strange tails

Whatever floats your boat - there are some wierd tail designs around from back in the day, all which seem to work to a degree. But as in the case of Fitz and Cheyne Horan when you're that damn talented you can ride just about anything and still be a class act. Above - one of the Mirandon brothers with twin pin. Below - rare 70s fish tail Lopez Bolt spotted on the boardcollector site.

Fitz with cosmic quiver including screwdriver tail

Twin Pin from Hydrodynamica on Vimeo.

Alex's photos

Nigel Semmens ,Porthleven 1980

Alex Williams has sent a few photos from his extensive archive. Great shots, from around 1980 -82. This one above was shot the same session as the wipeout one of Keith Beddows at Porthleven 1980 that I put on the blog last month.
Alex remembers- 'Bantham was pumping so I drove to Leven and there was nobody out! So I called Nigel at the factory in Newquay and told him it was pumping, so he drove down
with Keith, Phil Northey. So I got a couple of hours shooting before sunset!
Then back to Bantham, it was late November. The lineup was from the same day.
The cutback shot of Nigel (top) on the same day at Porthleven but between sets, there were good lulls between the real sets.

Contest at Fistral with a young Griska Roberts and Paul Bassford.

Leven lineup 1980

Cornish and open Porthtowan 1982. Seated is French champ Frank Gomis.

Steve England , Porthtowan 1982

A couple more shots from the Cornish and Open from the same day as the other
shot.

The shot above has Paul Bassford , Nigel Semmons and with his back to cameras
Ian Thomson of Hot Generation surf boards made at the air field near
Constantine. Shot below is the same contestants with Johnny giving out heat time
etc.
Great to see the boards too, cheers Alex

Bilbo twin fin

Lovely twin fin from around 1980 when the Bilbo label was being resurrected. You don't see many of these 80s Bilbos though compared to other Newquay labels OM and Vit Sea. At 5'5 x 21 1/2 this one hovers between small fish and kneeboard, but with no scoop deck and plenty of volume fine to stand up surf if you're not a giant. This one is also outstanding condition wise and with beautiful fins, a little stunner. No shapers name but uses Clark foam. Cheers to Myles.

1981

Vic Hole with similar Bilbo 1981 Newquay Open contest

cheyne

Here's one of those elusive Cheyne Horan models shaped by Chris Jones. Based on Cheyne's McCoy lazor zaps and made under licence at Vit Sea in Newquay. Most of them had killer 80s sprays. This one looks like a twin fin, made in 1983 and is 5'9. Whether Cheyne got much money from them is anyones guess

360 at Sunset

Summer dreaming

Its that time of year again, winter is on the doorstep, with icy winds and cold heavy swells to keep many a surfer tucked up indoors waiting for the few sheltered sunny days. Summer seems like a distant memory, so take a look at these photos by Australian Rennie Ellis, shots of classic summers past. Although they're taken in Oz some have a British summer feel about them. Work from the Ellis estate. Above - back view ,Lorne 1968.

Lindy Hobbs, Lorne 1968

Boys with surfboard, Burleigh heads 1978

Four sunbathers ,Lorne 1968

Surfer with girl, Lorne 1968

Surfer boys and girls, Lorne 1975

Union jack, Lorne 1968

Pure Fun surfboards

I'm still working my way through Alex's photos of the Gul collection, and here's one of their more obscure boards. An early 70s Pure Fun singlefin. Never seen another of these so it was either a very small company or was made by a big maker under a different label to dodge the taxman. It looks relatively professionally made for the time and uses an Aussie blank. The stick on leash plug looks pretty crude but you do see them quite a lot, works well until the glue comes unstuck as I found to my peril at a rocky spot near leven once. As with most of the Gul boards its in enviably good condition.

Andy Irons 1978-2010 . A life cut short

board for sale

Alex has this early 70s singlefin for sale, its made by Saunders surfboards from Anglesea in Australia and looks in pretty good condition; the footprints are an unusual deck grip. Classic early 70s square tail, around 6'6 / 6'7 in length, to give an offer or get more details email alexcam@eclipse.co.uk . Its in north Devon.

Looks like a good one from the good people at Gul Bude, 11th december , make some money for Christmas

exhibition

Its been hard work the last few months, as well as having a new baby daughter I've been trying to find the time to get a body of paintings done for this show. But its all done now - time to relax and get a few surfs in before it gets hood and gloves weather. The show is at Beside the Wave gallery in Falmouth starting this friday 5 th nov - bonfire night, 6-8 pm . Here's a few of my recent paintings - I'm taking advantage of cheap blog publicity...

Hayle huts and Godrevy lighthouse

Pier

Hayle in winter

Harbour with old pontoons

Dudes . The Who have a lot of air time in my studio at the moment

Ocean Magic twinnie

The classic Semmens twin fin, channeled up and with 80s pop graphics - a must have for all you 80s throwbacks. Nigel made and sold a lot of these but finding one in good nick is hard these days. Another of Myles' car boot boards, easily repairable and would be a good rider, 5'8 x 19 1/2, made at the Lane, Newquay factory around 1983.

Nigel going left at Kirra ?