Infinity singlefin by Rod Sumpter

Thanks to Jason for sending in pics of this new addition to his collection, a classic early 70s roundtail from the south coast with a great piece of logo art -
''Hi Al, a few pics of the latest board in the collection, it's on Bob Groves 'Infinity Surfboard' label but was shaped by Rod Sumpter. From what I can gather Bob Groves and Rod Sumpter had an agreement that if Bob shaped him a board for the 1968 World Championships in Puerto Rico ,that in return Rod would shape some signature models. Now there has been some doubt wether this actually happened, and that maybe Rod just put his name to the design of the boards, but this one does appear to be the real thing, it has Sumpters 'RS' initials written beside the stringer, these initials are the same as on one of my Bilbo longboards that has featured previously on you blog. The board's logo has Huey blowing in some swell with a figure locked in the barrel, which is quite different to the Infinity Surfboards logo's I have seen before ,and is shaped from 'Groves Foam!'

I got this board from a great guy called Nigel in the Southampton area, who for health reasons has had to stop surfing, he got from it new from a surf shop on the Mumbles on South Wales coast in 1974, So it's only had one careful-ish owner. Nigel used to surf alot along that coast in the 1970's and speaks very highly of the quality of surf there. The board had some great memories for Nigel and very much his prized surfing possession from his surfing youth, so it took a big fist full of dollar's to drag it away from it. But don't worry Nigel your board has come to a good home and is a welcome addition to my collection and my 3rd Rod Sumpter shaped board. ''

And there was another Rod Sumpter logo'd single fin on ebay last week , probably again Bob Groves had something to do with it and may have shaped it himself as a 'Sumpter' model. Sold for top dollar again. Cheers for the photos and info Jay.

Groves DIY surfboard kit 1973 - price £18.54