Short notice I know but this showing of Big Wednesday is on tonight so get down there and enjoy a film classic. Some vintage boards will be on show too care of Mr Bilbo.

Noseriding history

 With the advent of surfboard wax in the 1950`s and 60`s , surfers discovered they could move around on their Malibu boards, to the tail to turn them, or to the nose to pick up speed and beat collapsing sections. They then discovered it was fun ( and looked cool ) to stand right at the tip of a board and hang toes – or even heels - over it .

One of the most stylish modern noseriders, Joel Tudor 

The points and reefs of California , many of them with regularly-peeling medium-speed waves, were found to be perfect for noseriding for long distances, whereas most other parts of the world including GB had only short sections of waves suitable for it. Consequently USA surfers tended to pursue noseriding as an art in itself, while the rest of the world saw it as only one part of the ride which included turns, climbing and dropping, and a host of other manoeuvres.

Lance Carson, 'the man' at Malibu 1967

Front 25% of a noseriding comp. board marked out for the judges.

 These two styles met head to head at the World Championships in San Diego in 1966. The contest was billed as a showdown between Nat Young (AUS) with his all-wave performance, and David Nuuhiwa (CAL) with his supreme noseriding ability. Sadly David hadn`t read the script, and crashed out on only the second day. The CAL member of the international judging panel gave David 20 points out of 20 for one noseride, the other judges didn`t.

 
 Nuuhiwa`s moves are performed by Joe Aaron (above) on David`s original 1967 concave-nosed BING board . Even his soul-arch and skeg-first takeoff are there .) Nat quickly accumulated so many points that by the semis he couldn`t be beaten. To save a massive anticlimax for the thousands watching, he stayed on and surfed the final – and won that too. In their national surf magazines the US howled in anger, then decided to carry on noseriding, while the Aussies developed short boards and a whole bag of moves to do on them .

 Nuuhiwa at Huntington pier - wearing a late 60s (mandatory) crash helmet !

                                                       1967 Bing noserider

                                                         Nuuhiwa boardshorts ad
 The following 12 months showed more developments in US noseriding . Since 1965 they had held professional noseriding contests, where stopwatches timed each competitor`s actual length of time on the tip . In 1967 Bob Purvey averaged over 10 secs per noseride on his CON `UGLY` board at the`67 Ventura noseriding contest .

Con Ugly

 Board developments increased your nose time : deeper concaves under the nose ( see BING advert ), wide front sections on the board ( Con `Ugly`), side fins on your skeg to haul the tail down & force the nose up ( several products on sale ), the nose shaped like an aircraft wing to create lift under it ( Morey-Pope), or the back end of the board slotted to force water over the top of it (Holmesy), holding the tail down and pushing the nose up.

                                 Big concave under the nose of Nuuhiwa's Bing

                                   Noseriding wings for your skeg !

                Holmsey Sidewinder, designed especially for noseriding

 In 1968 the US finally moved on from it`s noseriding obsession . Suddenly short boards were acceptable, " SURFER " mag.readers voted Nat Young the best surfer anywhere, Lynch was 7th, Midget 8th, McTavish 14th. The longboard revival in the 80`s started the trends of today, where longboards and noseriding are cool again, and exist validly alongside 6` thrusters and aerials.
                                                    
Written by Tony Cope 5/8/2013.

                                                Bing team rider, Saunton last year

Thanks to Tony for this look back at the role noseriding played in 60s surfing, and how the Aussies broke away from it to go into a whole new realm of performance surfing , which put US surfing on the back foot for a while. Here in the UK we seem to have followed the Aussies lead in the late 60s with many transitional and experimental shapes made here. All part of the rich tapestry of board designs over the years.

Atlantic for sale

SOLD  For sale - rare Atlantic of St Ives 6'8 transitional singlefin c. 1970. In solid condition, needs a few small repairs, rare logo (similar to Ryan's Green Fly Atlantic featured on the blog a few months ago) . Still has rubber sucker leash plug. A rare and interesting stringerless board.

Bickers and Barland

A couple more Bickers boards have surfaced in the last few months, this being one of them. Sally sent the photos in; her dad Rex bought it new in the mid 60s, they think in Perranporth. (?) . This is a nice square fin log, probably getting on for 10 ft long and 30 lbs weight when new. Large logo on the deck means it was made in the earlier part of Bickers' short life span. Its not in bad condition really, although it looks like it has been left in the sun for a few years ! Got a healthy tan there. Back in those days there was no uv protection in the resin so most surviving 60s boards are brown. If your board has spent its life somewhere dark and dry then it might still be white ! And thats a rarity .

 Shaun at Trebarwith's Bickers. the one on the left is about as white and clean as you will see.

Another 60s board which looks like its seen a lot of weather is this great Barland Rott owned by Gerry in Jersey. Its a stubby v-bottom dating from around early 1968, with thin Greenough inspired fin made by Barland , possibly a flex fin, . The board is based on Bob McTavish's v bottoms of 1967 , and probably inspired by the Hot Generation of Aussie surfers who visited France at that time - Wayne Lynch, Nat Young and Evolution crew.(Also see the Klemm Bell v bottom featured a few posts ago) . A gold nugget in the history of French surfing ; shame the board's not in better condition, but it has survived that's the main thing.

Barland Rott was France's first surfboard brand, started in 1958 (and Barland still exists today). The association of two men - Jacky Rott and Michael Barland - who in the 80s invented the first shaping machine.

At the end of the 60s onwards France became well known internationally, especially at spots like La Barre and Guethary. The best surfers came to discover these and other spots, and often to help finance their travelling they would shape a few boards at Barland. Surfers like Bob Cooper, Mike Diffenderfer, Tom Parrish etc.

Great logo with French flair and rococo swirls. Thanks to Gerry and also Stephane for some info on Barland Rott.

Barland Rott brochure c.1965

report from France

1968, Biarritz, photo by Craig McGillivary. Billy Hamilton checks Nat Young in the pages of Surfer mag while the crew wait for waves. Nice looking boards.

See comments  for more info on these boards -

Stephane, our vintage board man in France, went to Lacanau for the opening of the new workshop of Gerard Depeyris, shaper since 1978. There were some old boards on show, including this Cheyne Horan personal board. This is a bit of a mystery since it has no markings or signature, but it is similar to the boards Terry Fitzgerald shaped for Cheyne in the early - mid 80s. I think the star fin was an original too, so a great condition board.

Cheyne, photo Chris Stroh

Also there was this lovely Hot Stuff, shaped in the UK by Martin Wright  -' the Wright design' logo gives it away. These Hot Stuffs were popular over here, a good chance for the local groms to emulate their hero Rabbit Bartholomew ! Hardly any have survived as well as this one though.

1981 ad

 Another nice British board was this Circle One, made by guest shaper and Aussie legend Peter Drouyn , a very interesting shaper in his day. Peter was over here working for Jeff Townsley in Crediton in 1979.

Thanks to Stephane as ever for the photos ! http://vintagesurffrance.blogspot.co.uk/