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.
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