Children Of The Sun Clip

Some nice shots of Wayne Parks riding a first gen transition board...

From Mikey At Pack Ratt

The rountail minigun was the high water mark of the early transition period. A sleeper hull shape that never reached it's full potential.

56 Years and 9 Months Apart

Everyone in the comments section is losing their minds about this thruster bottom turn...as well they should. But damn, it's been nearly six decades since Greenough was doing it...

In the early 1960’s young kids didn’t really get into surfing that much. Mainly due to the boards being so big, it was more for full grown men and women alike.

My first board was a George Rice shaped Arthur Milner & co solid Balsa which was around 9’6. Being so young and very light with the boards being so big and heavy, nose riding is what appealed to me the most.

Around a year after I started, my surfing really began to progress. In 1963, my mentor and good friend Geoff Tune, his sister Hazel and I travelled down to Phillip island to compete in my first contest. I rode my first foam and fibreglass 9’2 Gill surfboard shaped by Max Gill.

In those days the surf contests were run by the local surf lifesaving club, with the age limit being from memory 15 or 16, when we arrived they initially refused to let me enter due to the fact that I was 12. After a bit of back and forth, they finally decided to let me enter the contest and to their regret, I ended up winning.

Due to the age technicality, they wouldn’t give me the trophy or first place. As a consolation they gave me the “wave of the day” award, patted me on the head and sent me on my way. My first experience of competitive surfing….

Wayne

More From TB

Malibu, circa 1971. One WAVE fin box (dark board), one early Fins Unlimited box (third from left), and the rest appear to be the classic black FU box. At least one Liddle.

Any idea who these guys are?

From Jordan, By Way Of Bob Cooper, By Way Of Joe Quigg

Joe Quigg on a Hot Curl

The Grey Ghost, built c.1960 by Quigg and commissioned by Bob Cooper

This is the board I designed for Jordan R. based on what we saw in the online info about the Grey Ghost. It was milled out and finish shaped by Spencer Kellogg. 10'1'' long by 20.5"wide...

Sam Bavaro and I waxed it up and paddled it around in flat conditions last week, then I rode it in some weak, 2-3 foot point surf a few days ago. It was a handful! It drifts side to side when you paddle it, and it wants to plane out of waves when you catch them. But if a lined up section stands up in front of you, then it locks in and goes. No way it's a daily rider, or something you'd want to ride with more than a few people in the water. It was built primarily as an example of the concept.

Jordan is going to have us make another one with clear Silene cloth rather than the volan cut lap look. He's going for the clear, big stringer boards of 50's era Buzzy Trent you see here...