Bilbo longboard by Rod Sumpter

Here is one of Jason's Rod Sumpter made Bilbos. A super rare board, made in around 1965 according to Rod, with the earlier fin type and logo. Rod, born in Watford but emigrated to Australia when he was a boy, came back to live in Newquay around 1965 and became Britain's first true pro surfer . Rod was virtually world junior champion, having won in Australia and California. He joined Bilbo who sponsered him with boards and paid him to shape some signature models, and in return Rod contributed greatly to board design improvements, and helped showcase Bilbo through his surfing and contest results.
This is one of those rare surviving boards from the first year of Bilbos production, and Jason had to do a bit of a deal to secure it -
'I got it in a three-way swap involving my equally as rare St. Ives 'Williams' longboard, it took some persuading to let that one go but the chance to have two Sumpter's in my collection was too much. The deal was done in Gulf Stream's surf shop and those involved where Skelly,Pete Robinson and Me. We all live in North Devon and I can't imagine there is a place in Great Britain where there is such a concentration of vintage surfboards!'
Thats probably true Jay, there must be over 300 boards in those three collections alone. Down in Cornwall there seem to be smaller collections spread all over, I guess the biggest might be the Gul one at Bodmin, and part of it is on display at the bar by Fistral beach.

Rod, 1966

Rod at Fistral, september 1966.