Bruce Palmer 70s singlefin

Atlantic Surfer 1978

Bruce at the Watergate bay open 1976 by Alex Williams

I haven't put on one of my own boards for a while so here's my Bruce Palmer singlefin from the mid 70s. Its quite a plain and unassuming board to look at but its beautifully shaped and is great to surf, with less volume than usual on the rails and tail , 6'8 x 20 1/4 x 2 1/2. Bruce was an Australian, and good friend of Kevin Cross. As he says about his days in Devon with Kevin -
''We were friends then as we are now but at that time we were very much in opposition with each other.My business Started in Lobb Field's Quanset Hut before moving to Knowle where I manufactured about 1000 boards that I sold throughout Europe also making some 150 Lightning Bolts under licence..I'd like to think that my business was real boards for real surfers ''
 He was British champ in 1975 and was one of many Aussie surfers who knocked around the south west in the 70s, adding much to the quality of our boards. He starred in the international surf flick Playgrounds in Paradise in 1976 surfing the Severn bore, and the resulting wave was the worlds longest ever recorded on film at the time. The film predictably showed the UK as only having comedy waves compared to the US and Oz, and Rod Sumpter was filmed surfing an enormous board called the Queen Mary in half foot slop.

Phil Jay singlefin

Phil Jay 6'6 singlefin from the early 70s in great condition. This is the classic Jay shape, stringerless with lots of width especially at the tail, and this is for his Country surfboards label with its pretty logo. His factory was at Barnstaple in Devon but he was well known as having London's first surf shop at Wandsworth, see ad below. Thanks to Alex for the shots.

Ads from early 70s.

blondie

nothing to do with surfing, just a nod to the queen of late 70s cool.

Peace and love Tiki

Heres a great transitional late 60s Tiki which has recently been donated to the Surfing Museum by Chantille Rouch. As you can see its a board with a difference as it has a great picture under the glassing. An unusual image (for a surfboard ) from the peace and love psychadelic era, it has a naked couple entwined with paisley pattern over the top. I haven't seen many boards like this and it'd be perfect for Peter's art history of British surfing exhibitions. If anyone from Tiki knows who the models are or can shed light on the board it would be interesting !
The surfing museum has a brand new website, take a look at http://www.museumofbritishsurfing.org.uk/ .Thanks to Alex for the photos.

At the Tiki factory late 60s.

Psychedelic surf flyers.

Italian film poster 1968

Al's rack

My old mate Al is unashamedly an 80s man. Although he has a couple of singlefins its the twins and early thrusters he likes best, and why not. He's got a great selection of boards on his rack ( I wish I was allowed a rack in the house ) and it was tempting to run out with a few and head for the beach.

Hott shortboard by Mac

Here's one of Al's boards, a 6 ft twin/ 3 fin shortboard from the early 80s, by Newquay shaper Alan MacBride. Mac shaped with Bilbo in the 60s, Piran in the 70s, Hott and others in the 80s and Tunnel Vision from the 90s. This board has some classic neon graphics, a twin fin set up with centre fin option, and an early 80s feature, the grip deck ,a rough finish over the deck area .

South coast charger and Hott team rider Derek Dear, 1984.

Pro surfing designs singlefin

Here's another of Al's boards, a sweet little 5'10 swallowtail with hips. Its made by Pro Surfing Designs, based at Dana point, California. Its from the late 70s and is nice and light, a good old board to surf; no shapers name unfortunately.

fins

different strokes for different folks

British 60s surfwear

Rod Sumpter and Corky Carroll model boardies in France, late 60s.

British surfwear in the mid 60s had a massive American influence, as you can see, with Maui (later Alder ), Big Gun and Hang Ten, which were both produced/ distributed by European Surfing co/ Bilbo. The big sellers were boardies, t-shirts and jackets based on the US surf club style.

Newquay local Vince Ward models Hang Ten - mid 60s knee bumps era.

From the mid 60s Maui were successful with their floral boardshorts, made by Bob and Annie Westlake, who went on to big success in the 70s and 80s with Alder.

Mystery man models boardies for Bilbo.

Bilbo team riders Alan MacBride and Dave Friar model Hang Ten alongside top London models, 1966 mag shoot.

Graham Nile singlefin

Early 70s singlefin with a beautiful turquoise tint made by St Austell surfer Graham Nile. Nile was a strong surfer and was European champion in '73, British champion in '76, and was shaping from the early 70s, selling the boards in his St Austell surf shop. He was and all round sportsman and waterman and apparently got a bravery award in Hawaii in '75 for rescuing a Hawaiian family when a wave broke over the point at Waimea onto their house. Nile stood in the doorway and stopped them being dragged back out to sea ! This board is from the Gul collection.

Graham at the '76 Watergate bay Open, photo by Alex Williams from his book Atlantic Surfers.

Classic 70s surf tips from Mike Purpus

A Bilbo windsurfer ...?

Liam brought this board round the other day, a 1966 ish Bilbo longboard which his dad converted to a windsurfer in the early 80s. Sacriledge you may say but through the 70s lots of boards like this were thrown away. In the early 80s too these boards were very out of fashion, with all the cool boards being 5'8 /5'10 , which killed surfing a bit for beginners. Plus windsurfing was the new big thing, with starved surfboard shapers getting big windsurfer orders, and surf mags became full of windsurfing.
So at least this board has survived and can be restored; the main problems being an extra fin box and a wooden block sunk in the deck. It has been done though - Liam's dad had another similar Bilbo 'windsurfer' which Gul bought and restored. I like the sail number on the fin ; this board's a double stringer 9'8 , shaper unknown.

Rabbit

I'm in the middle of reading Rabbit's pretty manic life story, I've got past his heavy first few years in Hawaii and now he's having a blast with the Hot Stuff crew Chappy and Kong. Here's some boards and footage from those great years.

This is an Aussie made Hot Stuff rabbit model, the rest here are all made around Newquay under licence in the early 80s. Shapers included Martin Wright and Chris Jones.