Below - the story of Roger Lyndon and Celtic surf boards by Tony Cope --
" A few years ago Chris Jones mentioned that he had a board tucked away at his works that he knew nothing about. It had two CELTIC logos on it but strangely, both were upside-down . I`d never seen a Celtic logo, but an image came up of Roger Lyndon, 45 years ago .
At the end of `69 Westcoast Surfboards in Woolacombe got an invitation to the Irish Championships at Rossnowlagh, and 3 of us decided to go, Roger Lyndon ( NZ ), Terry Hansen ( AUS ) and me. Roger said he would like to find his ancestry while over there, as his surname was Irish. So over the two weeks we were finding points and reefs just prior to the beach-break contest, while he took time out to research his roots. He later talked about the impact the trip had on him, and said that with Westcoast breaking up, he would use up the remaining logos on a few more boards, then start his own label. It would be CELTIC , in honour of his ancestors, but put on upside-down in honour of his down-under homeland.
Fast forward to last month`s board meet in Braunton : Chris said he would loan us his CELTIC, and Gray Looker kindly offered to bring it up from Newquay . CJ : " Many years ago a fella I knew popped in the shop to pick up his new board, and he had the Celtic with him. I just thought it was an unusual board and a vee bottom which I got on well with, so I made him an offer and the deal was done. Simple as that really, I hadn't searched for one or anything like that. I didn't know who made it or anything, I was just attracted to it ! "
In 1970 the old Westcoast factory ( Wooden stables in South St. Woolacombe ) was returned to it`s owners as the lease ran out .
Kevin Cross : " Roger rented a little stone farmer`s building for a workshop, in a field beside the road going into Mortehoe . "
Roger made boards and showed his own-make surf film around N Devon for a few years more, then returned to NZ in 1975, when he did the water filming for the NZ surf movie " The Old Men On The Point " in his home town of Piha, 30 minutes from Auckland. Further back, in 1968 he appeared in the surf film " Children Of The Sun", which covers the last days of NZ and Oz longboarding and the genesis of the shortboards. The guys on the NZ vintage board site are kindly trying to find Roger now, if they do we`ll get the full story no doubt ! "
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Competitors cars at the Sand House hotel, Rossnowlagh. Rogers Ford Anglia is 2nd from left.
Thanks to Tony Cope and Chris Jones. Roger if you see this it would be good to hear more about the days of Celtic.
