Surfing museum opening night

Also thanks to Pete and the museum for including my painting South Coast surfers in the Art of surf exhibition.

Revolver returns

You have probably noticed that vintage surf shops in this country are rare bordering on the non-existant. So I was happy to hear that the Revolver shop in Newquay was being resurrected by board collector and past blog contributor Gee Piper.
Gee says - 'At present I'm selling vintage surf photography by Dick Hoole along with vintage film posters and memorabilia. Vintage boards, clothes, magazines and skateboards. Second hand records, videos, headphones and other collectables. New boards by Revolver and Jepun. New clothes by Lightning Bolt, Innermost limits of pure fun, Afends and Ambiguous. Swichfoot II books plus loads of other stuff. Trying to make it like an Aladdin's cave.'
Sounds good mate, hopefully everyone will go and have a look, grab some original classic buys and above all support small independant shops like this.

Gee has some very nice Dick Hoole prints of Michael Peterson-
'These are amongst the last items that MP signed before he passed away. You will never be able to get another of these so this is reflected in the price. The prints will come with a letter of authenticity from Dick Hoole when i track him down. My source in Aus tells me these are among the few MP signed items available on the open market so very rare. Because of this I am going to release 2, one of each print at a price of £750. Anybody interested should email me at geepiper@yahoo.co.uk.
I also have other original Dick Hoole prints of MP. Copies signed by Dick are £175 unframed and £250 framed as well as unsigned prints at £75 unframed.'

Talking of Michael Peterson check out this beauty he shaped under Warren Cornish's label in Byron Bay. It now resides near London in Ed's collection.
Ed says of the board's history - 'One of my boards was shaped by MP back in 1973 for a dude named Warren Cornish. It's a 7ft 4inch pintail, beautiful colours and pin-lines. Cornish still has it's twin. Apparently Michael shaped them for him to ride in a couple of contests back then.'

To the comment about this board not actually being shaped by MP or a fake MP Ed naturally has strong views-
I reckon it's best just to go by whats on the board. The other thing is Cornish was already an established business man by then as he had mad a fortune out of the skateboard craze so I cannot see him bothered forging a couple of boards, on the other hand peterson would have been real keen to shape them for the money. This board and the one Cornish has were made in 1973 and like I said Michael wasn't all that famous then anyway, he wasn't a BK or Nat Young.

catching up after the easter holiday

I've been away in Portugal for two weeks - very crowded easter surf - so thanks for all the emails while I've been away with boards for sale, info on pigs and reports of the Surf museum opening - which was one thing I was sorry to miss. This above is a nice 7 ft mid 70s Freedom for sale in France; there was also a 70s Freedom for sale in Portugal.

Cool little 5'8 ft egg made by Bilbo, early 70s similar to what CJ was riding at the time. For sale through Gee in Newquay geepiper@yahoo.co.uk email for details.

Bronzed Aussies singlefin ( Cheyne Horan, PT and Ian Cairns) for sale in South Africa.

John Conway 70s 7'4 singlefin made in Newquay , with unusual fin and US foam.

Bob's Southern European bellyboard mabye Portugese/ Spanish .There were a few recorded makers of bellyboards in Spain in the 50s/60s see links but this is a rare make. http://mypaipoboards.org/interviews/JavierArteche/JavierArteche_2012-0114.shtml
http://mypaipoboards.org/interviews/Meco/Meco_2012-0202.shtml
http://mypaipoboards.org/interviews/SalvadorArtaza/Salva.shtml

Ben Skinner and Cotty open the Museum of British Surfing last week . Photos Alex Williams

The original N Devon surfers, 50 yrs on :
L to R :
Alan Kift, leader of the N Devon surf pack, early - to mid 60`s
Bob Powers, first N Devon fibreglass / foam board maker, early 60`s
Bill Glidden, mid 60`s surfer,
Tony Cope, boardmaker, surf photog., competition surfer, 60`s
Barry Charlesworth, competition surfer, 60`s
Graham Yeo, from the Yeo bellyboard family factory, 1945 - 85

The Surfing GB trailer which had GB team shots through the years

Graham Yeo, Bob Powers and Tony Cope with a photo of Bob waxing up.

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board for sale

Sold.7 ft 4 triple stringer Pure Juice (Phil Jay) singlefin for sale, mid 70s. Tel: Andrew 01803 524117 Paignton UK.

Some sweet old boards fron Hydrodynamica's Remember the future exhibition earlier this year in San Diego; celebrating Bob Simmons hulls and related surfboards.

Endless winter part 5

'67 Euros and Bill Wallace

Thanks to Phil Warry of Guernsey for sending in this classic photo of Jersey hosting the European surfing championships in 1967 .Thousands of people packed St Ouens Bay to watch the event with a Guernsey team attending the Europeans with Bob Warry (Blade surfboards) placing 2nd right up to the semi finals alongside the likes of Rod Sumpter who went on to win.
Phil and Bob have had a go at naming the faces :
Left to Right
Barry Johnson (Gsy), French Team (?), Richard Browning (Gsy) French Team (?), Jean Pierre Lartigue (? fra), Arnaud de Rosnay (?), French Team (?), Bob Warry (Gsy wearing No1 vest), Roger Mansfield (UK), Chris Jones (UK), Unknown, Rod Sumpter, Unknown, Steve Harewood (Jsy. Freedom Surfboard's), Unknown, Barry Jenkins (Jsy ?), Unknown
It would be good to fill in the blank names.

Some great old boards too.Under the G of Gold is Bob Warry holding a Bilbo. Under the F of Leaf is a confident looking Chris Jones holding a multi logo'd Bilbo team board. Other stand out boards are the Bickers with the three stripes ( held by Sumpter ?) which Brian Schofield is holding when it was brand new in the photo below; and an Australian Wallace longboard which must have been rare on these shores back then.

On the subject of Wallace I had an email from Mark, who's not a surfer but he moved into his new house in Yorkshire and discovered this board left in the attic ! I wish that happened to me more often. It has lots of storage scuffs and scratches but looks surfed little and was around Newquay in 1973 and probably earlier, a similar age to the Wallace in the Euros photo. It was made in around 1966 at the Wallace factory at Brookvale, Sydney; Wallace was a major manufacturer, making boards from 1955 to 1974. He was one of the Brookvale five - makers with national sales and reputation in Australia in the years '62 to '72. Boards like this came over to the UK two ways - either a travelling UK surfer brought it back, or more likely an Aussie came over with it and made a profit by selling it here or got skint and had to part with it.

The fin is very similar to Bilbo fins of '66/'67.

July 1966 Sydney surf industry representatives donate surfboards to Australian servicemen in South Vietnam - think Apocalyse now ! Bill Wallace is holding one of his boards.

new paintings

If you've been wondering why I haven't done many blog posts in the last month there is a good reason. Its the usual story every time I come up to a deadline - having a mad rush to get paintings done in time ; so surfing and blogging have had to suffer. Think I'm due a holiday soon.

The show is entitled 'Cornwall and London from the air' ,a two man show with Neil Pinkett. At Cornwall Contemporary gallery in Penzance from 6 April, and in London from 3rd July. www.cornwallcontemporary.com or more on my painting blog www.acornishstudio.blogspot.com .

HMS Belfast 45x45 cm

St Agnes lighthouse, Scilly 100x100 cm

Newquay (bay area) 56x71 cm

Low tide, Hayle chalets 55x55 cm

Above the mount 30x30 cm

more of Jons boards part2

As you can see Jon's got loads of boards, and this is the second half of his collection, mainly 70s UK boards. This one seems to be a Wavekraft by Nigel Woodcock, early 80s singlefin.

Very clean twin fin by Tiki head shaper John Hall, a great shape from around '79/ 80. It uses the original 60s Tiki lettering in the logo.

Late 60s acid trip Tiki , a rare transitional 8 footer probably 1968. Stringerless Castle foam blank , Tiki's own product. Its shaped by Mervyn Beard, who later started Chapter surfboards. Tiki splat logo - a classic.

Another Tiki, a gunny shape from the mid 70s probably by Tim Heyland or John Hall. May have been a travel board.

Unusual stripes board, mid 70s no make.

Classic early 80s Local Motion which came over from South Africa.

Late 70s Freedom

Aussie Emerald board early 80s thruster

Dragon board mid 70s ,no make

Late 70s Circle One by Jeff Townsley

Unusual early 70s singlefin with back to front graphic saying ' Rolow foam , Bude Cornwall' which I have never seen before. No other logo but its an interesting looking board.