One of Darren's latest finds , this is a rare board made by Dave Friar at Swansea in around 1970. I don't think there are many of these around ! Dave was one of the first wave of young surfers in Newquay, drawn into the surf scene through being a deck chair attendant at Great Western beach along with Trevor Roberts and Alan MacBride (mac) , in 1963. Dave was a talented surfer with good techinique and was there in the early days of Bilbo, being one of their competition riders. He left Bilbo for a short move to Bickers, bringing alot of board building knowledge with him, and acted as team rider for them. When Bickers ceased trading Dave went back to Bilbo ,and was offered a job to run the new Bilbo shop in the Mumbles, Swansea in 1968 through to the early 70s. When Bilbo closed down he opened the successful Dave Friar surf shop there.
The board looks pretty short and wide for the era, with an s-deck , and by the looks of it would be a custom order made while Dave was working at the Swansea Bilbo shop.
Dave was cover star of the first British surfer mag , which was produced in Swansea and had a largly Welsh content.
Dave after a successful comp. Nice wheels
At Tolcarne in Newquay 1967
early 80s
Wonder who has mine now ?? IN 74 I ordered a board from Dave at his dave friar surf shop - a 7'6'' swallow tail 19 1/2'' wide - !! Yeh I know - lime green underside Airbrushed rails in teal - Simon Harvit of Haverfordwest(Tiny) God rest, sold it for me to some dude early 80's, who had to have it - I picked it up from Braunton when it was ready and at the same time had the joy of photographing production at Tiki(thanks Tim) for my college assignment - at Gloucester Coll of Art & Design -while surfing the bore bumped into Alun Rich there to film with then Brit surf champ Bruce someone or other - that was 75 - x!o* what happened !!
ReplyDeleteHey, what's Dave doing now? He stayed with us in Encinitas, California in the late '70s. He was over buying skateboard stuff for his shop over there. I hope he's doing ok!
ReplyDelete