Tiki double stringer

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

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

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

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

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

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

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/