more of Jon's boards

Bilbo by Pete McAllum, from around 1969 /70.
Jon sent me around 100 photos of his boards a couple of months ago and I think I've only featured a couple of them - so sorry mate here's some more classic UK boards from the 70s.

Bilbo shaper Chris Jones 1972 . note- thats a bend in the page not some crazy nose rocker.

Energy singlefin from the mid-late 70s. The only Energy label I know is the Australian one that has famous links with Simon Anderson's first thruster designs ; but before that they did produce singlefins - is this the same Energy ? I haven't seen this logo before.

Surfboards Great Britain made in around 1970 shaped at Tiki in North Devon. These are pretty rare as they made the majority of boards under the TIKI label.

Looks like this one used to be a sign !

1969 Tim Heyland

Interesting old mid 70s Haven of Bude with mini-stinger tail. I like the grey tint too - you hardly ever see grey boards. This boards sports both classic Haven logos - the one above ,and nipples at sunrise below...

Nice swallow tail by Graham Nile, from around 1974, a quality board under all that dust.

Graham Nile 1973

Another Cornish rarity, an Outer Limits by Martin gearbox Geary of Newquay, stinger from '75 or '76.

Martin Geary shaping early 70s

Seeing as though half of europe is covered in snow heres some day glo snowboarding 90s style !!

St Ives / atlantic surfboards

A bit of old St Ives surf history here kindly shared by Jerry Bligh, who was a team rider at Atlantic surfboards. Atlantic was started in the mid 60s by Charles Williams, who would become a successful competition surfer and British team member ; and as far as I know Atlantic faded out in the very early 70s.

There was a strong competition scene at Porthmeor through the Porthmeor surfing assoc. started in 1965, and the comps were a good social get together for surfers up and down the coast in the days before Newquay took hold as the surf capital. This photo looks like Porthmeor , may be later than 66 as there's some very transitional boards in the background. Having the mayor to present prizes shows how organised and important to the town surfing was.

1967/8 Welsh open, here are some of the stars of the UK comp scene back then, including Jerry Bligh and James Williams from St Ives ; and also two surfer/shapers we mention alot on the blog - Tigger and CJ. If anyone out there owns Jerry's green Atlantic he'd be interested in buying it back.

Charles Williams surfshop ad , St Ives 1972.

1973 - by this time Atlantic had finished production and Charles was riding Freedoms.

The British team at Huntington beach California for the '72 Worlds. This was the famous year of the swallow tail, with Jimmy Blears and David Nuuhiwa taking 1st and 2nd on swallow tail fishes. Steve Harewood was producing them a few weeks later !

Standing - Charles Williams , CJ, Gordon Burgis, Graham Nile, Steve Harewood and Pete Jones Kneeling on the right.

Ted Deerhurst at Fistral early 80s

Board for sale

Heavy glassed, 70s single fin pin tail shaped by a legendary shaper: Nigel Perrow, from Byron Bay. Ready to ride or hang. Dimensions: 6ft 8 x 20.5 x 3.5 (approx), a fun board true to the era.
The heavy glass job and dense blank make it scream down the line!! :) Bar Nature and SanJuan are the boards to have from Byron due to the underground mystique.
The shaper Nigel Perrow was an awesome surfer. He used to do standing back flips on the beach before paddling out. He owns Laguna Bay Surfboards in Noosa nowadays. A rare board so serious offers to five.rountrees@btinternet.com , the board is in London.

Wanted - does anyone in the UK have a Cheyne Horan star fin they want to sell ? - either original or modern, in good condition. email alasdairlindsay@aol.com

1965/6 Bickers longboard

I was very happy this week to be given the chance to buy a Bickers longboard ;this sort of opportunity doesn't come along every day as they're pretty scarce now in any condition. This is a one owner board and Brian had looked after it well so it only needs a few small repairs before its out sliding again - not bad for a 46 year old board !
Brian and his family used to come down on holiday every summer to Newquay from Derbyshire. The favourite spot was Tolcarne and Brian soon got in to trying surfing, with malibu riding the new sport to hit Newquay. After a few summers he decided to invest in a board, and after chatting to a surfer on the beach who recommended Bickers he headed up to the factory - this was summer '65. At the Bickers factory they sized Brian up and told him what sort of board they were going to make him. Bickers was a small outfit producing one to three boards a week so its unlikely they had any boards available off the rack. Brian didn't come to pick his board up till his summer holiday in 1966, although he does remember popping in to see the board just before it was done - a lad in a mask was sanding it down before the final gloss coat - probably John Conway.

Brian loved surfing the board at his favourite spot Tolcarne, and also Watergate, Fistral and Crantock. He brought the board down to Newquay every year bar one between '69 and '79 as the registration stickers show. Brian remembers going to a lifeguard hut at Towan to get the stickers, which were compulsory in those days for third party insurance. Brians board got a thump from a loose board at some point ( these were the pre leash days with 30 lb boards flying around in the whitewater) and the orange stripe on the deck hides a wound.

I love the shape of this board and the beautifiul black fibreglass d-fin. At 9ft x 21 1/4 its smaller and slimmer than a standard Bickers (usually about 9 1/2 ft ) so I think this is the noserider model, quite radical in its day.The weight was cut down to 25 lbs from the standard weight of 30 lbs . John Conway in the red top is holding one in the group Bickers photo below. Unfortunately John, Fred Bickers and Brian Schofield have all passed away so the history of Bickers is quite hard to find apart from one mag article written by John Conway in the late 90s. ( Malibu magazine issue 3 , 1998 , pubd. and edited by John Conway).

French polisher / master glosser Brian Schofield with a similar board probably made at the same time.

Dave Friar, John Conway (with noserider) ,Brian Schofield and unknown with a selection of Bickers '65 or '66. The company only had a life of three years - from learning to blow their own blanks in '64 to ending in '67, but remains an important boardmaker in our surf history. At this time there were only a small handfull of professional board factories in the UK.

Tolcarne beach late 60s - the Bickers can be seen in the foreground.

more photos from Brian's family holidays to Newquay. On the left his son and the board at high tide Tolcarne late 60s; and on the right Brian at Tolcarne in the early 70s.

1968 -'69 season Newquay town council registration

wooden boarding then and now

full length version of the Lewis Rosenberg film 1929



This years bellyboard worlds at Chapel with John and Chris

Them

Car boot sale gold - from 1966