randoms

Here's some random images I've been sent or have seen in the past few months. If I don't put them on now they'll be lost in the pile of emails like loads of other photos...


Circle One snapped up by Alex just after christmas. Double hips, channels, five fin boxes -you name it, its got it ! This was on ebay as a buy it now for around 15 minutes.

Newquay boards 1981, shot by John Conway. Think thats Martin Wright on the right with one of his Hot Stuff shapes for Vitamin Sea. Not sure who that is on the left in the superhero wetsuit but he's holding a Derek Hynd 'Newwave' Hot Buttered which might have been made by Mooney at Ocean Magic. Cool shot.

Bilbo transitional '68.

Bob and Julie Bushrod's vw, Canaries '78. Tigger Newling shape 2nd from right.

with chops at Tris surfboards late 70s

Danny West aka Garland (space gypsy)

Paul's transitional 'bat' surfboard , '67 ish. Anyone know anything about bat logo ?

Pierre from France moving house

Atlantic surf shop board apparently made in UK (I've not seen one of these before)-

''One of the first french surf shops was in BORDEAUX, open during the 75's and close in the area of 1990: it was the " Atlantic surf shop" 89 boulevard antoine gautier - 33000 Bordeaux.
The owner was Patrice CHRZAN, the man contribute also at the first organisation of LACANAU PRO surf competition in the 80's.
(LACANAU PRO winner 1981 :Wayne Bartholomew and 1989 Martin Potter...).
In the 70's french shaper were not very famous (exepted Michel Barland) and not a lot !!, so all the surfboard and the wetsuits we can find in the shop come from foreign country. Some from usa but large parts come from uk.Wetsuits for sale in the shop: gul, second skin, tiki and surfboards: sea shapes, ocean magic, free bird and "atlantic surf shop" surfboard (see the picture).
I recently found one, the first owner was a english man who bought it in uk and take it to france. others were for sell at the shop. i am sure they were shaped in uk and after delevery at the shop in bordeaux. The surfboard I bought was surely bought directly at the uk shaper or perhaps some were also for sell in uk...?
Now i am looking for the shaper (perhaps they were many, or the town it was shaped in), there is no other maker name on the surfboard thant the logo you see, no signature or number.
Perhaps can you find something....
regards and congratulation again for your website.
jean-pierre from Bordeaux - France.''

spot the difference

Bilbos

This was a nice pair of Bilbos on ebay. They actually went for similar amounts which might be a surprise looking at the conditions ;but the one in worse condition was the rarer of the two, a 1965 d-fin Bilbo from their first year of production . To find any UK d-fin longboards is very hard now (this one was found under a pile of builders rubble destined for the skip !). The other Bilbo here is a later 9 ft 6 from 1966 or early '67 with a more responsive fin ,in pretty tidy condition apart from a nose repair. They both went to the same buyer, as did the yellow Freedom below also on ebay. An expensive week ! and no it wasn't me who bought them.

This was a sweet Freedom, great condition and colour, early to mid 70s.

Tony having some fun on the beach; check out his Bilbo with wooden noseblock and probably tailblock, a quality competition board from around 1966.

crazy little s-deck

Here's a pretty unusual little board, its 5'8 x 21 1/4 x 2 1/4 , made from a stringerless blank and with down rails so it must date from 1970/71 when that was the fashion. Originally the board had a nice red tint on the deck and rails, and the plain underside with the sun face on - which reminds me of illustrations in old story books. Whether its a branded board or a garage board I don't know - the evidence is hidden behind the respray and marbled paint on the deck, done in the late 70s ? and lacquered to preserve it. Experience has taught me that if someone has gone to this much trouble to re coat a board then theres probably a nasty ding or two under the paint - so I won't strip it off as I think it looks pretty good and definitely an unusual take on an acid drag.
The board has one of those huge imported wave set fins, used at the time by John Conway surfboards, Freedom and others. Its a pretty small and thin board so was probably made for a pretty good transitional surfer at the height of the 'length chop' era . The magic Island surf shop sticker and registration are much later - from the mid 80s when it was a kids learner board.
Definitely a board with history !

Wake surfboard mid 60s

Hans in Holland ( who had the Silva Yates on the blog a few months ago ) sent in photos of this board he's recently bought and wondered if it was English.

''Maybe you can help me with this other board I bought last year. It's also a longboard but it doesn't show any names on the stringer, only a large sticker saying: The Wake-Surfboards. On top there's a small sticker that has been partially peeled off saying....made in England....istma....! This small sticker looks like it's from the 80's so it might not be original referring to the
board's age. I bought this board from Go Klap (one of the dutch surfing pioneers in the late 60's), who bought it second hand around 1972 on a sailingboatvenue in the village of Veere, in the province of Zeeland in the southwest of the Netherlands.
To give you some more clues I'll send you a few more pictures in following e-mails!
I have no intention of selling this one as it has been an important board in our Dutch surfing heritage. But I would be really interested to find out more about it's history!''

It would be an important find if it was a British made board, since I've never heard of them before. It looks to have been made in the mid 60s by the shape and fin. The label doesn't give much away apart from that 'Wake surfboards' is an unusual name , and also theres a patent no. ....why would a standard surfboard have a patent no. ??

Anyway I asked Pete Robinson about this and luckily he had one almost identical, and had worked out that its an American board actually designed for Wake surfing behind a speedboat ! Hence the patent no. to protect the new design and use; and the patent no. can be traced to California. Wake surfing was finding popularity in the US in the mid 60s both as a novelty for regular surfers, and a lifeline for landlocked would be surfers who had a lake nearby. Wake surfing is still popular today on little trick boards. The design of wake longboards back then differed in that they were a bit narrower and had more volume at the rails ;but could obviously be surfed in waves too as shown by Go Klap the pioneering Dutch surfer who owned it since 1972. A board which was made for the lakes of the US but found its way onto the waves of Holland - another board with an unusual history, and a mystery solved.

On both sides of the fin there's stickers too, both of dutch descent, one is a
sticker from the Holland Surfing Association and the other one is a sticker of
Holland's first surfshop "Go Klap Surferhuis" founded in 1972.

Rod Sumpter wake surfing near Padstow, Cornwall in 1966, long before it became Padstein . He's on a Bilbo popout longboard with cloth panel.

mid 60s

A BRIEF HISTORY OF SURFING IN HOLLAND - written by Hans

One of the oldest pioneers of dutch surfing is Jan Willem Coenraads Nederveen who, as a little boy, was already fascinated by the sea spending his summerdays on hollow kneeboards at the beach of Zandvoort between 1930-1934. But it took a long time before surfing in Holland really started to 'look' like surfing!


In 1963 dutchman and waterman Nico 'Niek' Dekkers got hold of some footage of surfing in Hawaii. Niek lived around the Castricum area in Noord Holland and spend his summer holidays mostly on the dutch isles in the north being centered in the Waddenzee. Seeing the footage of Hawaii he couldn't help but thinking that on rare days similar lines of waves would wash up on the coastlines of the dutch isles, allthough being much smaller ofcourse and immediately he started making his own experimental hollow wooden surfboard. His first attempt on building a board was a failure as after having spend 6 weeks on the dutch isle of Vlieland during the next summer, he still had not managed to stand up. Short after that trip he took to his garage in winter and made a better model which was succesfully launched the next spring in front of the coastline near Noordwijk. This model consisted of three parts that he had to bolt together, but was pretty easy to carry around that way.


At that same time more watermen picked up the idea of "surfing"while being members of one of the many sailingclubs that were located right at the dutch beaches. In the middle of the sixties Pioneer Jan Willem Coenraads Nederveen happened to have a son that went by the same name as his father, the only difference being the old guy was called senior and the young fellow was called junior. Both were members of the sailingclub in Noordwijk where young dutchmen Jan van der Kamp en Reinier Scholten introduced the sport of surfing as they and their families had just returned from living abroad (Australia-Bondi Beach) for many years. Junior had found a surfboard lying around at Hotel Noordzee under a roof in the back of the garden and as soon as he got his hands on it his new friends Jan and Reinier were keen to help him out learning how to surf.


At that same time Rob Cillekens, dutchman from the fishingtown of Katwijk, returned home from his service in the navy, was really keen on learning how to surf after he had seen surfers surfing the Atlantic Coast of Northern Spain and France while sailing into port over there. Soon he got his hands on a Barland board from France, that he got off some guys at the sailingclub and ever since he and JW Coenraads Nederveen junior were inseparable, being united by senior who chased Rob around town on his moped after he noticed the surfboard on his roofrack. "You have to come to our house", I want you to meet my son, we are surfing too!!!"


To finish this brief history we end up at my hometown of Scheveningen. Originally a fishingtown for more than 750 years, Scheveningen has grown out to be the most popular beachdestination in Holland for both tourists, sailors and watersport enthusiasts like surfers, wind-and kitesurfers.


Around 1968-1969 a travelling dutch tourist was seen playing around on a Bob Harbour surfboard that he had brought with him from his travels abroad. The people at the sailingclub in Scheveningen offered him to keep his board in a rack at their club so he wouldn't have to carry it around the whole time. Members of the sailingclub had never seen anything like that before and when they noticed the travelling tourist wasn't coming back anymore to pick up his board they took their chance of giving it a try themselves. Those guys were Go Klap, Jaap van der Toorn, Hans Schotten and Albert van Garderen. They didn't have a clue but were hooked immediately and definitely needed someone to help them learn how to surf.


On the southern stretch of beach in Scheveningen (Duindorp), north and south being divided by the entrance to the harbour, Arie Verbaan and Gerrit Spaans, had picked up building their first boards together after having seen footage of guys surfing. Soon after they had seen these images of people surfing they thought that this same thing would very well be possible right in front of their doorstep at the southern stretch of beach. Soon they met the guys from Noordwijk who had travelled down the coast looking for good places to surf and soon after that the whole group met up with eachother after Arie Verbaan had met Go Klap, who had told him that he and his friends from the sailingclub were in desperate need of some surf instruction which was soon after delivered by the Jan van der Kamp and Reinier Scholten who had spend their youth growing up in Australia.


As there was a total lack of materials the dutch surfpioneers started out by copying Barland boards from France. Gerrit Spaans went on surftrip to Bude in the UK and took home a real surfboard.
But even before that Go Klap did most of the pioneering as he bought his first board from Tiki who were having a little market stall at a boat show in the UK. The same year went back to the UK as he sailed to England by catamaran, hopped on a train to the guys at Tiki and bought about 6 blanks, a roll of fibreglass and a big jar of resin, hopped on the train back and sailed back to Holland.
In the bedroom of his appartment in Scheveningen he started shaping his first surfboards for his friends and soon after he started selling surf and skatematerials from his appartment after which in 1973 he opened up the first real surfshop in Scheveningen Holland.


Second and third generation surfers in Holland were mostly youngsters who at first started out as skateboarders but soon after also picked up surfing. Among these were guys (and a few girls) like
Reinout Vlaanderen, Fonger Broersma, Karin Hack, Chris Pronk, Sandor de Kluizenaar, Arend Slot, Frank van Baarsel (SA), John Duyndam, Rien de Jager, Dick Weisz, Bjorn Mulder (SA) and many many more in the years that followed like Viktor vand der Kleij, John van Haaften, Erik and Robert de Roode (who grew up in California and re-introduced hotdogging in later years), Rik, Jurjen and Tamar Uiterwijk, Ruud Zwaan, Dennis Paalvast, Tom Spaans and Kees Vrolijk...and from there the list goed on and on....


Nowadays there's being surfed all along the dutch coastline and my guess is that there's probably about 10.000 people surfing.

boards for sale

Very clean 8ft stringerless Bilbo from around 1967 or '68, would be a fun rider or display board, and has one of the large early generation Bilbo fins with finbox - the first ones which could be unscrewed . Because of the rare great condition the asking price is £400 ,email blastherion@hotmail.co.uk .

RARE WOOD SURFOBARD FOR SALE - offers to stardog23@att.net , board is in Monterey, California.
San Onofre Surfboard
9-7 Redwood Pine, Balsa: Board originally owned by James Dowden brother of Al Dowden first president of San Onofre Surfing Club. Each brother had a board built on the beach in Corna Del Mar. This is James' Surfboard. In 1955 James moved to Sacramento and left board with his brother Al. Al's son knocked the entire nose off in 1957 and had it reshaped into a hobie Makaha shape, On display over the Bar at The Endless Summer Bar and Grill in Santa Barbara for your viewing. Documentation available, Documentation verified by the late Les Williams at a Hobie San Onofre Classic.
Make an offer in US Dollars willing to barter, buyer pays packing & shipping


Very Serious collectible piece! Also many items: more decals, more patches, price lists, and mint Surf Movie Posters
other items available upon request
Pete

Laura in Padstow has this 60s pop out longboard for sale, in great condition and with a cool original 60s fabric design. Its very similar to a Bilbo popout of the time but is apparently from the US ; offers to l.kirwantaylor@ssesurf.co.uk . Laura says -
'I live in Cornwall and I have a huge old malibu board that has been in my family since the mid '60s that I would like to find a good home for. Its history is that my father brought it over from California around 1967 and we named it Maurice for some reason - we were all far too small to be able to surf on it so it has had a very leisurely life. But it is a bit of a mystery - experts tell me that the fin is identical to a Bilbo fin but it doesn't have a single designer or maker's mark on it. It's a white pop-out with a swirly funky blue & green diamond shaped panel on it, 9'8" long by 1'10" wide, and although it's never been surfed properly so is intact, it has a few tiny dings in it and the fin is a little bit chipped, but basically it has been hanging up in a barn for 40 years and now finds itself lying in my attic, which seems a terrible waste.'

Important US collection for sale -

30 plus year Collection of surfing artifacts including longboards, guns, paddleboards, pito boards from the 1930’s through 1960’s, movie posters, memorabilia, original artwork. Too much to list. Motivated seller looking to sell entire collection as a whole. Private collection of former curator
of International Surfing Hall of Fame and International Surf Museum, Huntington Beach. Contact Lee Williams by phone at (808) 631-9314.Email cwa@direct.ca .

Isle of Wight 60s surfing on tv last night

60s Isle of Wight surfing on bbc 1 last night . Check out that home made wooden board - a good slop rider I think. When the film says in the 60s the only way to get a board was to make one yourself - but at the same time it shows a shot of guys running down to the water with Cornish and Devon boards. Alot of pioneering UK surfers would take a trip down to Newquay to get their boards and equipment , from as far away as the east coast, north Wales and Scotland.

more of Jon's boards

Bilbo by Pete McAllum, from around 1969 /70.
Jon sent me around 100 photos of his boards a couple of months ago and I think I've only featured a couple of them - so sorry mate here's some more classic UK boards from the 70s.

Bilbo shaper Chris Jones 1972 . note- thats a bend in the page not some crazy nose rocker.

Energy singlefin from the mid-late 70s. The only Energy label I know is the Australian one that has famous links with Simon Anderson's first thruster designs ; but before that they did produce singlefins - is this the same Energy ? I haven't seen this logo before.

Surfboards Great Britain made in around 1970 shaped at Tiki in North Devon. These are pretty rare as they made the majority of boards under the TIKI label.

Looks like this one used to be a sign !

1969 Tim Heyland

Interesting old mid 70s Haven of Bude with mini-stinger tail. I like the grey tint too - you hardly ever see grey boards. This boards sports both classic Haven logos - the one above ,and nipples at sunrise below...

Nice swallow tail by Graham Nile, from around 1974, a quality board under all that dust.

Graham Nile 1973

Another Cornish rarity, an Outer Limits by Martin gearbox Geary of Newquay, stinger from '75 or '76.

Martin Geary shaping early 70s