UK bellyboarding history

[bgreen]

Here's a bit of UK history for those so inclined. http://vintagesurfboardcollectoruk.blog ... -cope.html

The hollow board sounded intriguing.

Bob

[Poobah]

Bump. I'm surprised there's only 15 views so far, and I wonder how many of those clicked on the link. There's some really good stuff there. I hadn't heard of bending the nose kick on a ladder before...a dozen at a time. I've long suspected that the dimensions of the little surfboards were driven by the 4 x 8 foot source material. Plus a desire for lightness. But now I see there was another limiting factor on the width of these boards....the width of the ladders.

[bgreen]

Poobah,

I agree it is a great piece for a number of reasons. I was also sent this link recently - http://tomwegenersurfboards.com/307/woo ... -japanese/

It is interesting because it has photos of both the UK bellyboards and a Spanish Amstel board (revival of the planky or txampero) - a wider board with noticeable kick. Tom said these latter boards are a lot of fun. Rod will be posting up a number of interviews about the planky in a month or so.

Bob

[Poobah]

Last Summer on the old paipo forum, Mr. Mike shared these pics of his marlin board.

amed01.jpg (12.45 KiB) Viewed 3790 times

amed02.jpg (13.71 KiB) Viewed 3790 times

I saw it again recently on Joe Tabler's Surf Blurb, and I got to thinking about the Yeo boards. Perhaps Yeo made these boards for a hotel or resort named Mediterranea. The basic stencil text is similar to what Yeo used on the boards he made for the Parkins Resort.

The blog on Yeo said, "Before painting or varnishing, rasps and sandpaper were used to round off the corners, then Tim Smith, an art teacher at the Comprehensive School, did the logos using the old silk-screen method. Pictures of surfers, fish, seahorses, all sorts of animals…. or if a client wanted to hire the boards out, just the stencilled name of a hotel or business, like the huge Parkin Estates who managed the Woolacombe beaches . "

Mike, can you give us some measurements on that board?

[mrmike]

larry the board is 12"wide and 43"long with a 3" kick in the nose thanks larry

[bgreen]

I have just e-mailed about a possible Yeo connection. Photos have also sent been sent to an Oz collector, the UK surfing museum, and some US collectors as well as people in Spain. No id so far, though I was sent a clip of bellyboards in Italy in 1948.

Bob

[Poobah]

On the old forum, Brooky posts about his Surfrider. Similar measurements, his 42.5 inches long. Not sure if he lost any length on the tail during his restoration of the board. Well, anyway...some of those boards seem to come in a kid sizes...shorter than 48 inches.

http://rodndtube.com/paipo/forum/viewto ... highlight=