The Home of UK Surf History
c1918
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1968
Photos are listed in order of the date they were added to the website collection, newest first.
Added to the website collection on Sep 30, 2011
This lovely picture has been sent in by Jayne Shrimpton from Brighton, and shows her mother Ivy Watson aged 15 proudly showing off her bellyboard outside a row of beach huts in 1946. It is thought the photo was taken on the south coast, possibly at Selsey – if you can help identify the location ……»
Added to the website collection on Sep 20, 2011
Photos from Mick Holmes in 1965 at the Jersey Holiday Camp, Portlet – featuring Bobby the Dog, Bobby Barlow and others standing in front of a Singer Gazelle car with classic Malibu surfboard on the roof.
Added to the website collection on Sep 07, 2011
One of the UK’s top shapers of the 1970s, Tris Cokes – a long was from his Cornwall home – checking out the surf in Aberdeen in 1968. Photo by Graham Sorensen.
Added to the website collection on Jul 27, 2011
A wonderful portrait of Agatha Christie on Waikiki beach, Hawaii in 1922 – she was travelling with her first husband Archie (a pilot in the Flying Corps in WWI) – and mastered stand-up surfing, becoming one of the earliest Briton’s known to do so.
Added to the website collection on Dec 04, 2010
Croyde beach in North Devon in August 1939, just weeks before the start of the Second World War – photo by the Millar family of Braunton. It shows cars parked on the sand and people in the background using their wooden bellyboards to enjoy the surf.
Added to the website collection on Dec 04, 2010
Great photo showing Bill Davies shooting the curl on a decent size day at Putsborough in North Devon in 1966. Bill Davies & Bob Groves were responsible for Groves-Davies Surfboards shaped at Lee on Solent on the south coast of England. Starting out around 1964 its through they only made around 30 or so ‘longboards’, ……»
Added to the website collection on Dec 04, 2010
The late “Fuzz” Pridham from Bideford in perfect trim at Putsborough in North Devon in May 1966 – one of the early crew of locals in the early to mid 1960s. Photo by Tony Cope.
Added to the website collection on Aug 13, 2010
The Australian surfing and swimming champion Charles Justin ‘Snow’ McAllister visited England in September 1928 to give demonstrations of “surf-board riding” at English seaside resorts. With thanks to SurfWorld Museum in Torquay, Australia for supplying the images.
Added to the website collection on Jul 09, 2010
This wonderful photo donated by the Oxenden family shows a group of surfer girls chilling out in the beach hut at St Ouens Bay, Jersey in the mid to late 1920s. Check out the surfboards racked up and the surf photo on the wall. Standing (left) is Dot Martin, Pat Oxenden in the centre and ……»
Added to the website collection on Jul 09, 2010
Photograph taken of Jasper Reis posing with his surfboard at the Horseshoe Hotel, Highgate, London – dated on the back of the picture April 6, 1925.
Added to the website collection on Jun 06, 2010
Surfer-shaper Bob Powers on the beach at home in North Devon with one of the boards he made in Mortehoe. This was his personal board and Bob donated it to the Museum of British Surfing – you can see it in surfboard timeline on this site.
Added to the website collection on Jun 01, 2010
This photo is of Hobart Braddick (left on screen) on Westward Ho! beach in North Devon in the early 1900s – his family believes it was taken before World War One, and the exact date is still being researched but is thought to be around 1918. It’s one of the earliest images found so far ……»
Added to the website collection on Jun 01, 2010
Pip Staffieri was a diminutive ice cream seller who lived in Newquay, Cornwall before World War 2. He made his own 13 foot hollow wooden surfboard in the late 1930s after seeing a photo in an encyclopedia. Pip would wheel it down to the waters edge on an old pram that he cut in half. ……»
Added to the website collection on Jun 01, 2010
Lewis Rosenberg made his own 8 foot surfboard from solid wood around 1929, and filmed himself and his friends teaching themselves to surf standing up in Cornwall. This image is a frame from the movie. Lewis had no plans, or a surfboard shaper to turn to – he saw surfing on a ‘newsreel’ in a ……»
Added to the website collection on Jun 01, 2010
Nigel ‘Oxo’ Oxenden started the Island Surf Club of Jersey in 1923 after picking up surfing on his travels to Hawaii. This photo from the Oxenden family collection shows Oxo in the early 1920s with his surfboard which is currently on loan to the Museum of British Surfing. It features a leash made from sash ……»