1st photo above ), and then had an early Bilbo pig in the mid - 60`s ( photo 2 ). Then had another in `67 when Fitz made some at Surfboards Inc. , Woolacombe ( photo 4 Henry`s bargain ), and another in `68 when Fitz made my first S.I. V - bottom stubby ( like McTavish`s - see photo 3 ) . Then Cheyne Horan used them in the 1980`s ( see Al`s Horan board photo 5 ) .
My definition of a pig is a board with its widest point about 1/3 way up from the tail but I've never seen any official rules. In the 60s it just meant a board with its widest point towards the tail, and after that tapering towards the nose, without parallel rails thro the mid section.

 Then, just after 2000, the competition racing windsurf boards suddenly became short and wide, instead of being just narrow surfboards , because they found they were - unbelievably - faster and quicker turning. Then Craig Baird at Surfworld VIC gave me an artlicle on McCoy, some of which is attached below . Seems the swine won`t go away .
As well as being a great competition tool, any average surfer should find them easier to paddle, catch waves with, and be more stable, faster and better turning than any thruster they`ve tried . Whether many UK manufacturers take this up remains doubtful ! ''

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Henry has a couple of nice pig's too, with a good connection. His 1970 Tiki pig made by Tim Heyland is one of the most extreme ones I've seen , a really interesting little board with 'wave eater' logo and Zap graphic -a forerunner of Lazor zap ? Probably not ....    Interestingly Tim got the licence for making Pigs from Dewey Weber in the US (Henry also has an original Weber pig see below).
''Weber introduced this board in late 69 (Shea Weber confirmed this to me in 2006, said that either Dewey or Harold Iggy designed it), when boards dramatically dropped in size to sub 6’, think my Weber is 5’8” and the Tiki about the same. Tim Heyland had gone over to USA I believe late 69/possibly early 70’s and got the Licence to produce Weber models over here, as well as Licence for some other makes and surfing accessories. All in the attached Surf Insight article attached (this didn't load, I will get it on eventually - Al)

This huge reduction in board sizes in 1969 was most dramatic in USA, see the movie The Fantastic Plastic Machine (read the book Fantastic Plastic Voyage) when the Windansea team went on a surfing trip to South Pacific / NZ + Oz. Saw what McTavish etc were doing and were blown away by how far advanced the Oz boards were. Went back to USA told the main shapers what was going on / they saw the footage, started to chop feet of the boards, down to 5 feet in some extreme cases. The Pig design never really took off in Oz as they were building longer more function “aggressive” surfing boards. ''

Henry's 5'8 Tiki pig 1970.

and his Weber pig of the same time, very similar boards.

A couple of hogs from my collection. A garage board made in the UK around 1970 with a watered down pig shape, and my modern McCoy which I have always considered a great rider.

Atlantic from 1970/71 made in St Ives ; the photo was sent in today and I thought the plan shape was relevant.

Thanks to Tony Cope and Henry Marfleet for doing all the hard work on this post. Swine fever is going strong.

Circle Ones by Jeff Townsley

There have been quite a few Circle Ones up for sale recently, reflecting how successful the label was in the 70s with loads of boards made and sold, and top guest shapers like Peter Drouyn. Judging by how many turn up these days Circle One must have been one of the biggest of that era along with Tris, Tiki, Ocean Magic, Freedom and Roger Cooper's labels.

Here are a couple of Circle Ones which Alex has picked up recently off that 'well known auction site' . This one's a gem, an early 80s five fin-box flyer ; short and fat like many boards today and with the wide point pretty much middle of the board. It has a 2 1/2 fin set up at the moment but could be twin, quad or thruster - all popular set ups in the innovation period of the early-mid 80s. Its also got channels and a great spray with lots of pinlining.

Some of Jeff's personal riders. The one on the left has a similar shape to Alex's board. These boards are now in Shaun's collection.

197os ad

This late 70s singlefin is evidence you can still pick up nice classic for £30. A bit of tail work needed but it looks solid otherwise.

Alex is lending boards and his photos to this upcoming exhibition at Plymouth museum - 'Endless Summer: the evolution of surfing' which should be quite a large exhibition , running from 21 July- 6 October 2012. Includes boards, mags, memorabilia, photos and art so sounds well worth a visit. Other lenders are private collectors and the Surfing museum.

Endless Summer: The Evolution of Surfing

21 July to 6 October 2012 Plymouth Museum.

Surfing and its influences are part of everyday life for many people and this exhibition will explore the evolution of this extreme sport in our region.

A timeline, interactives, paintings by artist Kurt Jackson, boards from private collectors and the Museum of British Surfing plus images and vintage magazine covers from renowned surf photographer, Alex Williams will show how different elements of the sport have evolved since the early 1900s.
The exhibition will also include a woodblock print, on loan from Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum, of ‘The Wave’ by Katsushika Hokusai. This iconic print is one of the most reproduced artworks in the world and the subject of an episode of the 2010 radio series, ‘A History of the World in 100 Objects’.
A wide range of fun holiday activities and a special surf photography competition in partnership with Magic Seaweed will also run alongside this headline summer exhibition.

Hendy & Harber

Just got my Hendy and Harber back after a bit of restoration with Jase at Leven surfboards. I bought the board last year from Tom near London who found it in his dad's attic , where it lay unused since the early 70s. Its 7'4 x 21 , a nice double ender with s-deck probably made in 1969 ,at Roche near St Austell. Hendy and Harber were a small but important maker , running from '69 - '71, with strong connections in Newquay, Graham Nile as team rider and head shapers Rob Hendy and Aussie lifeguard Tom Holt (Buttercup). Standard of finish was high and their designs chart the interesting and sometimes unusual path through the shortboard revolution of the late 60s. Because of the short life of the company these boards are rare - I've only seen four others, two in poor condition and two from the Gul collection.

Rob Hendy is now a professional magician, and I met him at last years surf meet; he has nicely sent some more info on H&H ,including this classic photo of his first board below...

'I have attached a picture of me with the first surfboard I made way back in 1965! It was made of Plywood over a wooden frame and was the first board that I surfed. The picture was taken in Hayling Island and I can remember dozens of people whatching me surf on it because they had never seen surfing in this country before! After about 6 waves I had to pull a cork out the back to let water out! In fact I was probably the first person to surf that coastline.
When I moved to Newquay on May the 11th 1968 I started experimenting in surfboard design and construction and by 1969 was making about 12 boards a week with visiting surfers shaping for me and Graham Nile representing the UK in The world surfing championships in Australia on one of my boards, until Duggie Wilson of Bilbo surfboards made me an offer I couldn't refuse to stop competition and gave me a job as assistant manager with Vince Ward in Bilbo surf shop and he let me sell all my stock boards in the surf shop.'

Thanks to Rob for this - theres some stuff here I didn't know like Graham Nile riding one at the worlds , and the strong connection with Bilbo ( although I had noticed that they usually have Bilbo fin systems).

Tom's dad riding the Hendy & Harber in 1970 (Newquay ?)


Below are the other known Hendy & Harbers....