Nat's Nat and the Cat in the Hat

I first learnt to surf at Collaroy on Sydney's northern beaches in the mid 70's where Robert "Nat" Young was King. He went on to write a book, Nat Young's History of Surfing where he himself pretty much declared himself the King of all the surfing universe. I spent my teenage years reading that book cover to cover dozens of times, so my heart skipped a beat when I found this board in the back yard of a junk shop for $15 a few years ago. To be fair, Nat did win the World Surfboard Championship in San Diego in 1966, the first person to win the title who was not a resident of the host country. He went on to become one of the most influential players of the modern era.
According to Surf Research This board was probably shaped by Paul Holmes. The design was heavily influenced by Joey Cabell of Hawaii. This design features a compressed pintail gun template, 2nd phase concave bottom, soft box rails with a hard edge, large nose lift and, its most beautiful feature, a small Greenough single fin made from a combination wood and fibreglass laminates.
The board looks grey green on the bottom, but is in fact bright blue, the gloss coat having browned with age.
Of course I just LOVE the nude lady in the ferns rice paper transfer. The epitome of 70's cool.





Photo : Bruce Channon





Photo : Albert Falzon

Reno Abellira's Sunset gun.

Robbi wrote-

Attached are some pics of my Reno Sunset Gun. I would love to get it restored but think it would be too difficult and best left as is.
Reno sold this to me on one of his trips down under for the circuits back. He said it didnt go as well as he had hoped and I am not surprised.
Too straight in the tail. Reno made lots of boards for me and I loved the smoothness of them. I had one of the first stingers ever in Aust and rode it in a Coke trial at South Avalon.
It was stored for ages at Aloha while I tried to get Greg Clough to copy it. Never happened and it was 'lost'
I still have a newish Reno from his last trip down here.
He is a difficult item to deal with these days...ha but I love his boards!

Haven't we met before....?

As soon as the auction ended I remembered.......
Surfabout 1982, Dee Why Point, ditching school.
Dane Kealoa surfing against Derek Hynd. The Pearl City decal gives it away.

The road less travelled Part 2.

I have been lamenting the power of the internet, with its bouys, swell maps, and on-line surf guides, and they way it can create instant crowds at spots that used to require trial and error and local knowledge to score on their day.
But sometimes the low is so far away, in this case off the north east tip of New Zealand, that it dosent show up on the swell charts and only experiance and the ability to read the low presure systems on the weather map can tell you a place is gonna be on.


Just me and the guy in the white helmet whose getting worked in the foreground and 4-6ft of a new 'un-predicted' Mother's Day swell hitting the reef.

Where are they now Part 3.

I recently stumbled upon the JET twin fin that Gary Green's was given as a prize for winning Pro-Junior at Scott Dillion's Surf Museum on the North Coast. Winning the Pro-Junior was the first sign of big things to come from the 80's best free surfer.

The road less travelled

Huw, Dash and I took a trip down the road less travelled on Sunday.

Two Wheels, Two Fins!

I did some photos with Simon for an upcoming story in Slide Magazine on Deus. I was so stoked to get some good waves on my favorite board. Tom Eberly shaped, Hawaiian built, late 70's Lighting Bolt single fly swallow tail twin fin.

Sherlock Holmes mystery.

I am pleased to present, for your enjoyment, my newly aquired 'Lazor Zap' inspired 'Sky', needle nose, tear drop, double hip, swallow tail single fin shaped by Byron Bay master shaper Robert Fenech in 1982. A classic innovation period design. I love finding ex-pros boards as it gives me a real Sherlock Holmes mystery to solve as to who was riding it and where. The ultimate reward is finding a published photo in a vintage surf mag of the actual board, in action.

I love, that of the plethora of sponsors, none of the companies still exist. Yet each logo brings back a flood of memories.

And I just love those 80's geometric sprays.

(Not the original fin, but a nice new Captain Fin model)

Laird before he toughened up.

Local Knowledge twin fin in Das Magazin für umgebaute Motorräder

Dass Australien mehr zu bieten hat als Känguruhs und Dauersonne, hatten wir uns schon lange gedacht. Aber dass es im Großraum Sydney einen derartigen Custom-Mikrokosmos gibt, nötigte uns schließlich dazu, mehr als nur ein paar Seiten für unser Aussie-Special locker zu machen. Hier findet sich nämlich für wirklich jeden Geschmack was: Da wäre zum Einen die Style-Elite von Deus Ex Machina. Eindeutig von japanischen Umbauten inspiriert, werden hier Einzylinder mit Langschwingen gebaut. Gerne aber auch Harleys und VMäxe und Triumphs und eigentlich auch alles andere. Nur etwas hochbeinig und eindeutig sportlich fallen die Deus-Bikes immer aus. Und selbst wer nur einen, nennen wir es mal Custom-Lifestyle leben will, ist bei den Jungs in Camperdown Sydney an der richtigen Stelle. Laden, Shop, Werkstatt und ein eigenes Café verbinden sich hier zum Gesamtkonzept von einem der erfolgreichsten Custom-Läden Australiens.

Who wants yesterdays surfboards? Nobody in the world!

Tim from Hawaii, who knows me all to well, sent me this Fremont Surfboards ad from 1976.