: Board Collector

Surfboard Palooza

When Kris from the The Vintage Surfboard wrote to me to tell me about his Surfboard Palooza event I was excited. We got in early and were privileged to get a sneak peek at the offer and a tour of his personal stash.

The board collectors

Kris's personal stash is a sight to behold. All 'innovation period' gold. He had bolts...

Schroffs...

Stingers...

More Schroffs...

Flouro Schroffs...

Airbrush Schroffs...

Ok lets go...

Occy 85

Occy's stlye from the mid 80's, his surfing, his Rusty's, his taste in music, are all instantly recognizable.

When Doug saw it, he couldnt go past it, hey.....what can you do?

Ken Guns

I went to the surf shop today to buy some wax and while I was there I scanned the board racks and counted the boards. Including the fishes and logs 20% of the boards in the racks were big wave boards. I'm pretty confident in saying that most surfers don't need a 7ft + gun for every fifth surf they have. Thinking about it I realized that even I have 2 contemporary, high performance big wave boards and only only 2 contemporary, high performance short boards.
Why is half my modern quiver made for waves over 6ft (AU), double overhead (US)?
I've come up with a couple of reasons.
1) Big wave boards are built tough.
Therefore they last a long time.
2) They don't get used that much.
I can count the number of times I've ridden my big boards in the last few years on one hand. Thunders -Mentawis, Lurline Bay - Sydney, Ben Buckler - Sydney, Maroubra - Sydney, Outside corner, Uluwatu - Bali.

3) The are nice things to own.
They are nice to touch and hold under your arm. They are elegant pieces of applied art and engineering with a no bullshit sense of purpose built into them.

Which brings me to today's board in question, my Ken Bradshaw 7'2 single fly, 3 fin pin tail gun that I suspect was one Ken's personal big wave boards, because the depressions in the deck belong to a natural footer, Ken was sponsored by Sundeck from 79 to 86 and it has his name on it.
Its a beautiful thing to touch, holding it feels like revving a well tuned V8 or loading a double barrel shot gun.
Now I'm waiting for La Jolla cove and Swarmi's to do their thing so I can get her wet.

Ken is an amazing character in his own right, as revealed here in this Vanity Fair article from February 2011 by William Langewiesche and in his biography on Surfline.

I have achieved my aim of acquiring 2 matching Ken guns. One Bolt, one KB.
Now all I need is a beard and an Aloha shirt.

Timpo

I've learned that the 'Team Bolt' SKY twin fin that I saw recently in the back of a friend's shed in LA is more likely to have be shaped and surfed by Byron Bay's Gary Timperly. Prior to starting Bay Action surf shop in Byron Bay, GT or Timpo as he's know worked at Sky with Greg Melhuish, Rodney Dahlberg and Rob French and was sponsored by Lightning Bolt in the early 80's.
It's a surprise its lasted this long as the boards he rode were only glassed with one layer of 4oz and a few patches, you could put your fingers through them when you duck dived.
At the same time MR boards were made under licence across the road at Pacific Surfcraft which later became Maddog.

Photo of Gary Timperly twin fin by Paul McNeil from Sea Surfboards blog, used without permission.

East Coast girls are hip.....

I'm pleased to share with you my first US acquisition since relocating from Sydney.
A 6'2 Wave Riding Vehicle triple fly channel bottom, swallow tail, star fin system, twin fin. This board was built on the East Coast and its the first East Coast board I've ever had my hands on. Its nice and thick and features unique channels in the tail that don't extend any further than the fins.
My 'assistant' limited my ability to get a lot of detail shots for you, so I promise there will be more to come.
It goes really well in small mushy conditions, which should come as no surprise given its roots. WRV even sell a t-shirt that pokes fun at local conditions.

The same way basket ball players buy the same shoes as their favorite professional players, surfers generally order boards that are the same dimensions that the top 44 are riding.
This was great during the 80's when the pro tour spent most of its time at Huntington, Bondi, Chiba , Newquay and that crappy beach break in Brazil. Beaches that have similar conditions to my home breaks of Manly and Bondi and now San Diego, most of the year.
But it was a disaster for ordinary surfers when they invented the 'WCT dream tour'. Not only had pro surfers become true athletes but they were only riding boards built for conditions that most of us would see only a handful of times a year.

This boards design was based on that of a cigarette smoking, beer drinking 80's pro (not cheyne, maybe simon?!) who surfed comps in 2 foot sloppy beach breaks and it therefore is absolutely perfect for me!