vintage surfboard collector UK

wooden boarding then and now

2012-02-02T19:51:00.001Z

full length version of the Lewis Rosenberg film 1929

This years bellyboard worlds at Chapel with John and Chris

Them

2012-02-01T08:23:00.003Z

Car boot sale gold - from 1966

boards for sale

2012-01-31T14:25:00.008Z

Tig egg shaped by Tigger Newling from around late '69 or 1970. Rare board inspired by Aussie designs of the time which Tigger saw while competing abroad. Its 6'2 and has an s-deck , and has no major damage, just some tanning, a few dings and some pressure marks. Nik realises condition isnt perfect so is happy to take offers accordingly. The fin has been poorly repaired. No leash plug so theres a drill hole in the fin for the leash. Email nikkeatley@sky.com , in Southampton area.

NOW SOLD Nice original early 70s Tris, 7'4 x 21 1/2 x 2 3/4. Redwood stringer, original ply fin, glassed on leash loop. Strong old board with solid glass job, so has survived well .Deck is really clean with no delam. The underside has three old repaired dings , and a faded oval where a sticker has been. Its dry and ready to surf.

day-glo rides

2012-01-29T09:10:00.008Z

Back in the 80s if your board didn't glow in the dark it just wasn't cool. The heyday of day glo stretched from the mid 80s to the early 90s, and must have made the beaches and line ups a lot brighter than they are today. Bright yellow and pink found their place on boards, wetsuits- and as you can see above even my mountain bike which I bought it 1991 and is still loud and proud. When I ride it the local kids stare at it no doubt thinking what the hell is that ?!

To find 80s boards which still have strong colour is quite rare as the spray jobs mellow with time and uv damage. But here's a couple of classics - a 6'2 town and country pro series thruster from '87 ish ? and a slightly earlier Hot Buttered by ratso Buchanan, twin fin set up with a nice multifin wing fin in there at the moment. This board was possibly made at the Ocean Magic factory.

Aussie collectors in the UK

2012-01-26T21:52:00.007Z

Two separate Australian collectors have re-located to the UK in the last few months and brought their collections with them - so another 70 or so Aussie classics have come on to British soil. Hopefully we'll see some of them at the next surf meet ( date to be announced dreckly). I have yet to see Ed's boards although know he wants to sell some. These below are a part of Peter's collection : a sweet stash .

Reno personal board – Koa wood laminate (ultra ultra rare and most prized possession)

Peter Clarke S-Deck

Shane Custom

Scott Dillon Stubby

McTavish Blue Bird Gun

Michael Peterson Double Flyer Swallow (pre resoration) (signed by MP)

Morning Star Mural

Owl Chapman for ‘Paul’ (probably Strauch)

Simon Anderson Twinnie (very rare, infact Derek Hynd said he’d never seen another one in the flesh)

Nat Young Nude Lady (also have a Buddah)

Ocean Magic by Pete McAllum

2012-01-25T07:43:00.006Z

Sweet little twin fin, around 6 ft shaped by Moony McAllum for Ocean Magic. It was shaped around 1981 and spray wise still has the stylish flow of the 70s with classic fade and pinlining. In a couple of years radical, bright and angular sprays would be the fashion. Most of these twin fins were made by Nigel Semmens but here's one from the boss, who taught Nigel a lot about shaping and helped set him on course for a lifelong career at Ocean Magic. This board clearly has influences from the Mark Richards twin fins. Actually when the first MR twins came over here the local shapers were all over them taking templates.
As we've mentined before on the blog, Moony came over from NZ in 1967, set up in St Ives making Stuart and Nomad surfboards , worked at Atlantic for a short time ; then in '69 he went over to Newquay to work for Bilbo , and went it alone again with Ocean Magic in '72/3 though to the early 80s when he sold out to Nigel. Moony also helped John Conway organise the UK's first pro contest the Gul Alder pro am (1981).

Moony with Drifta at the '81 Gul Alder. Photo Alex Williams

Ocean Magic trade stand, early -mid 80s London Boat Show. Cool twins and 2 1/2s with some Semmens windsurfers !

another spoon collection

2012-01-22T16:53:00.003Z

Thanks to Wayne in Australia for sending in pics of his beautiful spoon quiver. Still no word on British spoons coming to light so we'll enjoy the Aussie ones till then.

''Hi Alasdair,
saw you were a bit short on British spoons, here's a few more Aussie ones.
L-R
1.early 70's Peter Clarke surfboards, 53 Bay road Taren Point, NSW-shaper Peter Glasson.

2.Green no name Spoon Paipo, (prone board) 70's?

3.Custom made for Mark Munro Cronulla shark Island charger early 70's-shaper Richard Herbert Cronulla surfer shaper Huzza Wuzza and emerald surfboards.

4.1975 4'10 Ron Wade moulded spoon, Mona vale New South Wales (NSW)

5. Hollow yellow spoon, Adler surf centre, Woolloongabba, Brisbane, Qld. 1964 - '73 Adler made surfboards, and hollow surf Ski's, same technology on the spoon.''

Aberdeen surfing 1960s

2012-01-21T08:28:00.002Z

Photos of early Scottish surfing with George Law and Andy Bennetts-
GEORGE LAW SURFING ABERDEEN BEACH SCOTLAND 1967-71,I WAS THE FIRST TO SURF ABERDEEN BEACH IN 1967,SHOWN IS MY FIRST BOARD,THEN ANDY BENNETT, IN THE PICTURE, BUILT MY FIRST SHORT BOARD,AT THE TIME THE LOCALS THOUGHT I WAS NUTS, OR FROM OUTER SPACE!MY NAME FOUND ITS WAY INTO THE SEPTEMBER 1968 SURFER MAGAZINE.

More spooning

2012-01-19T21:28:00.009Z

Well I haven't exactly had a landslide of emails from you British spoon owners out there. So I guess either they are that rare or you're not telling me ;

Here's a couple more from Henry

Farrelly (Brookvale, Sydney, NSW): found in the UK.

Probably shaped by Paul Connors or Midget or possibly Paul Shanks, and glassing perhaps by Chris Crozier depending which year it was manufactured (believe Connors and Crozier left Farrelly’s around 1970 to start Croziers).
Apparently only about 100 made.Probably made between 1969 – 1972 (see advert attached). I have a feeling it is late 60’s, 1970.

Henri slab Kneeboard. The slab kneeboard shape came into popularity around '73 as could be used in all conditions as opposed to the just- positive floatation of a true spoon. Chris Henri had a factory in the Curl Cur/Brookvale, Sydney NSW.

Freedom factory around '71 , with a Freedom made spoon ? ,Jersey.

Spoon collection

2012-01-17T14:48:00.009Z

Thanks to Henry for supplying photos of part of his spoon collection - which must be the best in the UK. Most were bought over in Oz but a small number have been made or found over here. Finding a British spoon is like the needle in the haystack - or mabye even harder to find , as not many were made so few if any survive. Tiki made them, as did Tigger Newling for Tig label. Probably most of our surf factories tried putting out an experimental one or two in the late 60s/ early 70s, such was George Greenough's sphere of influence. Anyone out there got a British spoon ? Would be good to know who else made them ?

A brief history of the spoon....words by Henry

'George Greenough designed and made the first spoon, in early mid 1960’s, original one was balsa board with a scooped out deck, then later he started making the molded versions, huge amount of time went into making them. Most famous was Velo 1, a very flexable board, and his raked / high aspect fin designs, and by using multilayered laminated fibreglass (as opposed to wood / chopped strand etc) could foil the fins so they were very flexable (giving drive and quick response) . GG was carving in the powerful well formed QLD waves, sharp bottom turns and carves, getting deep tubes, real performance surfing. People took notice (McTavish, Farrelly ,Young)..... especially in his fin designs (as well as the size of the board) and what it was allowing him to do, which with vee bottoms in 1967 changed surfing, started into the transitional era into shortboard revolution.'

Quane (NZ):

Made in Denis Quane’s Redcliff factory by Dave Poyer and Denis.
Denis told me that it was probably made around 1966-68 just using a photo of Greenough’s Velo as a template, and they only made 3 or 4 of them.
Denis Quane is an undernoted shaper worldwide, but probably the best longboard shaper of the time in NZ (he had travelled in 1960’s to California, where he spent time with Bob Cooper and Reynold Yater), he is still shaping today, an amazing feat considering he started shaping boards in 1950’s.

Hayden (Caloundra, Sunshine Coast, QLD):

Terry McLardy shaped and glassed spoons at Hayden’s, and was taught to glass by Bob Cooper.
McLardy reckons he would have shaped a couple of hundred+
I believe they were made from a Greenough supplied template as he hung around with the Hayden crew. Probably made from 67 thru early 70’s, mine probably dates from 68-69 (very similar to one a guy I know has which is nearly identical, and McLardy dated his at 68-69).
Got popular for a time especially after the release of Greenough’s The Innermost Limits of Pure Fun as he used spoons and mats to film deep and long tube rides.

Jacko (Perth, WA):

Made by John Jakovich, he’s still around shaping boards.
I am guessing it is early 1970’s, would have made just a handful at the most.

Jackson semi-spoon (Sydney, NSW):

Moving away from the pure spoon which required “perfect” waves, got more floatation with foam all way down rails, post 1971.
By 1973 kneeboards were of the Peter Crawford “slab” shape, so no scouped / spoon area. These boards worked in all conditions.

Shane Shoe (Sydney, Brookvale, NSW):

Around 1970.
Much cheaper / easier to make than fully spooned boards.

Tiki semi-spoon:

I reckon 1970-72, but waiting on you to enlighten me with what you can find out Al..., :-;

1969 publicity shot for Tig surfboards, north Cornwall .Spoons on left and right.

Tiki twin fin late 70s

2012-01-14T13:24:00.009Z

Great little twin fin probably shaped by Tiki head shaper John Hall from Australia. This board was bought off ebay by a friend who paid more than I would be comfortable with , and then found it was too small for him. I ended up swapping it with an Aussie singlefin I got down the car boot sale - so was pretty happy with that.Dimensions are 5'11 x 20 1/2 x 2 1/2.
It was probably made around 1979 in Braunton, north Devon and is a good quality board. I like the double hips into the roundtail, the arrow- so you remember which way to go, and the spray artwork . The shape is feeling its way towards the thrusters of the early 80s, and has the large semi keel G&S star fins, the ones that snap in, and then need to be whacked from behind to get them out.
The spray on the back is done by a couple of dudes from Australia called the Hewett bros. Sporting glam rock meets Brian May hair do's these guys were some of the best sprayers working in the UK in the late 70s/ early 80s , working in their 'natural fantasy' style and also doing some nice full board wave sprays. The spray on this board is of a dream bubble of flawless tropical rights and a wierd looking island, which is laid over some cosmic purple palms.

Tiki showroom around '79/80. Hewett bros spray on show.

1979 John Hall on the right. He went on to make windsurfers in the 80s.

Hewett bros

Taking off 1981 thurso

2012-01-13T19:20:00.003Z

Surfers include Simon Tucker, Richard Carter, Nigel Semmens, Steve Daniel etc and Ted Deerhurst makes an appearance

Board for sale

2012-01-13T07:57:00.005Z

NOW SOLD .Great condition Freedom twin fin made by Steve Harewood in Jersey around '79 . 6ft 5 x 21 1/4 with fluted flyers, very clean transparent multi fins and nice width at the nose. This was just before the no nose of the early 80s kicked in. Solid board with no work needed by the looks of it and should surf nice. Seller is asking £200 ,and its near Truro, Cornwall. Email info@studiopublic.co.uk

Travel posters 1920s - 60s

2012-01-11T07:14:00.007Z

I'm a bit of a sucker for these old posters - classic graphic design from the boom time era of British seaside holidays. Would love own a couple but the price of them now is really expensive; you could probably buy a few really nice handshaped vintage boards for the price of one mass produced printed sheet of paper -albeit old. Mabye boards are still pretty good value.

Newquay bay area locals late 60s

2012-01-09T13:02:00.001Z

Footage of Rod Sumpter, Roger Mansfield, Tigger Newling, Alan MacBride and Chris Jones + others, late 60s. Spots are Fistral, Perran sands and Crantock. Classic days with no crowds just friends out. Transitional era boards and not many wetsuits.
From the original version of Come surf with me by Rod Sumpter. It has now been cleaned up and re-edited and has a lot of footage of British surfing in the transitional era.

Jason at the Roadshow

2012-01-07T07:57:00.004Z

Well done Jason, great to see the boards and a good interview - you have educated the nation on UK surf history - and mabye not surprisingly the blog has had its most daily hits today at 480 and counting, mostly after 8pm.If you missed the show check it out here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/b019h9rc/?t=23m38s

Check out Antiques Roadshow tomorrow night (sunday) at 7.30 pm BBC1 as Jason and his board collection is on. I confess to being a watcher of this programme as I love old art and furniture - although porcelain and jewellery really isnt my bag. In all the years that I've watched there has never been anything remotely close to a surfboard so tomorrow night should be a mark of recognition that vintage boards matter ! and are a part of the cultural heritage of these fair isles.
How poetic.

'Hi Al, well I've made the final cut for the 'Antiques Roadshow'! The letter arrived today and my big day will be shown this Sunday (8th Jan), Its been that long since it was filmed I can't remember what I said, but I was nervous as so please forgiven me if I said anything kook like!! They asked me if Newquay was still the hubb for British surfing, I said yes, well I was hardly going to say ' Well I prefer Woolacombe', I would have been hung,drawn and quartered outside the 'Red Barn' by the 'Boardriders' for that!

Something you don't realise while watching the 'Antiques Roadshow' is that most of the people who stand around listening while you are being interviewed can't actually hear what is being said! So if you look to the left of me and Hillary(first name terms) you will see my very bored looking partner Lisa and her mom Sue. Having said that everytime I start talking to Lisa about vintage surfboards her eyes glaze over.

I have blanked my address on the pics of the letter because I was talking to some one the other day who's nan had been on the 'Antiques Roadshow' and her house was broken into and set on fire the night the show went out. WHAT? ARRRRRRRRRRRH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :(

It was a great experience and I hope everybody enjoys seeing my much loved collection of vintage surfboards, I hope to pass them to my son when he is older, he is six years old and has just starting bodyboarding, so when it's time for him to inherit the collection he will probaly sell the lot and go on an 'Endless Summer', and who can blame him, I would!!!

J.'

Danny Garland 70s Bilbo singlefin

2012-01-05T22:30:00.009Z

Heres a rare Bilbo from the elusive guest shaper Danny Garland. This one's sent in by Jon, and its baby swallow tail and flyers must date it to around '74, towards the end of Bilbo's production. It bears Danny's personal emblem - a lady smoking a big spliff riding on an eagle. Danny has a bit of a reputation of being a rebel , dodging the law and the taxman , no stranger to drugs etc.... which all goes to make his boards more sought after today. Problem is they're hard to find. Danny's own label Space Gypsy was going through the mid 70s, made at St Merryn airfield at the same era as Tigger was working there, and Fluid Juice took over the Space Gypsy factory. Apparently Danny now lives in the Canaries.

Danny and Tigger both starred in a 1976 Rod Sumpter film called Pipedreams 2 - does anyone have a copy ??

from Surf , 1976. Danny with team riders Nigel Semmens and Lenny Ingram.

As our boards get a year older...........

2011-12-31T20:11:00.002Z

HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! go hard and enjoy thyself

Nigel Semmens duckdiving lesson 1981

in case you ever need to duckdive in a swimming pool

60s Bilbo tunnel fin

2011-12-30T10:34:00.008Z

Does anyone out there still have this board ? The photo is of Tony Cope with a Bilbo from around 1966 with a rare tunnel fin - of only a handfull made in the UK. The tunnel fin was one of those short lived design experiments which looked cool and turned a longboard into a space stick - but actually didn't surf very easily. As Tony remembers -
'Mine worked only in as far as it kept the board running forward by creating drag at the tail end.
It was too shallow, so popped out of the water on a sharp turn, sending you sliding out of control sideways.Rather ironic that a few years later I was riding a `sideslipper`with tiny fin deliberately to makethat happen. The difference then was that you then expected sideslipping & could therefore control it.
If you think about the tunnel fin, there is a lot more drag because you are forcing the water thro`a tube, whereas with a fin the water is only parted by a sharp edge. I never saw another board with one, but I remember from trips to pick up blanks from Bilbo that one sat in their shop window at Station Approach for a year or more, unsold & unloved, with people probablythinking ` what the hell is that ?`
It wasn`t a custom order, my board was bought second hand from Bilbo sander & team rider Porky Morcom - I was round at the factory one day & saw it, was fascinated like you are now, & ended up giving Porks a handful of notes for it.
Chris Jones told me a few weeks ago that appears in the old surf film` You should have been here yesterday `. I wondered afterwards what Bill Bailey said to PM when he found he had sold his ( free ) team board !
Perhaps that`s why PM left Bilbo shortly afterwards & went to TIKI, then had Acorn Surfboards with Adrian Husbands in Swansea, then left the surfing business altogether - he`s now back in Newquay & owns a garage !'

This photo is from Surf Research Australia. The tunnel fin was originally designed by Richard Deese in 1964, made of laminated fibreglass and was used by some Oz and US surfers until the next big thing came along.

http://www.surfresearch.com.au/f.html From Surfing World (Australia) June 1964

Surfing World Oct 1964. Thanks to Henry for sending in these articles.

1981 Gul Alder pro-am

2011-12-28T16:22:00.004Z

Britain's first professional contest, the Gul Alder pro-am organised by John Conway and Pete Moony McAllum. A big deal for British surfing !
Britain's best could for the first time compete against pros like Shaun Tomson, Cheyne Horan, Rabbit Bartholomew and Derek Hynd on the home turf of Fistral beach. Classic footage from Taking Off by Three S films.
Narrated by Ted Deerhurst >

Tris fish and diamond tail

2011-12-28T07:30:00.011Z

Hope everyone had a great Christmas and got involved with that classic swell on boxing day and yesterday.
We're back with more nice early 70s Tris boards. This was sent in by Paul who recently saw it lurking in a barn and bought it. Great condition and another of those rare twin keels. Short and wide its an original survivor with a template similar to todays 'retro' twin keel fishes. Dimensions are 5'10 x 20 x 2 3/8 and dates from 1973/4. The fins are red fibreglass, although look quite like plastic at first glance. Can't belive the condition of this board - it looks so fresh for a 40 year old, bet its light too and would surf pretty nice. Very original too with no leash attachment, just a drill hole in the fin.

This is another early Tris which I picked up a few months ago. This had also been in a barn for years near St Agnes, put up in the roof so the underside had loads of old dust and grime welded on. This is the earliest Tris I've seen with the classic Keith Flack logo - and the logos are very small on this board compared to the large size they got to a year later. I think it was made in 1972 when diamond tails were a popular shape to ride before the influx of swallow tails a year later. It has a nice dark red tint - quite hard to photograph - with a nice cloth overlay on the deck. The board is pretty flat rocker - wise with rounded dropped rails , not the hard rails of a year or two earlier. Like the fish its made from good quality Bennett foam from Oz. I like the home made grafted on leash fitting - not seen that before ! In all a classic board with lots of early 70s charm. 7'3 x 20 1/2 x 2 3/4.

1973

Yeo's Bellyboard factory

2011-12-24T08:48:00.010Z

YEO`S BELLYBOARD FACTORY. by Tony Cope, Nov. 2011.

After WW2 , 2-week seaside holidays became incredibly popular, with huge numbers of people arriving by train every summer weekend in Woolacombe.

Bert Yeo at his hut, Woolacombe late 40s/early 50s

and again in the 60s with a mixture of coach trips and bellyboards on offer. one bellyboard has '25/- best quality marine plywood' chalked on.

Bert Yeo had many business interests including owning the local garages, and he also had a coach business, which took the visitors out of the village on day trips all round the South West. When the drivers weren`t on the road Bert kept them busy making belly boards in a large garage building at his coach parking yard in Mortehoe. In winter this was their main employment, making up to 50 boards a day, so it was a huge local industry.
In the 1960`s Bert`s young nephew Malcolm Yeo started working there in his school holidays : ` One of my jobs was to order the 8`x 4` sheets of 3/8” marine ply. We took delivery of 500 sheets 2 or 3 times a year , when helping to unload them by hand then carrying and stacking them was tough for a schoolboy ! With 8 boards coming out of each sheet, about 10,000 a year were produced.

Yeo board cutting plan, eight boards to a sheet.

The original parallel-sided boards later gave way to tapered models ( see cutting plan ), which still made 8 boards per sheet.
After cutting them out with a saw, the board`s noses were wedged into the tops of drums of boiling water for an hour : `Getting the nose kick was pretty crude, really. Bert had some long pole ladders where we would jam the hot and wet nose down under one rung, and pull down and tie the rest of the board against the ladder with rope. Just one long ladder could take a dozen or so boards tied down in a row. A day or two later they were bent for good, and dry, and could be untied and finished off.`
They didn`t use a jig or mould to get the nose kick, as these would stop air getting to the wood and drying it out. However the `ladder` method produced many different radius curves, and in different places along the boards - it all depended how much nose was jammed under the rung, and where and how tight the ropes were tied. Due to this variety people now assume many companies were making boards. No, there were only a few.
The Yeo name appears nowhere on the boards - only various logos, often including the names of companies who bought them.
Malcolm : `We made one unusual model - it was hollow. The two plywood skins were spaced apart by steamed and bent wood battens, with shaped softwood nose and tail blocks .`

Surfrider 'Unicorn' hollow bellyboard made by Yeo's (painted over) . This was a big bellyboard at 4ft5 x 1ft 1/4 ins x 5/8 in thick . The centre hollow layer is 1/4 in thick.

Rubbing of the original logo under the later paint layers.
(Took me back to my primary school days -Al)

Before painting or varnishing, rasps and sandpaper were used to round off the corners, then Tim Smith, an art teacher at the Comprehensive School, did the logos using the old silk-screen method. Pictures of surfers, fish, seahorses, all sorts of animals…. or if a client wanted to hire the boards out, just the stencilled name of a hotel or business, like the huge Parkin Estates who managed the Woolacombe beaches .

Yeo Parkins estates board.

Graham Yeo : ` Uncle Bert sold masses of boards to Vince`s, the wholesalers in Ilfracombe, who sold them on to clients all over the country. For direct sales in the southwest, transport was no problem with Bert`s coaches going all over the place. Any sandy beach was a potential site for selling or renting out boards, because they could be wedged upright in the sand and used as cricket stumps or wind-breaks when the sea was flat. `
Malcolm : `Uncle Bert had a booking office for the coaches in Woolacombe, where he also sold some boards direct. I remember a couple of the names he used on these - Skimmer, and Unicorn. If you wanted to hire one it was 10 bob deposit, plus a shilling a day ( 50p, and 5p). If one didn`t get returned, the deposit pretty well covered the full manufacturing cost !`
By the 1980`s most visitors had their own car, so the railway had long gone and the coaches weren`t needed. Bert sold the old coach premises and a block of flats was built there ( opposite Mortehoe post office ) . Malcolm moved down the hill to Woolacombe, onto the site which is now Gulf Stream Surfboards, where he made 7 thousand wind-breaks over the next few years and had a shop selling beach goods, including bellyboards of course.
The Yeo factory probably made 300,000 plywood boards during it`s lifetime - probably the biggest and longest running bellyboard enterprise ever.
The factory`s eventual demise in the mid 80`s was brought on by the arrival of cheap imported polystyrene belly boards and plastic foam boogie boards, which started as a trickle around 1970 but quickly turned into a torrent .
Many thanks to the Yeo family - Malcolm, Avice, Jean and Graham – for all this information, and especially to Elizabeth for the great photos of her Dad, and not forgetting surfboard collectors Al, Alex and Henry for the board photos.

And thanks to Tony for piecing all this together with the help of the Yeo family. Without his effort some of this history could have disappeared into the sands of time - like quite a lot of surfing history already has.

2011-12-23T08:52:00.002Z

Tris surfboards

2011-12-23T07:59:00.010Z

Really nice looking singlefin sent in by Henry. Old Tris boards continue to be very popular/sought after. This one looks very surfable, not too narrow and from around the mid 70s. Nice attention to detail in the pinlining and full tints typical of the quality of finish of Tris boards. This one spent its early years surfing north Wales.

1972 Surf Insight. Graphic design quality a bit lacking but this is probably one of the first Tris adverts.

Got my 1973/4 Tris fish back after restoration with Jase at Leven surfboards. Its a hell of a lot better looking, lighter and more surfable then when I dropped it off. A bit of a christmas pressie to myself, and another mistreated board brought back to its former glory. Can't wait to get it in the water , should motor along, its 6'4 x 21 so quite big for a fish and plenty volume, thick at the nose and tapering down to a slim and dainty tail (thickness wise). If I was to do anything different in the resto it'd be to use better quality wood in the fins - the one we used had moisture in even after being dried for a good time. Bog standard quality B&Q plywood = my schoolboy error.

Tris with an early twin fin design 1971

Sydney surfers & skaters home movie 1970s

2011-12-19T21:49:00.005Z

Sydney late 60s night scene, Rennie Ellis photographic archive. Photo c. Wesley Stacey .
Check out those Evolution era shapes

Taken from super 8 70s footage, a cool little movie about Long reef beach boys enjoying summer

Jolly Good minigun by Tigger

2011-12-18T19:05:00.009Z

John has sent in photos of his extensive collection which included this Jolly Good minigun made by Tigger Newling and inscribed to his brother in foreign script. I thought the board was interesting enough to bring tigger in on it and see what he remembered about the board - which is usually a good idea as he's always keen to see his old shapes. The board is 7 ft x 18 3/4 and most likely to be a travel board judging by the inscription - 'pour mon frere pour les cylindricos da kine juice minigun' which is a right old mixture of Tigger speak. I think this is only the second Jolly Good we've had on the blog, they're pretty scarce as were only made for a year, between Tigger's return from Hawaii in 1975 where he worked at Lightning Bolt , and his emigration to Australia in 1977 where he's remained since.

Heres what Tigger said on seeing the photos-

'That is a really nice looking board. In good condition by the look of it with the exception of a bit of damage around the fin. I vaguely remember making it but not whether it was for Mike Newling, but could just possibly be for an unrelated 'brother'. Actually that would be one of the last boards I made in the UK. I wrapped up the board business about the end of 1976 I think and headed for Australia in January 1977. Mike actually left earlier - late 1976 - but obviously did not take this board with him.
The rather dumb french/spanish/hawaiian inscription means:
For my brother a minigun for tubes/ juicy waves.
Technical Advice: Owl means I am acknowledging some Design inspiration from an Owl Chapman/Dick Brewer Hawaiian minigun I liked.

I was interested to see the Jolly Good and Tig decals on the same board. I thought I must have started re-using the Tig decal during the jolly good period (which are much later boards) and this board proves it by having both on the same board. I may have scratched out the shaper and glasser details on the jolly good sticker because it was not glassed at Tris Surfboards but finished completely by me, not just shaped. The Jolly Good concept was that I shaped and John Manetta and the guys at Tris Surfboards laminated and finished. That arrangement may have finished by September 1976, or this was a one-off special for my brother, keeping costs down, by finishing it myself. Great that it has survived, represents the best work I did. '

So although Tigger is stoked to see the board again, its not definite that it was made for his younger brother Mike, who also ripped and became a top club surfer on moving to Oz.

Then Jon came back with some new info on where he'd got the board - it came from an old mate of Tigger's, Mark Rees who apparently was given it by Mike Newling and he surfed it alot in France and Spain. Mark had kept it until two years ago, and the board has spent its life within a few miles of where it was made, St Merryn in Cornwall.
On hearing the name Mark Rees it helped Tigger place the board a bit more accurately-
'I certainly remember Mark Rees very well, the Rees family were neighbours at Treyarnon Bay and close surfing buddies and friends of Mike and I.
It certainly sounds like I made the board for Mike for a trip to France and Spain. We used to go down to compete in the European Championships at Hossegor, and surfed Mundaca etc. That's a perfect board for Mundaca!'

And even better than that, by luck Tigger pulled the photo below out of his old photos box. It shows a beautiful array of Jolly Goods and in the middle is the Mike Newling minigun !

'The shot is of the Reese family cottage at Treyarnon Farm and shows all their boards laid out in the front garden. It certainly confirms that Mark Rees owned the board at this time.
All the boards were made by me and many have those beautiful Nancy Dinmore spray designs. - the three Reese Brothers were some of my best customers!
The shot is a bit of a time capsule: Love the Ford Anglia, dead steamer and battered logger on the rubbish bin. Really captures Cornwall 1976. '

Thanks to Jon and Tigger for helping put all this together

Owl Chapman minigun, mid 70s courtesy of Surfboardline.com

Tigger 1976 Watergate bay open

Mike Newling mid 70s. Photos Alex Williams

2011-12-17T18:21:00.002Z

Cymande was made up of nine African and Caribbean musicians who migrated over to London through the 60s and got together to form the band in around 1970. Their three main albums were all really good so if you like this check them out. Classic stuff

Board for sale

2011-12-16T12:28:00.010Z

NOW SOLD For sale - mid 70s stunner by Jeff Townsley for Circle One with rare original space planets spray. Ready to surf or a beautiful wall hanger. As you can see its in really good condition, has had a few small dings repaired but is a clean survivor. 7'4 x 19 1/2 x 3 . Original wooden fin, redwood stringer and fluted flyers. £300 or nearest offer buys it , email traceyboyne@aol.com .

Creamed Honeys

2011-12-14T14:07:00.013Z

summer 1976

Australian legend boardmaker Kevin Cross worked under a few labels when he lived in Braunton. The most famous was Creamed Honey, which ran from around '72/'73 to '76 ,and at the same time he produced a small number of boards for his budget label Silverwings. Just before going back to Oz in '76 he made some 'Kevin Cross Surfboards' with the rainbow wave logo.

But something I found out only recently was that Kevin had a label before Creamed Honey. It was called Kejo surfboards and was formed by Kevin and John Hall - hence the name. This was in the very early 70s and they were the first boards they made in Braunton before Kevin started Creamed Honey and John went to shape for Tiki. Woolacome surfer (at the time) Tony Cope remembers having a Kejo made for him - a 6'3 'sideslipper' with flat rocker, big nose kick, down rails and a tiny fin in a 'paper jam' box. Kevin, John and fellow Aussie Ron Corthers first arrived in Woolacombe in 1969 and quickly scoped out a market for their boardmaking. They were soon some of the most prolific shapers in north devon with a reputation for quality. They both live in Australia again now, and Kevin lives in Agnes water on the Queensland coast, where his old friend Bruce Palmer lives too. John lives on the south coast of NSW.

Remember to look out for Kejos - they have a map of Oz on the logo and are super rare.

This early 70s diamond tail is in Henry's collection, probably shaped by Kevin , with the first Creamed Honey logo.

A couple more Honeys, both diamond tails again belonging to Shaun. The one on the left looks a nice shape, and that spray was used a few times; a really clean board, and the one on the right is of for restoration back to its former glory. Both by Kevin.

This is quite an unusual Phil Jay designed by Kevin Cross - but not necessarily shaped by him. Its a mid 70s gunny model with solid colour tint on the deck - which hides the stringer, and was a technique Kevin used sometimes in the mid 70s. Great colour. Recently found by Shaun in Falmouth. Phil Jay had a factory in north devon and a great shop in London.

Jay surf shop Wandsworth London early 70s

Kevin with a stack of Creamed Honeys, mainly shaped by Dick Harvey for the Watergate bay surf shop.

Kevin with cheeky stinger

2011-12-13T22:13:00.000Z

Pipe a couple of days ago -pretty heavy

old postcards

2011-12-13T07:27:00.006Z

Perranporth 1922 with boards made by the local coffin builder.

Droskyn

1932 Newquay

Perranporth again.

Severn bore long before it was ridden

The Aegir tidal bore on the river Trent. A tempting righthander

2011-12-12T15:28:00.004Z

this movie is called Seaflight from the late 70s ;check out that soundtrack and larry bertlemann

Tiki double stringer

2011-12-11T16:46:00.008Z

Paul has sent in photos of his Tiki singlefin, which although a bit battered is a pretty special board. Tiki founder Tim Heyland was riding a very similar board in the early 70s, as the photo of him below shows. Both boards have double sloping stringers and the strange parrot logo (or kookaburra ?) which I personally haven't seen before. I've seen quite a lot of Tikis with their standard parrot head logo but this one is different. Is this another of Tim's (or the Tiki crew's ) personal boards ? Doesn't look like a stock board with those stringers and the radical teardrop shape, with early fish tail - probably made in the first couple of years the swallow tail hit the UK - 1972 -73. But the cloth on the deck has such a coarse weave it kind of looks older. Hopefully Tim can shed some light on the board - I'll add some info if he gets back to me. The fin shape is quite unusual too - the board has a big feeling of experimentation, of the shaper trying out new designs and plan shapes, surfing the board himself and finding out what works best.
What do you think ?

Tim Heyland, early 70s BSA archives

London underground 50s time capsule

2011-12-11T08:50:00.006Z

I love seeing discoveries like this-
Recent renovations at the Notting Hill gate tube station have uncovered these mid-century posters. The posters were located in a non-public area and date from c1956 - 1959 when the station’s lifts were removed and replaced by escalators. Mike Ashworth, who is the Design and Heritage Manager for London underground took the photos and says the area will never be open to the public as its very inaccesible - which is probably why its survived untouched for so long. The posters will be left as they are and the room closed up. A pretty cool glimpse back into the 50s. Photos copyright London underground.

i was born with a plastic spoon in my mouth

2011-12-10T10:45:00.006Z

The last two live bands I've seen both played this track. The who's music is alive and well in little old Hayle. Dig Pete Townsend's jackets

80s collection

2011-12-09T16:16:00.004Z

Here's what a surf shop rack looked like in the 80s. This collecion belongs to Australian Matthew Maleham and includes some real Aussie classics from the era. Its been a while since we had some 80s boards on the blog so here's some welcome day glo, channels and multi fin set ups.
Cheers to Matthew for sending in the pics, love the boards and sprays and especially the jet fins on the Simon Anderson Nectar.

Bilbos

2011-12-06T12:40:00.014Z

A good few thousand Bilbos were made between their birth in 1965 and demise in 1973/74 ,so finding one these days still isn't that difficult. What is difficult though is finding a clean one - the result of little use during its life, dry storage and no unfortunate accidents. Here are some old Bilbos in about as good condition as you will find.

10 footer circa 1966, this one is owned by Justin who sold a Bilbo on the blog last week. Nice competition stripes on this one.

Transitional Bilbo, around 8 1/2 ft, shaped by the great Bill Bailey in around 1967. Check out that chunky stringer - and also the width of the board, pretty wide mabye to make up for the drop in length. The fin is one of the rare and quite brittle 1st generation of Bilbo plastic removeable fins. From Henry's collection.

Another transitional Bilbo along the lines of the CJ model. This one is 8ft and stringerless to try to save weight , from around 1968. This is also owned by Justin and may be up for sale. Very clean and probably a fun ride.

1972 Surf Insight ad

Into the shortboard era with this nice roundtail from around 1971 and around 7 ft long. It uses Bilbo's more successful later fin system and could have been shaped by any of the strong team of shapers at the time. Could be by CJ, Pete McAllum or Alan MacBride. Those lines across it are tape residue Henry hasn't got round to cleaning off yet.

1972 Chris Jones and Brian Schofield

early 70s diamond tail Bilbo, pretty much in as perfect original state as you will find. Thrown away by its original owner and now happily resides in Jason's collection.

Freedom Fun Machine

2011-12-02T21:24:00.010Z

As the 70s began most riders went soul surfing, breaking away from the confines and stereotypes of competitive surfing, breaking out some different shapes and having a blast. The Freedom fun machine typifies this, a loose 1st generation twin fin shaped by Steve Harewood in Jersey in around 1971. Super wide tails were a break from the narrow singlefin tails which needed more poweful waves to get them going. The fun machine was available in either twin or single fin set up .This board is pretty short at 5'9 ,features an s-deck to increase volume , and is probably influenced by Corky Carrol's short lived twin fin designs. The fins look live waveset fin boxes. Freedom were a leading board maker in the UK, progressive and up to date with developments in the surfing world, and this was also a short lived model - now very rare. Thanks to Alex for the photos.

Charles Williams of St Ives 1972

1971 British Surfer mag

1971-2

For more old surfboards made in Jersey check out this link

After reading this post Graham Rosewarne sent in this photo of him and his Fun Machine, taken by his friend Robbie Walker all the way back in Easter 1971. Looks a very similar board to Alex's one, Graham says his was 5'8 , pale blue with blue glue stringer and glassed on orange fins. It was bought 2nd hand off English champ Colin Wilson. He kept it till the mid 80s by which time it had delamed.

Britain's first stand up surfers ? 1929

2011-12-01T19:24:00.016Z

This old footage was tucked away in a house in London for decades, forgotten about until it was recently unearthed. It shows Lewis Rosenberg and Harry Rochlin and others trying stand up surfing on holiday in Cornwall in 1929. This is the earliest film footage of stand ups in the UK so far...Lewis made the 7-8ft balsa board himself based on Hawaiian designs of the time. He was inspired to make it after seeing a newsreel of Aussies surfing .I wonder what happened to the board ? The film was donated to and restored by the Museum of British surfing, and has been a good source of publicity for them in national tv and press.

More about the story of the film can be found at http://www.museumofbritishsurfing.org.uk/2011/06/30/standing-proud/
and
http://www.itv.com/anglia/old-surfing-video-found68861/

John Conway singlefin

2011-11-29T12:30:00.007Z

A sought after classic, early 70s John Conway from Henry's collection. Apart from making boards John is best known for starting Wavelength, the UK's longest running surf mag , taking loads of classic surf images which is now the Wavelength archive, and for bringing surfing professionalism into the UK through the world tour events held at fistral in the early 80s.

After an apprenticeship at Bickers through the mid 60s he started shaping under his own label at the end of the 60s and soon got a reputation as a quality maker. This classic rounded pin is from the early 70s shaped in Newquay. The unusual logo placement is a sign of John's different and creative approach to boardmaking. The purple bottom is not original but still looks nice with the green and red pinlines , and like Henry says its a part of the boards history and worth keeping as it is.

1973

1972

John with ale 1981

2011-11-26T09:50:00.002Z

60s moves & grooves

Boards for sale

2011-11-26T08:31:00.006Z

NOW SOLD Classic late 70s Freedom, in Newquay, offer closest to £180 gets it. A couple of very minor dings need done, otherwise very nice condition. 6'9 x 20 in. Email me and I'll pass you on to the seller.

-SOLD- Fancy a winter project ? late 60s transitional Bilbo 8ft 4, a rare board and a nice shape, check out that big stringer. This one was found in an old bath in Jersey ! but is now in Plymouth. Its got some delam and some stress fractures up in the nose area, but looks solid enough to be a worthy restoration. The seller is willing to take a realistic offer considering the work needing done, email - blastherion@hotmail.co.uk .You don't see these very often, could be a CJ or Bill Bailey .

Celtic surfboards

2011-11-25T07:12:00.006Z

Celtic is one of those short lived labels which has been forgotten about over the years - this is the first one I've seen. It belongs to Chris Jones and has hung around his factory for a few years, and he still can't find anything out about Celtic. Judging from the shape it was made between '69 and '73, and from the name made in Wales or Ireland , although it could easily be any part of the UK's surfing communities. Its strange that the logos are upside down .
If anyone remembers anything about Celtic or you made this board yourself - leave a comment or send me an email.

Thanks to Tony Cope who has come up with some info on the maker of Celtic boards, who was from New Zealand, having been friends with him back in the late 60s/ early 70s around Woolacombe. -
'You can now publish to the world that the Kiwi was Roger Lyndon, from Piha, NZ, who became a beachguard in Wooly in 1969, sanded boards for Fitz at night, learned to glass & shape a few during that season, and carried on making them in the same premises ( old wooden stables in South St. ) after Fitz emigrated to SA in 1970. He used up the remaining Westcoast logos, then went on to Celtic, as far as I know.
He was back in Piha by `76 - there`s stuff online - also he`s in a video called something like ` the guys on the point` about the early days of surfing on the west coast of north island, NZ.'

Circle One quiver

2011-11-23T16:07:00.007Z

1972/3 ad
Here are some more classics sent in by Shaun, three '70s Circle Ones made by Jeff Townsley at Exeter. And more interestingly Shaun says these were all Jeff's personal boards. This is a varied quiver, with the oldest board being the classic swallow tail stinger on the right, a fashionable shape in the early to mid 70s. I like the one in the middle , made a bit later with swallow tail , two pairs of hips or flyers and classic spray. Jeff did a lot of the sprays himself.
The twin fin egg is quite an unusual shape, a super wide and squat disk to motor through British slop, and channels to speed it up. Another classic spray. Thanks to Shaun for the photos.

Jeff shaping - and below spraying in the early 70s

Jeff at his Exeter showroom early 70s

Three piece suite by Bickers

2011-11-21T19:27:00.005Z

Imagine this scenario - you're refitting your vw camper and want to put in a nice table. Do you
a) get a nice piece of wood and polish it up
b) get an old piece of wood and give it that annoying shabby chic look
c) dig out the old man's mal which has been hanging round for years, saw it into three pieces and use the middle bit with the pretty logo on as the aforementioned eating platform.
Well you've probably guessed by now thats what some guy did, and the old mal happened to be one of the UK's most sought after 60s boards a Bickers ! The guy had no idea what a schoolboy error he'd made until he happened to mention his surfboard table to Alex, who quickly let him know a bit of a traversty had occured.
The guy must have been wrestling with the guilt because now comes the news he's sending it to Chris Jones for a full restoration !
Its a saddening but slightly amusing tale and it'll be interesting to see how the board comes through at the end.
Note to Skelly - brace yourself theres some Bickers vandalism coming up ...

history of the Cribbar riders

2011-11-20T08:25:00.000Z

today

2011-11-19T16:41:00.002Z

Todays forecast delivered with smokin waves everywhere in sight. Close to perfection and with a good bit of grunt behind it. Unfortunately I'd had 7 betty stoggs and 5 hrs sleep the night before, but the first duck dive put me right and some sweet waves were had. Photo- Gwithian this morning by saltshots

2011-11-18T14:26:00.002Z

Lookin forward to some of this tomorrow down the local beach. November has been a classic month for swells, long may it last

early 70s Freedom fish

2011-11-16T16:05:00.009Z

This little stunner was made at Freedom in Jersey ,probably shaped by Steve Harewood in '72 -'74. Its a very progressive shape for the time , 6 ft x 20 1/2,and was one of the first batch of twin fin fishes made over here. The classic outline is very familiar these days with the rebirth of retro keel fishes made in the hundreds and thousands ; this board actually knocked around the Gulf Stream factory for years and probably had a few templates taken from it.
In the winter of 1972 - summer of '73 UK boardmaking went through something of a tail revolution .The swallow tail - also called the split tail and the fish tail back then - was the new design to be seen on and offered alot of advantages for British waves. In the World championships in California in October '72, held in pretty junky surf, the new fish tail design had taken four top placings out of five, with Jimmy Blears 1st and David Nuuhiwa 2nd. Steve Harewood, who was in the British team at the time, scoped out these new shapes and started making them when he got back to Jersey. Soon he and fellow Worlds team mates Graham Nile, Pete Jones and Charles Williams were all riding Freedom fishes and swallow tails.
Benefits of fish tails at the time were advertised as -greater bite in critical situations in the wave and less spinning out (swallow tail), extra planeing area gives far greater speeds in mushy surf so greater manouverability in most UK conditions (fish). 'Putting the fun back into surfing, getting out of the narrow trips that just bog down in average waves ' . This all made a lot of sense - but there were some who went against the fish design. Tiki in '73 said the fish encourages a jerky style of surfing and is a step backwards from the long narrow singlefin, so wasn't something to get 'hooked' on.

After a winter of trials and test rides Freedom hit the marketplace in Summer '73 with a lot of progressive and stylish swallow tails and keel fishes , the latter of which didn't sell in great numbers because surfers were advised against them or found them hard to surf compared to the longer boards on the market. Nevertheless this is a sweet board and shows the quality of Steve's shaping. I don't think the underside spray job is original, and as for the keels - they look pretty experimentally made and I guess must be original. Pretty unusual colours on them. The bird decal was used on a lot of Freedoms from this early period.

Surf Insight 1973

Freedom ad summer '73

Tiki's opinions on the keel fish ,'73

Zak Harewood with one of his dad's shapes, early - mid 70s

Ezy rider

2011-11-13T19:27:00.006Z

A clip from Jimi Hendrix's 1972 film Rainbow Bridge, shot in Maui. Ezy rider must be one of the most apt surf sountracks of the 70s, and here's David Nuuhiwa ripping it up, doing 180s, switch stance ,tail first take offs, dropping in, cutting people up you name it he did it. Within a few months he would be riding twin keel fishes, and this style of board would be taken up by makers in the UK including Freedom, Tris, Creamed Honey and Wavecraft.
Those who have seen Rainbow bridge will probably remember a Mike Hynson singlefin being cut up for drugs smuggling. sacriledge...

The offending druggies

Mike Hynson

Bro and Paul's quiver

2011-11-12T07:14:00.009Z

This collection belongs to Bro and Paul at Diplock Phoenix surfboards . Most board factories have one or two old boards hanging around for various reasons - for reference, for display, or to surf on and go back to the roots for a while. Bro and Paul have more than most, which includes some pretty rare singlefins.

Don't know the make of this first one, two early 70s Bilbos and a Carl Hayward (Huntington Beach, USA)

rare late 60s Stuart of St Ives (Pete McAllum) , Tigger Newling keel fin and Tig stinger, and mid 70s early Ocean Magic by Pete McAllum.

Some great old boards here. I was surprised to see the Tigger Newling keel fin, similar to what Wayne Lynch was riding in the early 70s for a bit, and Nat Young was riding in Crystal Voyager. Added to that the rare Tig stinger and I thought Tigger should see these photos as he's usually pretty interested in his old surviving boards. This is what Tigger replied (he lives in Australia now) -

''Great to see those two boards surviving - a very unique pair. I do remember the keel fin. The keel was part of the original board design, not added later. I think I tried to ride one (maybe even that one) for a bit but I found it difficult to do my usual stuff - very stiff in turns and prone to spinning out. But it did go awfully fast in a straight line! Probably just required a different riding approach like the finless wooden boards (alaias) that are back in vogue (over here) now.
I think my inspiration for the keel design was Wayne Lynch who experimented with keel fins for a bit. I like the planshape - pretty much a gun for long fast waves.
The stinger is interesting too. Can't remember who it was built for unfortunately. Also more a big wave board, given that the stinger is so far up, making the tail pretty narrow, Ben Aipa was probably the inspiration for that one, Buttons (Full name - Montgomery Earnest Thomas Kaluhiokalani!) and various hot Hawaiian surfers popularized that design in the early 70s. I notice it has a fibreglass leash point between the swallows. That was a chunk of fin offcut laminated in to the deck with a hole drilled through. What I came up as an attachment point before leash plugs became available.

I was driving thru Murwillumbah (my nearby country town) and saw a pile of old boards lying kerbside in a heap for pickup in what we call the Council Clearout. I screeched to a halt and found a 6'0" Keith Paull squaretail single fin from the late 60s, a little sub 6'0" twinfin with a psychedelic bottom, and a big old vintage fibreglass surfski. They look good after a hose down and turps wax strip. At least 20 years of accumulated grime. The twin fin still had the original leash attached. A length of surgical tubing with a nylon cord up the centre.
Will send you a pic when I get organized. Maybe I have now caught the board collection bug, thanks to you. One thing is for sure, I am not going to find any of my boards at the kerbside over here.
I was happy to get the Keith Paull board as I knew the late great man: he visited Europe and Cornwall in about 1969 when he was then Australian Champion. He stayed at our house in Treyarnon and we once had a fun surf at Trevone with Corky Carroll from California who was travelling with him.''

Thanks to Tigger for giving details on his old boards, it really brings their history back to life and I'm sure the guys at Diplock Phoenix will be interested to read it. Good find for Tigger too getting those boards before they hit the landfill - the start of a collection ??

Wayne Lynch with keel fin, early 70s. photo by Rusty Miller.

Thanks to Shaun for taking all the photos - much appreciated.

Hot Stuff singlefin

2011-11-10T20:08:00.007Z

This is a cool early 80s Hot Stuff singlefin, 5'10 and probably made in Newquay. These Hot Stuffs were mainly shaped by Chops or Martin Wright and artwork done by Andy Cranston. The board was found by Stephane in Brittany, a long way from his home in Biarritz; this is his third British Hot Stuff - all found in France ! I don't see too many of these over in England so Stephane is doing really well in finding them, and all great condition too.
As you probably know Hot Stuff was from Australia, with top team riders Rabbit Bartholomew, Kong and Chappy .Tad Ciastula got the licence to shape them over here and sold quite a few - mainly because Rabbit was so popular when he came over to surf in the early 80s Fistral comps.

This board has a classic spray and nice glassed in rainbow fin ; signed B524 175cm . Thanks to Stephane for the photos. Stephane takes part in the Vintage surf club France's meets which can be seen at http://vintagesurfclub.blogspot.com/

1981. I saw Chops out in the surf today near Hayle .On a board shaped like a woman.

Rabbit 1980

Rabbit, Shaun and MR in the 1977 masterpiece Freeride.

Shaun's boards

2011-11-08T13:04:00.007Z

These boards belong to Shaun, who owns the Trebarwith Strand surf shop in North Cornwall. Over the past few years he has amassed an impressive collection of British boards to hang in the rafters of the surf shop, and these are some of his favourites. Shaun's collecting started after finding an old board at the back of the shop which had been used as a sign. He has a special affinity with Clyde Beatty's Lightwave label after sharing a house with the Lightwave crew in the 80s. If you visit the shop you can see more of his collection.

Creamed Honeys by Kevin Cross , a Graham Nile and a very clean Bilbo.

Mint Freedom thruster by Bobby Male, Lightwave by Clyde Beatty and two late 70s Tris' probably by Hillsey. My friend used to own this Lightwave and I remember surfing it around Falmouth 10 + years ago !

Thanks to Shaun for the photos. A classic collection of boards.

The three R's

2011-11-07T09:32:00.006Z

Randy Rarick on Surfboard Restortion from Arico Productions on Vimeo.

Randy Rarick has made a name for himself in the last few years as a board restoration guru, and his Hawaiian surf auctions, which are a good place to sell some of his restored boards, have become the premier date for wealthy collectors to buy classic and important boards. Randy syas there are three r's in his business - repair, refurbish or restore. Sure we'd all like to find perfect condition boards all the time, but the reality is they usually show scars and bruises from their life. In the UK often the dings come from storage in a garage rather than big surf, and we're lucky in that quite a few people in the 70s/80s would buy a board, find out they couldn't surf it and leave it in the attic for 30 years.
There's always going to be a bit of disagreement about old boards having a glass off restoration, and the result is they are a perfect re-creation , with the only original bit being the foam and the shape. I think the board loses it soul and its stories through major restoration like this, but then again if a board is that trashed it will never surf again whats the harm. You get the feeling that the restored boards may never surf again anyway, they have become a valuable investment. Having said all that ,Randy does a beautiful job using the original techniques.
I can't see many glass off restorations happening over here - only a handfull of British boards are worth a serious amount of money,- and thats usually if they're in great original condition.

You might remember my Tris fish project. Its a board that had lots of weird add ons, including a car paint frenzy, a mast fitting, two mystery big narrow fin boxes and a non original single fin.

Jase at Leven surfboards has been helping to nurse it back to health and its half way through 'refurbishment' as Randy would say. Replacement keel fins are back in the original position, two huge and heavy fin boxes are now out and replaced with blown foam. Dings are fixed, a really thick non original gloss coat on the underside has been sanded back to get the weight down. The board was the heaviest 6 ft board I've ever lifted ! £70 spent so far which isn't bad since the fins were made from scratch , from a template from original Tris 70s keels. Sanding off the red and blue lines was a hard decision but it was obvious they weren't original and were put on to hide the original keel scars. All that remains now is to hide the white repairs, and I may do a cloth inlay over the fin box scars. Then gloss and polish and she's ready for the Hawaiian surf auction / 3 ft Godrevy - whichever is more likely.

This is what the board looked like when I bought it a few months ago. Why did I buy it ? Because UK 70s fishes are rare as rocking horse sh1t ...

Newquay 80s twin fins

2011-11-06T08:09:00.007Z

Alex has just acquired these two classic Newquay made twin fins, and they were acquired the best way - not through ebay but through old friends and connections who wanted the boards passed on to someone who appreciated them.

The Many Returns is made by Dave Farrow, who still shapes under this label today. This board is an example of the quality short and wide twinnies that were being produced in the surf capital in the early 80s by Many Returns, Ocean Magic, Vitamin Sea and Wavekraft, all successful makers.

Dave started making boards at east Runton with friend Bob Browsall, and then went on to start his Karma label, a few of which can be seen on the Norfolk surfboard collector page here

In 1983 Dave moved to Newquay, working as a shaper/glasser for Hott alongside Newquay legends CJ and Mac. By then he had started his Many Returns label and has been based in Newquay ever since.

Here's another Ocean Magic by twin fin master Nigel Semmens , and the logo says 'european designs' , probably a reminder that Nigel was European champion. This is one of those rare 2 1/2 fin set ups which marks the transition towards the thruster way of thinking, which was the industry standard set up until the retro revival mixed things up again. This is a high performance board of the time, around 1981 or 82, and uses super light Clark foam.

This is an article on Nigel by the late John Conway -

'It is a rare combination of talent when surfing and shaping skills are embodied in one human being. Surfing is 90 percent natural talent; surfer who have to work hard on their style look mechanical. Shaping, on the other hand, is 10 percent natural talent and 90 percent technique. Like any handcraft it has to be learnt.

My first encounter with Nigel was as a young kid. He marched purposefully into my surfboard factory and asked me to shape him a board. He filled in his order form, paid his £5 deposit and left the final details to me. Over the years I have made more than 2,500 boards and I must admit I don't remember many of them, but I do remember the board I made for the young Semmens. I had no small templates at the time so I scaled down a version of my own board. It turned out to be a sweet little shape. I was so stoked I gave it a custom colour job and special showroom polish. Upon completion Nigel picked up his board, paid his £25 balance and the 13- year-old started a love affair with the Atlantic Ocean that would carry him to the very pinnacle of surfing and shaping in Europe.

Nigel took up the sport in 1970 and by 1973 he was on the podium at the English Championships taking second place in the juniors. In 1993 he was again on the podium taking the English Masters title. The many victories in the 20- year span are punctuated with two very special events: winning the European championships title at Thurso, Scotland, in 1981; and the World Amateur championships in France in 1982, Where Nigel finished seventh in the world.

As the twin fin era drew to a close and the thruster made it’s debut, Nigel Semmens was ready, at 25 years of age, to concentrate all his efforts in developing his talent as a shaper, and make Ocean Magic Britain’s leading factory. Under the watchful eye of shaping mentor and master craftsman Peter Mooney McAllum, the NS label kicked off.

Nigel started work in the Ocean Magic factory at 18. He served an apprenticeship with Mooney, and after two years of dust dirt and resin he made it in to the shaping room.

To start with, his influence in the single-fin era came from Richard Harvey. On a trip to Hawaii at the age of 18, he came back with a Ben Aipa stinger that Ben had shaped specially for Nigel. In those days British surfers were dependent on travelling surfers visiting Britain or British team members like Nigel bringing back boards for up-to-date designs. These designs were adapted to British waves. From the moment Nigel channelled his concentration into shaping, Ocean Magic took off, and after a couple of seasons and a move to Newquay it became a professional surfboard factory. In recent years Nigel has worked alongside guest shapers of world renown like Maurice Cole, Wayne Lynch, Greg Brown, Ned McMann, and Jeff Johnson.

In 1987 Ocean Magic opened their retail store in Newquay. For the first time surfers could go and choose from racks full of brand new gleaming NS boards, or place a custom order, in the relaxed atmosphere of a retail environment rather than the ever-busy factory.

In 87 the whole surfing industry in Britain went up a gear and Ocean Magic was there at the forefront. Nigel had always surfed with his team riders, translating their surfing style into the board he shaped for them on an improving performance curve. He recalls that his best relationship with any of his riders was with Randall Davies. They had an understanding that culminated in Ocean Magic’s first financial sponsorship package of any surfer, and this surfer-shaper relationship peaked when Randall won the British title in 1994.

Looking at the list of NS team rider over the years, it’s a who’s who of champions; not just shortboard riders, but seniors, masters, longboarders and groms...... they've all won titles on NS surfboards.'

Childrens annuals

2011-11-05T16:39:00.003Z

Thanks to Martin for sending in these pages from '50s & '60s childrens' annuals. For some kids this was their first introduction to surfing. Even though the articles are about Hawaiian surfers it could have got groms from Marazion to Morcombe to Middlesborough fired up enough to get their mum to buy them a bellyboard and give it a go.

Little fistral yesterday

2011-11-04T10:39:00.004Z

Its been a week of classic - and pounding swells ,and yesterday was no different with a heavy and clean swell hitting Cornwall's north coast. Graham took these shots yesterday afternoon at Little Fistral (well not that little). Tow in riders included Russ Winter and Spencer Hargreaves scoring their home break.
Gray is looking for Wavelength mags no 27 & 88 in excellent condition for cash or swap , email him at grahamlooker@googlemail.com .

Gray says this guy got munched. Thanks for the photos Gray.

Infinity singlefin in France

2011-11-04T08:09:00.006Z

Here's another old British board which has made its way over to France. Its owned and surfed by Jean-Christophe, who wanted to know a bit more about it.
It was made on the south coast for Bob Groves' Infinity surfboards label, made in the very early 70s. Bob had started making boards in the early 60s and was part of Groves-Davies surfboards. He perfected the art of blowing his own blanks in the 60s and supplied other shapers as well as selling diy surfboard kits to the general public.
Rod Sumpter became involved after he had left his sponsers at Bilbo and wanted a board shaped for the '68 Worlds in Puerto Rico, which Bob made. In return Infinity could produce some Sumpter signature models. Jean-Christophe's board is signed MAC , could this possibly be Alan MacBride from Newquay, another Bilbo employee ? I emailed Bob but got no reply so its a mystery for the moment.
The board looks a nice early 70s shape,around 7 ft and not too skinny so good for South coast waves . Classic artwork and text font on the logo.

I've just had an email from Bob Goves which helps explain a few things about the shaper and why the board is in France -

''Alan has never shaped any boards for me, when he was in France I was in Newquay and when he came back I was starting my foam blanks & board business in Fareham then later in Bournemouth. I had an order for 40 boards from a buyer in Biarittz one year and had Rodney shape up most of them so I can only conclude this board is one of those. I did use a method of numbering boards made, numbers to letters and the M A C is probably that. As 40 odd years have passed I'm sorry to say I can't recall at the moment just what the number is. Sorry about that. Thanks for the attachments, its great to know that there are still some of my boards around. ''

Bob Groves blowing some thick blanks

The Endless Winter

2011-11-01T15:59:00.003Z

This looks a very good film about British surfing history meets British surfing now. Lots of clips from the archives and interviews with legends. There was at least one documentary made on surfing by the BBC in the late 60s /early 70s which some of these clips must come from. Anyone got a copy of the whole thing ?

'Level Films have just released the trailer for upcoming surf documentary, The Endless Winter: A Very British Surf Movie.
It follows British pro surfers, Mark 'Egor' Harris and Mitch Corbett, as they travel the country surfing some of Britain's most iconic spots.
Along the way, they meet several of the key figures who contributed to its existence and substantial growth of surfing in the 1960s and 1970s.
It aims to uncover history of surfing in Britain and discusses the resulting, unlikely evolution of a British surf scene throughout turbulent times of social unrest and cultural change.'

early 80s Tris

2011-11-01T15:41:00.006Z

Michelle emailed with a story of this Tris by Hillsey made in around 1983 -

''found this vintage tris in Camborne, it has been propped up against a bedroom wall for about 15 -20 years as the original owner moved to Kenya. It is in mint condition with just a few pressure dents it also has the original cosmic leash still on it which was made in penzance which i will have to replace before taking it out. as far as i can gather it was made in 1982. ''

So for 15-20 years this classic sat in a timewarp in Camborne. Luckily its prospects have improved and it now has a loving owner. All that time without use has kept it in amazing condition and kept the neon spry job bright and fresh. I'm loving the early 80s computer type vanishing point graphics. Its a nice shape too with small swallow tail and 2 or 3 fin set up; shaped by Mark Hills who was the main Tris shaper in the early 80s and co-owner.It was made in Redruth, not a million miles away from Camborne.

Hillsey

Pete Jones 1982.

Teeps in 1983. He was the Tris sprayer from the late 70s - early 80s. Photos Alex Williams.

The Cribbar

2011-10-31T12:02:00.007Z

Here are some awesome photos (from http://www.inkydeep.com/ ) of the Cribbar in Newquay being ridden by tow in crews yesterday. The swell was reading 13 ft at 13 seconds and conditions looked near perfect with some inside barrels on offer for the brave.

Back in sept 1966 a similar huge swell went trough the Cribbar and a few surfers went out and made history as the first to ride it. Back then things were a bit different of course - a long paddle out , single fin longboards - 10 or 11 ft , no wetsuit, no leash and no back up if things went wrong. Losing your board meant a long and dangerous swim round the headland - and a mashed up board . Needless to say it was surfers from overseas who pioneered the Cribbar , who had grown up surfing big waves. They included Hawaiian Jack Lydgate, Australians Bob Head, Johnny McIlroy and Pete Russell and Rod Sumpter.

Johnny McIlroy on a Cribbar beast 1966, above and below.

unidentified rider, Cribbar 1966

margaret river early 70s

2011-10-30T15:09:00.003Z

I like this amateur footage of Simon Anderson and Terry Fitzgerald at the Aussie titles in 1973 ; what a peak !As you probably know theres been a big swell coming in today ,and even the sheltered spots were a solid size. How crowded ?! It was zooed out at hawkes point this morning.

Keo surfboards

2011-10-29T15:13:00.006+01:00

Charlie has sent in photos of this Keo which his dad bought in Newquay in around 1972. Keo are probably more well known for producing pop outs from the early 70s, but there were some good custom boards made as well, mainly by guest shapers rather than Stuart Keogh himself. Keogh owned a surf shop in Newquay's Fore st and was based in Newquay and for a while Holywell bay, and he also made moulded kneeboards and ply bellyboards.
This Keo is shaped by Greg Stokes, who doesn't ring a bell with me or a few guys I have asked, so he is most likely to be a travelling surfer from abroad. Google says he's from South Africa and still shapes today - although it might not be the same Greg Stokes. Quite a few of the hot travelling surfers who came through England shaped a few boards to make some money to keep travelling. So this board could be an example of what the South Africans were riding at the time. Wide and rounded it looks a nice flowing shape.

This is Henry's Keo, made in the same period, not sure who shaped it but its probably by a local . Its a popular shape of the time, narrower and with the wide point higher up the board. Nicely made with colour overlays and resin tints, and Australian Barry Bennet foam.

thanks to Charlie and Henry. If anyone remembers Greg Stokes please let me know.

1973 from surf insight

vintage graphics

2011-10-26T19:46:00.007+01:00

Jersey late 60s

St Ives mid 60s

early 80s

1971

1973

'73

Ocean Magic in the early days, '73

'71

Rod Sumpter's Freeform 2 1970

Waves in Jersey late 60s

late 60s

2011-10-25T19:43:00.002+01:00

A talk by Surfers Against Sewage legend Chris Hines, at the Poly in Falmouth, tomorrow night 8pm.A good bloke who has done a lot of good for all of us.

Museum of British surfing & Coventry transport museum

2011-10-24T20:05:00.002+01:00

Fulmar quad by Graeme Bunt

2011-10-24T09:12:00.008+01:00

This Fulmar quad belongs to a friend in North Devon, who grew up riding these 80s shapes around north cornwall and Devon. It was made by Graeme Bunt, who started shaping in 1979 and was based in Polzeath and Wadebridge. He now shapes for his Local Hero label which has been running for many years . If anyone knows more about Graeme in the late 70s/early 80s please send it in.

This design is from the early 80s, with the classic swallowtail , quad fins and channels which was a popular option at the time, plus the new needle nose or 'no nose' which came over from Oz and the US , and signalled the end of the late 70s wide noses ( which I personally prefer). The quad set up here is bigger main fins and small trailing fins. Its interesting that there is a Schroff graphic on the underside of the board. Schroffs were from California and in the early 80s were very cool boards with some top underground riders. Graeme probably saw them in Surfer or Surfing and was influenced by the squares graphic.

1981

1984

Early-mid 80s Californian Schroff blaster with wide lazor zap - type tail and 'no nose'. From boardcollector site.

2011-10-21T11:56:00.006+01:00

Ocean magic by Nigel Semmens

2011-10-20T09:09:00.007+01:00

Here's a lovely Ocean Magic from my friend's collection in north Devon. It was made in 1981 or 82 by Nigel Semmens and has the look of the time - short, wide, twin fin and channels, double hips and beautifully finished with stylish graphics. These were the sort of boards which built on Ocean Magic's reputation to make them possibly the most successful label in 80s England. Added to this came Nigel's contest prowess on his boards, with many victories including British and European champion, plus a strong team of mainly Newquay based riders.

This board has quite an unusual sharks mouth spray and looks like it spent some time in Jersey.

Nigel 1978, the classic Semmens cutback- body low, arm high, plenty of speed and power to work that twin fin back into the pocket.

Nigel at Fistral 1984 .These photos by Alex Williams.

OM team rider Grishka Roberts, fistral '81. Photo by Geoff Tydeman

a few quiver shots

2011-10-18T19:20:00.004+01:00

A few interesting quiver shots of British boards picked off good old google images..

Taken in the late 80s in Holland apparently , here we have on the left a Cheyne Horan singlefin by CJ, a Tris thruster (or twin fin with box) and on the far right a Vitamin Sea quad.

Taken around Constantine in the mid 70s; can't identify most of these boards but I like the magic mushroom and wave spray - looks like one of Tigger's Jolly Good boards to me.

A good range of boards in this quiver - Bilbo traditional longboard and transitional Bilbo 8 footer , two mid 70s singles and a Tris fish. From magic & voodoo site.

Tig and his travelling quiver, shaped by him, very early 70s

A very complete quiver belonging to the Museum of British surfing, looked after by Pete Robinson.

Dump find Devon

2011-10-17T07:20:00.008+01:00

Another great board plucked from the tip, this time in North Devon. This was the 1983 personal board of Welsh absolute legend Carwyn Williams, who worked his way up to the world pro tour on a shoestring and at his best could surf to a level equalling and sometimes beating world champions. Added to that a classic character making friends wherever he went and partying hard. To find one of his old comp boards any any sort of good condition is very rare, and there's apparently a photo of Carwyn holding this board in an old Surf Scene , but its one I don't have.
Just as Carwyn was hitting his stride on the tour he was involved in a major car crash in France (1990 ) which injured his knee so badly doctors thought he would never surf again. After surgery, physio and a lot of grit and determination he made a successful comeback on the European tour and frustratingly missed qualifying by one place twice for the ASP world tour.
He later moved to his favourite area Hossegor and became a team trainer for his sponsers Billabong.

As you can see by the big sponser decals on this board he was in the Alder team, which were dominant in the early 80s and also included Paul Russell , Richard Carter and Simon Tucker. The team to beat. In 1983 , which I think is the year the board was made , Carwyn won the Welsh,British and European junior titles ! The board is shaped by Craig Hughes, who was Carwyn's shaper all through the 80s and early 90s and became Wave Graffitti. This 2 1/2 fin set up was quite typical at the time in the run up to the universal use of the thruster. From what I can remember the board is around 5'8x 19 1/2 or 20 in wide.

Thurso '82, by Alex Williams

1983

1985. This ad makes me laugh. Advertising then wasn't quite as slick as it is now.

Surf Scene '83. No of years surfing 4 1/2 ,favourite tv show Grange Hill.

Dump find South Africa

2011-10-12T15:46:00.005+01:00

I love reading stories about boards being saved from the tip, whether local or a thousand miles away. Wayne sent in these photos - his brother plucked this 5'9 quad from Benoni dump in South Africa recently, and is trying to find out more about the Jet label. What a cool board to find at the tip, and great condition with original early 80s gloss coat and nice four fin setup.
There were some boards under the same Jet logo made in Australia at the same time, shaped at Byron by Tony Cerff ;I'm sure Damion at boardcollector knows more about them.

Possibly these South African made boards were under licence from Jet in Oz , just like Country Rhythm making Simon Anderson thrusters in the early 80s.

Couple of Jets at a South African surf shop/ cafe , along with other early 80s classics like Shaun Tomsons and a Country Rhythm /Simon Anderson thruster.

Graham Nile and Freedom

2011-10-10T20:02:00.013+01:00

Thanks to Graham in Newquay for sending these photos in. Graham's young neighbour has just had his lucky day - he's been given these two old boards. To be gifted any vintage board is a treat, and especially when its two British 70s gems like these.
The board with the deep purple tints and overlays is a Graham Nile. Now you don't see many of these, its a single fin fish from I reckon 1973, shaped by Graham or John Hall in St Austell. Graham is a big and legendary figure in British surfing in the 70s, and scoped out many of the breaks around St Austell. He was in the British team in the early 70s, and was British champion in 1976. He had a sports shop in his home town which sold his boards and also Freedoms.
I like the look of this board, love the colour, and the fin which is identical to the one on my Nile. The lettering on the logo has been trimmed off from the full peacock logo . The board is 6'6 x 19 x 2 3/4. The leash plug has been added later - probably mid-late 70s. With a bit of proper restoration it'll come up a treat.

This board is a good looking rider by Freedom, probably shaped by Bobby Male - one of the best surfer shapers at the time, and European champion. I have a similar one with those pinched in wings and nice wide nose. Probably shaped in 1975-6, again with a later leash fitting, and its in great condition, ready to ride again with little work. Its 6'9 x 20 x 3 ,and has an original leash from Cosmic of Penzance, mid 70s. The best things in life are free.

Bobby Male, Watersplash late 70s/ early 80s

Freedom crew - l-r standing -Bobby Male, Pat the Rat, Paul Gregory, Honky Harewood, Connie Farmer. Sitting - Paul Grieve, Jon Hetherington. Around 1980.

Graham Nile early 70s

Surfing at Caerhays - by Graham Nile 1970, from British Surfer.

1973.

surf out to sea

2011-10-09T22:51:00.001+01:00

Surely must have been a rideable pulse off this ? North cornish coast recent cliff collapse. Don't go too close to that edge...

Scott Dillon longboard

2011-10-08T07:33:00.008+01:00

Henry has sent these photos of a recent acquisition to his vintage quiver - an Australian longboard made in the mid 60s by Scott Dillon. Its been living in a time warp somewhere near London up until now - just look at that condition - amazing and barely surfed. I flicked past this board on ebay thinking that it was a modern remake of a classic log it just looked too good to be true and the owner said he'd only surfed it three times.

Anyway Henry's the don when it comes to picking up sweet Aussie boards over here, and he bagged a good one this time ; love the volan tint and that big slim fin. The board looks like its itching to get into the sea for once.

Can anyone unravel the mystery of the etching on the fin - Tony Vyner are you out there ?
Is it like those fish boxes you see that say stolen from Stevenson's fish co etc. - so if it was nicked they'd have a hard time selling it on without glassing over the writing ?

Henry adds-

''Picked up the attached Scott Dillon yesterday from Acton, bought off ebay a week or so ago.

In great condition, volan still nice and green, I had it down from shape, fin and logo as 1966 (maybe 1965 going on date on Geoff Caters surfresearch website, but to me this feels at least mid 66). Apart from a rail shatter and a golf ball size shatter on the bottom, and some surface scratches you would think it was only a few years old, not bad for a 45 year stunner. Wow a mid 60’s Brookvale Six board in London in such great condition.

Seller had it down as 10’, but it is actually 9’, lean an mean, great rails, thin and quite a bit lighter than similar Oz LB’s i have from around the same time.

What is especially interesting after picking it up is that the fin has engraved on it the name, Tony Vyner GU6 7JT 66, so I take this as postcode from Crainleigh, Surrey and year 1966 (or house no. 66). The “Stolen from...” bit rings of the 60’s, heard of others in Oz which had similar on, but normally telephone number of parents.

Does the name ring a bell ? If it was a Scott Dillon in the UK in 1966, I would have thought it would not have gone unnoticed, I assume a Dillon at the time would be classified as a merc, and really stand out in the line up.''

Scott Dillon's son stars in this great 60s ad. Thanks to Tony for sending it in.

Scott Dillon was a very influential surfer/shaper, and one of the most cutting edge in Australia ,making around 70 boards a week as early as 1962. This photo is from that year, at Scott's factory. Scott is on the far left (he now owns a surf museum) , Wheels Williams (who shaped that Silva Yates a few blog posts ago) is in blue shorts and white t shirt, and the guy stroking the dog is Gordon Merchant founder of Billabong. Bob Mc Tavish and Dick van Straalen also worked there in the 60s.

Wheels Williams up high ; Scott Dillon in hat.

Thanks to Henry

Some more Guernsey history

2011-10-06T07:43:00.008+01:00

Thanks to Phil for some more photos from the Warry family album. Great images from surfing's early days in Guernsey.

1966 Winner of Guernsey Championships Bob Warry being presented with the award by N. Weedon of Gold Leaf.

Guernsey Team 1967 (Bob bottom right) Inter island team comp between Guernsey & Jersey held at Vazon Sunday 4th June 1967. The local team that comprised of Allen Bichard,Bob Warry, Barry Johnson, Kieth Ogier, Richard Browning, Brian Corbet, Terry Le Pelly, Ryall le Tissier and his brother Dave. They thrashed the opposition, as they were unable to master the slow 18" Vazon mush on the day! The Jersey team consisted of A Wightman, R De Louche, Dave Bull, Steve Harewood (Freedom surfboards), Tom Bates, Mick Crawford and Jeff Huson.

1963 early days Vazon (left) Chris Flack, (centre) Bob Warry, (right) JJ, John Shear.
A couple of rather home-made looking boards there. Thanks to Pierre who says that the board on the right is a French Barland/Rott.

Portuguese guy's second from left holding a Blade, Photo mid 70's.... Blade 1960's type. Taken from Super Tubes magazine 1970's.

Restored......Dad was just given two old Barland & Rott boards to restore recently and one (red) turned out to be his very first boards.

Bob on the original Barland (restored above) at T'others, Vazon Guernsey 1966.

POV Shorts II: Derek Hynd, Part Two

2011-10-04T18:21:00.000+01:00

POV Shorts II: Derek Hynd, Part Two

The amazing Mr Hynd no fins just channels

5'10 Vitamin Sea twin fin with channels

2011-10-04T15:49:00.006+01:00

This amazing board was shaped by Chris Jones in Newquay for Vitamin Sea surfboards, in 1982 or 83. The condition is as good as you'll find for a board of this age - when board weight was coming down so the surface of the boards wasn't as robust as it had been in the 70s. In the late 80s the boards lost still more weight when the gloss coat started to be sanded down leaving the matt finish of most modern shortboards. The other very unique thing about this board are the torpedo shaped channels . A lot of boards in the early 80s had straight channels but nothing like these. I guess the idea was to speed up the flow of water under the board and create some lift.
The board has a 2 1/2 fn set up, with big multi fins and a small back fin to give a more bite.
Judging by the condition this board has only been surfed a handful of times, and CJ was stoked to see it again at the surf meet last summer.

Chris Jones at Fistral on a Vit Sea, 1981

Tad at the Vitamin Sea stand at the London Boat Show 1983. Cheyne Horan and Vit Sea shortboards along the back wall.

New finds

2011-10-02T14:34:00.012+01:00

I found these two boards last weekend near St Ives. An Atlantic - its taken me a long time to find one; and a bellyboard. The Atlantic is a stringerless 6'2 x 20 early shortboard - mabye 1969/70, with 50 50 rails. Its a bit battered but I'm proud to have found this scarce local make. Its had an acid drag gelcoat added to the underside, probably in the early 70s as theres quite a lot of dings over it ; and its good to have the St Ives council registration sticker. The shapers name looks like FLINT or AUNT ??
Atlantic was started by Charles Williams at St Ives in 1965 and produced quite a few boards until the early 70s. Charles and Kid Speed were local shapers, Colin Pryor blew blanks, Dave Griffin glassed and sanded ;in the late 60s Pete Mooney McAllum worked at Atlantic after shaping a few of his Stuart and Nomad boards at St Ives. Also Aussie Vietnam draft dodgers Neil Redding and Chris Cannings joined the team. St Ives at this time was a hotspot of good surfers and abstract artists.

Charles Williams surf shop 1973

60s surfer at Godrevy , near the site of todays Sandsifter.

Charles on the cover of Surfing UK, 1969. This is officially our first national surf mag, predating British Surfer by a few months. It was published by Lindsay Morgan in Porthcawl in Jan '69 ,and ran for three issues before fading away.

Longboarders at Porthmeor, mid 60s.

St Ives surf club at Porthmeor, mid 60s. The gas works behind is now the Tate St Ives.

This old bellyboard is also an interesting one, being an old hire board, probably from the 50s or 60s with a 1 shilling rental charge on it - don't know how long for !? This board was probably local to the St Ives area.

Sands hire boards , Jersey late 70s

Californian rental board 1920s from Fernando Aguerre's collection

Blade surfboards of Guernsey

2011-09-29T08:14:00.014+01:00

Blade surfboards is one of those labels I've heard a bit about, but have never seen one in the flesh and the history of them was a bit hazy from my point of view.They look pretty radical for the time and were Guernsey's most notable surf label. Luckily Phil, the son of Bob Warry who started Blade has been in touch and has sent these classic photos from the late 60s/early 70s to give a real insight into Blade and the Guernsey surf scene back then.

Phil has written about Blade on his blog http://www.funautical.blogspot.com/ and its such a good insight that I don't feel it does it justice for me to pick just a few facts from it.

Bob Warry during shooting for a Blade ad campaign , for British Surfer ,1970

Phil writes -
''Guernsey surfing in the 60/70's and the birth of Blade Surfboards

Surfing was started in Europe by Joel de Rosnay in Biarritz, France, in 1957.
Eight years later the Guernsey Surf Club was formed, making it one of the earliest surf organisations in Britain, Jersey started their club in 1959.
The club was formed primarily to protect the needs of surfers in Guernsey, to provide them with designated areas in which they could surf and other beach users and to develop the sport competitively and socially.
In the 60's the pioneers of surfing, Dave Fletcher, Roger Blanchford, Tom Woodford, George Head, Barry Hughes and Paul Burtwhistle among several others all used 10ft long boards.
But by the mid 60's boards were rapidly reducing in length to 7ft and then down as small as 6ft and under as everyone started making their own boards. In the 1960's surfers had started building their own boards, using polyurethane foam and fibre glass cloth and resign. The Islands first efforts at making boards was by Max Gaudion and George Warren Ex members of the Centre Steps Mob. They built a few boards under the label Gaudion, Warren Electra Surfboards. Pastel pink and lilac coloured Groves Foam blanks proved unreliable after long exposure to the sun and it's ultra violet light soon made them go brown.
Everyone has their own idea's about surfboards and from time to time ideas, like fashions, change and a surfer would acquire a new board. Barry Hughes was the same but could not afford a new board, so with the use of my dad's (Bob Warry) cellar at my child hood home "Douhallow" in the Villa au Roi, they stripped the glass off a Rodney Sumpter Competition Model longboard and rebuilt it. With dad's help the board turned out a really neat little board and that's how "Blade Surfboards" started some 40 years ago.

Their first customer was Pete Hart. Dad and Barry built him a spear, which was the fad at the time and soon had other guys by for them to build whatever they fancied. Initially using Groves foam and Simplex fin system, they progressed to more reliable foam and waveset fin systems. Blade Surfboards went from strength to strength and even sent boards to "Joe Morais Surf Shop" in Biarritz. In today's commercial world their major success would have been Willy Wilson's winning of the European Junior Championships in Jersey on a Blade Surfboard. Working evenings in dad's cellar to the sounds of "Led Zeppelin" and "Deep Purple" brought many surfers calling by just to check out what they were doing. Juniors would sweep up shavings and tidy up the workshop to help pay for their boards and the order of the day was shoulder length hair and coats that came down to their ankles. Levitation, meditation and the writings of Lodsang Rampa were their meat of conversation. Whilst shaping, glassing, sanding and polishing for three to four years most evenings a week helped the two surfers towards a deposit on a house. It was work but also fun.

Barry Hughes and Bob Warry ,founders of Blade, 1970

Dad's boards that were made and in regular use were generally ahead of those in use in the UK and on one trip to Bournemouth his short board was laughed at. By the following year they were all using similar boards. Guernsey was put on the surfing map by Peter Dixon of Malibu Beach California, in a book entitled "Where the Surfers are" which covered in main the top surf spots in the world. On the three pages devoted to the Channel Islands he reported that ''the surfers of Guernsey are the best organised in the world'' ''

Thanks very much to Phil. If anyone has a Blade tucked away in their attic or shed send some photos in.

In the cellar

Bob Warry, Guernsey surf champion 1966, '68 and '71.

Strauch stretch at La Barre, a move named after Hawaiian Paul Stauch. If he was standing it'd be a cheater 5.

I have had it from my reliable source ie Tony that surfing in Europe was actually started by Californian Peter Viertel, who was a screen-play writer who came to Biarritz with Errol Flynn & co. in 1957 to film ` The Sun Also Rises` ( a Hemmingway book ). When Peter saw great waves at Biarritz he ordered a board to be shipped over , & was seen by Joel riding at Cote des Basques. Joel was from an aristocratic & wealthy family ( Arnaud de Rosnay was a Baron ) & got the surfing bug immediately, later forming the Surf Club de France. The club also had a very upper class feel to it - monied , priveleged - but Joel was very welcoming & would go straight up to foreign sufers .The de Rosnays made the family fortune in sugar plantations in Mauritius ( Fr. colony ). Arnaud was a wealthy playboy, he won the 1st French surf championships, then became a famous windsurfer, and also a famous French fashion photographer. In between all this he married John Severson`s ( ` Surfer` mag ) daughter Jenna ....... and died 4 yrs later ( in the 1980`s ) lost at sea trying a marathon windsurf trip in hideous storms.

Bob at Vazon bay, Guernsey

the whole caboodle

2011-09-28T16:18:00.006+01:00

To celebrate passing 100,000 hits - which is pretty amazing for a small blog about old surfboards - I'm going to endeavour to get my whole collection on the blog in a kind of timeline sequence starting in the 60s. I've been meaning to get the whole lot in one photo but never get round to it. So here's the first half from the mid 60s - mid 70s. Thanks to all the 50 or more contributors over the last three years for making the blog a whole lot better.

1966- 69. Bilbo, Bilbo, Stuart, Westcoast, Tiki, Tiki.

1969-71. Conway, Atlantic, Tig, Drouyn, Chateau '41, Weber.

1971- 74, Hayden, Phil Jay, Freedom, Graham Nile, Tris, Creamed Honey.

mid 70s ,Haven, Silverwings, Circle One, Haven, Kevin Cross, Bruce Palmer.

Silva Yates longboard

2011-09-26T07:25:00.007+01:00

This Silva Yates longboard is a real meeting of nations - its owned by a Dutchman who found it recently in France, and it was made by an Australian in the mid 60s in Jersey !
Hans found the two boards a few weeks ago on a trip to Biarritz. The 10 ft longboard has a Silva Yates logo and is signed Wheels Williams on the stringer ; the other cut down longboard has no visible logos /signatures unfortunately, but is probably from the UK too.
Silva Yates boards are rare - he was a fibreglass boat builder in Jersey who saw an opportunity to start a business making boards for the island's growing surfing population. He only made around 100 longboards, and quite a lot of paipos (4'11 twin fins etc ), and had one or two guest shapers to help him, most notably Wheels Williams. Silva's first board was a hollow ply but a couple of years later he became aware of foam blanks and strted producing conventional boards in around '65 until '68 when Freedom started production. In some ways Silva Yates peaked too early , and finished making boards just as the boom was starting. I think his boats are still made today; he says for him making boards was a hobby type diversion.
Hans' board is probably from 1966 - Wheels hung round Europe from '65 till '67. It has a few extra stripes added on the rails and possibly by the stringer to give it that US competition look. The cut down board was probably modified in '68 when the top surfers were riding 8 ft v-bottoms.
Tony Cope remembers meeting Wheels in France -

''Wheels Williams was a renowned travelling Aussie surfer, not a champion, but too good for all the Europeans except Sumpter.
He was in Biarritz in Sept. 1966 when we were there. We kept meeting seeing him, as all the French were in the Surf Club de France & travelled around together as a group, surfing the same waves, eating at the same cafe, getting drunk together etc., and any visiting surfers were immediately enrolled into that group - it was an extraordinary experience.''

Thanks to Hans for the photos. If anyone wants to buy the board Hans is Taking offers. One problem though - its in Holland.

Joel de Rosnay, Wheels Williams and Rod Sumpter , France september 1965. The board is a Silva Yates probably shaped by Wheels.

1965 Bob Davies longboard for sale

2011-09-23T19:45:00.005+01:00

Mark in Newquay is looking for offers on this vintage longboard. It was made around 1965 by Bob Davies of Mt. Maunganui, New Zealand , and is numbered 726. Its a rare and fun looking rider ;looks like a replacement fin - the original would have been a big old skeg.
To make an offer give Mark a call on 07400 222628. Every quiver should have one.

A housefull

2011-09-23T15:00:00.009+01:00

Devon collector Roger Robinson invited me to come round to his house and check his boards out. As you can see by the photos I was well impressed with a collection which spanned the cream of UK boards from the 60s and the 80s , with a few from the 70s.The boards were either very polished or waxed up and still salty wet - its a working collection which is often changing, and often surfed- as it should be. I've never seen so many Bickers or Bilbo longboards before so that was quite an experience - they had a real presence about them - a sort of 'we are the survivors of the 60s, we are surfing history' -the sort of gathering which couldn't be equalled for love nor money.
Here's a glimpse into the collection, I'll show some in more detail over the next few weeks.

Bilbo 5'4

Bickers straight edge fin with nice tailblock

early Bilbo with tailblock

Very early Bilbo with D fin

A pair of Bickers. The far one is a lovely five stringer gun. Quality mid 60s boards.

This Bickers fin has spots surfed written on, from '65 to '68

Bickers cigar

Bilbo by Chris Jones - I like the artwork.

Three Bilbo longboards - all by Chris Jones

1973 Freedom fish

Carwyn Williams personal 2 1/2 fin, early 80s

Vitamin Sea by Chris Jones with mad channels.

Fulmar quad by Graeme Bunt

'La La' jet fin quad

A nice bolt

2011-09-22T21:16:00.003+01:00

This is one to watch on UK ebay - a late 70s Lightning Bolt singlefin in good original condition with the magic Gerry Lopez signature. Whether Gerry himself shaped it isn't so clear cut - a few ghost shapers made these Lopez models. But anyway its a great board and sought after - check the price so far ! The bolt logo has 'a pure source !' written by it, and note the board has no leash plug .Classic but not very protective boardbag. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120782108361&category=22710&_trksid=p5197.c0.m619

Welsh team in France '79

2011-09-21T20:04:00.005+01:00

Tim was looking for his wife's car's service history the other day and found this...which took him back to the time when he was in the Welsh team getting ready to compete in a European champs which didn't happen -

''20 page program for Eurosurf '79, the contest never happened as untypically France went flat for 5 days, the day after it was cancelled it was pumping! I'd spent the 3 months in France surfing every day with Paul Russell and Miki Dora in preparation!

Here's the cover and a review of the '77 contest held in Wales (I've got the T-shirt from that somewhere), as you can see no expense was spared in producing the program! Also have my '79 Welsh Team jacket, shirt and board shorts somewhere too. Seems appropriate with Eurosurf 2011 starting next week in Ireland.''

A page for our French readers , with a pic of Ted Deerhurst.

The '79 Welsh Team, minus Linda Sharp (back row; Paul Ryder , Rawling Morgan, Mike Cunnigham, Chris Payne. middle row; Colin Bright, Dai Halpin, me, Pete Jones, Mark Fleming, kneeling; Arwyn Davies, Chris French)... I think I've got that right it was a life time ago. Paul made Spyder Surfboards here in Pembrokeshire

When that team picture was taken I was riding a 5'10" Safari twin fin I'd bought new at the Safari factory in Durban in '78, I really wanted a Larry Bertleman twin (in blue and red swirl!) that was in Shaun Tompson's dad's surf shop but he wouldn't drop on the price. I left a 6' Spyder single fin pin tail in its place. When I bought the twin fin back to the UK I was every shapers friend as they frantically took templates off it. I knew it was a mistake when I sold it year's ago, must be in a garage somewhere, I'd give serious money to get it back and up on the studio wall. I think all the rest of the '79 team were still riding single fins. I'll see if I can dig out a pic of the Safari.''

Thanks to Tim for sharing his memories - if anyone's got a 5'10 Safari twinnie in the garage send some photos in - would be good to reunite Tim and his old board.

A Welshman's singlefin

A Tris in Portugal

2011-09-19T17:19:00.005+01:00

Its interesting to get emails about UK boards which have been unearthed in foreign countries. Goncalo from Portugal recently found this In Natural Flow singlefin and wanted to know more about it. Since I used to own one myself, I knew that it was Tris Cokes' label in the early 70s, which soon after became the classic Tris surfboards . It was probably shaped by Tris himself near Porthtowan in Cornwall. I love the airbrush on this board of the bird of prey ; Goncalo says the design is similar to the cover of the early 70s Australian surf movie 'In Natural Flow' ,so quite likely Tris got some inspiration from there.
It sounds like the board has been in Portugal for a long time as a local guy claims to have a photo of the board when it was new. Yet to be seen. I guess a surfer from the UK probably travelled down there on a surf trip and swapped/ lost / sold the board in the early 70s and its stayed there ever since. By the looks of it its been surfed a lot !

1973 from Surf Insight