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/
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The top picture is interesting : the boards below are (green) Keith Paull`s Bing Foil , a brilliant new shape, and (red) Mark Martinson`s Harbour board. Mark rode the Bing, sent drawings to Rich Harbour, and he immediately made copies. The sales blurb of course implied Mark had developed the idea . The Bing shaped by Keith was still in use in 1970,when Aurness won the Worlds on one. I`ve still got all the docs. telling this story !
ReplyDeleteBy the way, that's Keith Paull (top) Mark Martinson (middle) & Bill Hamilton (bottom)
ReplyDeleteThanks Silver surfer, theyre both beautiful looking boards. Keith Paull came over to the UK in 68 with his Bing foil and the local shapers took note !
ReplyDeleteShould have said : your photo`s 1968, not `67; Keith Paull was in GB late that summer for a while , surfed comps. at Porthtowan & Jersey before meeting MacFree in France. A few of us spent a lot of time talking to him, he was a quiet & kind guy, sadly got into drugs big time early 70`s, died in the 90`s in a hostel for the homeless, in Oz.
ReplyDeleteSurfers journal says its 67 but your story sounds first hand and more likely ! So 68 it is
ReplyDeleteYes, SJ`s a year out on this, you`ll remember Nat & Mc T riding their long V-bottoms in Hawaii over Xmas 1967 & Jan `68, the flat bottomed round tails came in after that . Although,that Harbour board hadn`t moved on - that`s why Martinson had Paull`s board cloned.
ReplyDelete