Tiki twin fin late 70s

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

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

Board for sale

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

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

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

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

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...........

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

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

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

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