Jolly Good gun for Mike Newling

This is a rare gun made by Tigger Newling in around 1976, which has been owned  and surfed by Jamie Pardoe for many years. Made as a serious travel board it measures around 8 ft x 19 3/4 inches , and was shaped for Tigger's brother Mike. Mike was only around 15 years old when this was made for him, but he was already showing signs of great surfing talent which would see him becoming one of Australia's top young surfers in the 80s , after the Newling family emigrated there.
Tigger had shaped other boards for Mike (there is a 7 ft Jolly Good minigun featured a couple of years ago, made for the brothers' trips to France and Spain ) but there can't have been many boards this size. It has beautiful butterfly artwork by Tigger's then Hawaiian girlfriend Nancy Dinmore . Any of his shapes with her artwork are very sought after . Tigger had worked in Hawaii at Lightning Bolt just before coming back to Cornwall to make Jolly Goods, and this board has some classic Bolt lines.

Mike Newling at Booby's in 1975, age 14 .Photo Alex Williams

Mike surfing Rockpiles, North shore Oahu in 1989. Photo Peter 'Joli' Wilson.

Mike (green vest) and Joey Buran, 1984 Fosters surf masters at Fistral. Photo Alex Williams.

The Jolly Good and other friends

Great playmobil surfing stop go animation. Worth another look

late 80s surf fashion

 This is what your average surf dude was wearing back in 1987 in the UK. Nice ! Darren Potter and Grishka Roberts by John Conway's Porsche.
Some of you may remember some of these garments from your wardrobes back then - but do any still linger there now !? I admit to a pink Billabong long sleeved t , which gets worn a bit, but rarely out of the house ! Back in the day we seemed to wear a lot of pink, which seemed normal for the time , and I was proud of my florescent orange Gul wesuit !

 This Wavelength shoot shows clothes by some of the top UK surf labels - Alder, Gul, Tiki, Wave Grafitti, Wavekraft and is a blast from the flourescent past .

 Grishka sporting a fine Wavelength jogging suit . One step away from a onesie.

Some famous local names in the Quiksilver team 1986 . Check the boards, all plain thrusters under all the decals, but still pretty thick. The era of artwork was out, the era of stickers had arrived.

Mark Richards twin fin by Chris Jones

James also has this rare Mark Richards model twinnie This was probably shaped by Chris Jones, made under licence at Vitamin Sea in Newquay in 1982 . Much like the Cheyne Horan model , having a famous surfers logo or name on the board helped sales . There were 50 or 60 Cheyne models made , and probably 30+ MR models, although both are pretty hard to find these days. The design is a British take on the classic MR twin fin , probably with a little more volume for the average UK wave . It has G&S star fins.

I can be definite on its age because here it is ! In a board section from a 1982 Surf Scene magazine . Its with other Vit Sea models including a red Cheyne Horan .

MARK RICHARDS 1980 RETRO TWIN FIN from Slimes on Vimeo.
Classic MR footage from around '81

Outer Limits twin fin

James has sent in photos of his Outer Limits twin fin. This is a pretty interesting board, made by Martin 'Gearbox' Geary in Newquay in the late 70s, pretty much modelled on the Mark Richards twin fins . This one is 6'4 . It must have been one of the last Outer Limits made, and the only OL twinnie Ive seen ; production started around 1971 or 72 and didn't seem to continue into the 80s. During the late 70s Martin was pretty busy shaping for Piran , and by the early 80s he was working at Ocean Magic doing airbrushing / artwork amongst other jobs.

Crazy little man logo by Fuzz Bleakley

Pretty early looking fins hand foiled by Martin  ; before G&S starfins and multifins took over.

 Articles from the early days of Outer Limits, 1972 Surf Insight mag.

Godrevy flexing its muscle this morning for the storm chase Red Bull comp . Kind of large.

And a spot near us that hardly ever gets this good. Photo by local Michael McNewman.

70s skateboards Conway and Cosmic

Gee has recently found a couple of classic Cornish 70s skateboards. This one with the fibreglass deck was made in Newquay in around '78 by Conway skateboards , made at the same factory as John Conway's Eagle surfboards . Sold from the Conway Surfskate shop on Fore st.

1978 Atlantic Surfer mag

This wooden deck was made slightly earlier , and by another surf company - Cosmic of Penzance (East Terrace) . Cosmic are best known for making the early surf leashes. They made a few skateboards, but like the Conway they're pretty rare now. Thanks to Gee for the photos.

1977 Surf mag


The skate bug takes off in the UK . Bilbo surfboards had been the first company to make skateboards in the UK, around 1965.

April 1976 Freedom skateboards

1976