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....