Thanks to Andy for letting me show some of his classic photos. They map the early days of Scottish surfing and surfers, the discovery of new waves and some important boards. Andy grew up in Aberdeen but got the surfing bug on early holidays to Cornwall, and in 1967 he brought home his first board, a Bilbo. A couple of years later he founded the first Scottish surf club, at Edinburgh university, and with the club members pioneered surf spots on the west and east coasts of Scotland. Andy was also instrumental in organising early surf contests including the first Scottish champs in 1973 , and won it in '75. He also wrote articles in surf mags about waves, boards, contests and hot rods. He was secretary of the Scottish surfing Federation for two decades from the early 70s, and of the European in the 80s.
The first boards in Scotland ! Aberdeen beach 1968. L to r -George Law, Andy Bennetts and Stuart Chrichton. No wetsuits and freezing water.
1971, L to R -George Law (the first surfer in Scotland ), John Rigby and Brian Morgan at Aberdeen beach with boards from Cornwall and Devon.
Andy with Steve Lee, Coldingham 1985
Bill Batten 1971
First surf check at Brimms Ness bowl. Never surfed before.
'Islay - first trip 1978 and it was cranking all the time '.
'Brian, Rab and Dave with Rod Sumpter's board - stolen for the duration of the photo. For a board in those days it weighed nothing and was the first real short board we'd seen. Fistral 1969'
'The Aberdeen crew at Fistral 1969 - Sandy Maithers, Dave Killoh, Brian Morgan and my brother Rab'
'Nigel Semmens, big Thurso east' All photos copyright Andy Bennetts. If you would like to contact Andy or are interested in using his photos email me.
'Known' surf spots in Scotland in 1970, from British Surfer. The north shore was scoped out within a few years, and later in the 70s the Hebrides too.
This is an interesting Bilbo from the Gul collection. Pretty gun like shape, narrower and lighter than most in the late 60s. From memory I think its around 7'10 and it sort of reminds me of some of Greg Noll's fains formula era shapes. It has reinforced knee patches, although it seems quite a small board to knee paddle. I guess old habits die hard. With its gunny template it may have been a travel/ bigger wave board. Cribbar rider ?
Bilbo sponsered the British team at the '68 world campionships with a quiver of these 8'6 boards with union jack decals. Unfortunately they were outdated by then, with many surfers on sub 7 ft streamlined singlefins and two of the team ended up borrowing boards off Skip Frye ! In solid 10 - 12 ft Rincon the British team struggled a bit, although Barry Jenkins did beat Greg Noll in his heat. Above is Dave Grimshaw of Jersey. I don't know if any of these team boards still survive but I can think of a few individuals who'd be chomping at the bit to get hold of one.
This is another Bilbo from the Gul collection, similar length and date to the team boards. This one is a pretty plain , probably stock board and has the dents of knee paddling. The only individual things it has are the swirly resin artwork on the underside which is quite an unusual shape for Bilbo, and the small black strip which normally has a serial number on but this time has 'SWEET' written on. Sweet shape or Dave Sweet ?? Who knows...
Mid 60s transfers from Tony's collection
