The Museum of British Surfing has launched a new appeal today for people to join its volunteer team, and to donate old surf equipment to help expand the charity’s collection – see the full poster below.

The ‘your surfing museum needs you’ campaign is based on the famous World War I poster featuring Lord Kitchener, and has been design by our graphics volunteer James Round. Our poster features one of Britain’s true surfing heros – Major Nigel Oxenden MC who set up Europe’s first surf club in 1923. Major Oxenden was awarded the MC twice for bravery during the First World War.

The national registered charity based in Braunton, North Devon is looking for volunteers for its front of house operations, collections management, events and research.

The museum’s collection is already pretty amazing, but what we’ve been trying to do is find at least one example of each British shaper’s work – plus of course all the associated surf and beach gear from the last 100 years or more! There are still key items that we’re looking for, and if you’re able to make a donation it will become a lasting legacy of your own surfing history – when items go on display we tell our visitors who gave the item and where possible the story behind it.

At present you can see our fantastic new exhibition Sixties SURFER! – it explores the decade when modern surfing culture first arrived in Britain and shows the most complete collection of 1960s British surfboards ever seen in one place. It is also 50 years since the first surf shop opened in St Ives, Cornwall.

If you have something you would like to donate, or if you’d like to join our volunteer please get in touch.

A visit to the new exhibition Sixties SURFER! prompted Braunton based surfer and photographer James Davis to track down and donate his first surfboard to the Museum of British Surfing.

He had the 7′ 8″ single-fin custom shaped by John Taylor in Bristol in the late Sixties at the start of the ‘shortboard revolution’.

Taylor got into shaping boards after visiting North Devon on surf trips and used foam blanks supplied by Bob Groves on England’s south coast, and also some Bennett and Tiki blanks. “I used to make 3 or 4 a week after work and sold them off the car roof at Woolacombe and Putsborough for £39 and would make about a tenner on each board,” said John.

On his later boards John glassed in a metal loop near the fin so that boards could be locked to a roof rack to prevent theft.

The board James Davis had shaped features his own JD logo, John Taylor’s artistic surfboard logo and an original 1960s Rick Griffin ‘Murphy’ sticker. The gel coat is orange, with yellow rails and it has a glassed in fin. It still has some original repairs made using ‘gaffer’ tape! The leash was added in the early 1970s along with surf stickers for Bude’s Zuma Jay and Sick Pig.

James had learned to surf in Waikiki and was eager to try out the waves on the North Devon coast when he returned to England, he thinks the board was shaped around 1968. He used the board for a few years before passing it on to his best friend David Russell in the 1970s, who had kept the board tucked away until now. James also donated a rare 1976 Morey-Doyle 136 soft surfboard in great condition that we’ll feature soon.

It is the second John Taylor surfboard to be donated to the museum’s permanent collection. It is another 1960s board shaped for Ronald Stuart and donated by Tim Wilson from Jersey  – currently on display in the new exhibition Sixties SURFER! at the Museum of British Surfing.

The museum’s permanent collection is held in trust by our registered charity. We are currently looking for British surfboards and memorabilia right the way through from the early 1900s to the present day – if you have something you would like to donate to create a legacy of your own surfing history please get in touch.

Renowned photographer Paul Harris stepped into the Museum of British Surfing today, and the first thing he saw was a photo he took back in 1969!

Paul composed the picture of the new Tiki Surf Shop for an advert, when it first started out in South Street, Braunton. It features founders Tim Heyland and Dave Aldrich-Smith, along with another 1960s pioneer Alan Brooks.

The photo is now available as a postcard raising funds for the museum, which is the national registered charity responsible for celebrating and preserving British surfing heritage.

Paul now runs a top photo agency in California, but comes back to Devon regularly to visit family. He checked out the new Sixties SURFER! exhibition giving it a big thumbs-up, and stayed to have his photo taken for the instant gallery of original 1960s surfers on display in our reception area.

Postcard caption: Dave Aldrich-Smith, Emma the surfing dog, Alan Brooks and Tim Heyland (L-R) – 1969 Tiki surf shop advert by Paul Harris.

If you’re out and about in North Devon for the May Bank Holiday this weekend there are lots of things to see & do at the new Museum of British Surfing in the centre of Braunton.

Our latest surf heritage exhibition Sixties SURFER! is proving to be a massive hit, with the biggest collection of original British surfboards and memorabilia from the 1960s ever seen. We have unique 1960s surfing films playing, surf music – and you can even sit down and read the entire run of six issues of British Surfer magazine first published back in 1969.

We are open from 10am to 5pm on Saturday and Sunday, and 10am to 4pm on Bank Holiday Monday May 6th.

Learn how early wetsuits, or hollow wooden surfboards were made & dip your toe into the sights and sounds of the Swinging Sixties surf scene in Britain!

Running alongside this we have fun children’s activities like the 2013 surfboard art competition to design your own ‘Malibu’ board. The best entry each month gets a prize, and the best of the year will be shaped into a longboard by Gulf Stream at Woolacombe and auctioned to raise funds for the Museum of British Surfing registered charity.

The ever popular “spotter’s trail” is back, getting youngsters running around trying to find all the objects to win one of our bespoke postcards. Plus of course there’s the section on North Devon surfing & our special local environment where you can find out what should or shouldn’t be on our beaches in the celebrity jungle style “feely boxes”!

You can see the actual journal by Captain James Cook with the first written description of surfing in the world, find out how ancient Hawaiians made their huge solid wood boards – and read stories about British royals & other famous people who surfed in the early 1900s.

The Museum of British Surfing has something for all the family – and we also have a gift shop with unique souvenirs of your visit to North Devon, or for that special present for a loved one.

In 1968 Lawrence Wright and his brother Tony made two surfboards at their home in Kent – 45 years later Lawrence was reunited with his board at the new Sixties SURFER! exhibition now showing at the Museum of British Surfing.

Lawrence and his wife Karen now run Middle Campscott Farm at Lee in North Devon and were delighted to see the display, especially the family’s old board. “It was a very happy experience visiting the museum and the 1960s surfing display. The exhibits all make one smile!” said Karen.

The Wright family decorated the surfboards they made, and their cars, with a ‘smiling jellyfish’ design. The Malibu board on display in Sixties SURFER! also has the design set in resin in its wooden ‘hatchet’ fin. They regularly travelled from Kent for surfing holidays at Putsborough before settling in North Devon in later life.

You can see photos of the board in use back in 1968 on display in the exhibition.

Lawrence also had his photo taken to join our montage of 1960s surfers that’s displayed in the museum’s reception area.

The Museum of British Surfing is now on Spring opening hours which means we’re closed on Mondays except bank & school holidays click here for details.

The new Sixties SURFER! exhibition at the Museum of British Surfing attracted surfing legends from the 1960s & 70s, and turned into an impromptu reunion for many who hadn’t seen each other in decades.

Among the 150 people who took advantage of our first ‘locals go free‘ day of 2013 was multiple women’s surfing champion Jane Moss (see gallery below). She donated one of her fantastic 1970s competition wetsuits, given to her by former World Champion Jericho Poppler while on a surf trip in California 40 years ago.

Many unique items were donated and pledged to help expand the Museum of British Surfing’s public collection, including possibly one of the earliest skateboards in Britain (see the gallery below). Made by Paul Lawson in 1964 and used on surf trips to Woolacombe in North Devon to skate down the hill into the seafront car park.

Paul shaped a heavy piece of plywood and screwed on two sets of metal roller-skate trucks, so his board had 8 wheels! He later discovered that early boards in the USA had the trucks cut in half using just four wheels.

“The atmosphere was incredible all day, and I would say it was probably the museum’s best day yet,” said founder Peter Robinson. “To see so many locals and hear their stories of surfing going back to the 1950s in some cases; to hear the volume rise each time someone came across a surfboard or memory from their past – it was simply incredible.”

A big thanks goes to new volunteer Adam White, who came in for two hours to help and ended up staying the whole day (see main photo)!

As part of the display, instant photos are being taken of people who surfed in the 1960s and the pictures are being displayed in the reception area. It is planned to make a collage or book of them at the end of the exhibition.

Among the rare surfboards that turned up on the day was a 1970s swallow tail ‘Kneetrembler’, with stunning period artwork – more details on this soon.

The Museum of British Surfing is now on Spring opening hours which means we’re closed on Mondays except bank & school holidays click here for details.

Author, historian, lecturer and 1960s surfing legend Roger Mansfield from Newquay dropped in to see our new exhibition Sixties SURFER!

He met museum founder Peter Robinson, chairman of trustees Kevin Cook and volunteer Andy Webb (see main photo) – and shared some interesting insights and stories on many of the boards & other items on display.

Roger was delighted to find himself on display as a young lad in the skateboard section, demonstrating this new ‘sport’ for an advert for Bilbo skateboards from 1967! His book on British surfing history ‘The Surfing Tribe’ is available for sale in the surf museum gift shop.

The Museum of British Surfing is proud to be working with Roger Mansfield on ‘The First Wave’ - a lottery-funded project recording at least 100 oral surfing histories. There will be a launch event in Porthtowan this summer, followed by a display the National Maritime Museum in Cornwall.

After that The First Wave audio-visual ‘pod’ will be based at the surfing museum in Braunton, North Devon who will also continue developing the oral histories and maintaining the website.

To celebrate the Museum of British Surfing’s twin anniversaries we’re having a special ‘Locals Go Free’ day this Sunday April 14th 2013.

If you live in the EX33, EX34, EX31, EX32 and EX39 postcode areas, simply bring along printed & current identification showing your name and full postal address! We’re open from 11am to 5pm, with suggested last visit at 4.15pm. If you’re taking advantage of this special ‘locals go free’ offer, we’d really appreciate it if you could support us by making a donation on the way out, or by buying a souvenir from our gift shop – thank you!

The Museum of British Surfing is a registered charity and opened in North Devon for the first time on April 6th 2012. It originally started out as a mobile museum touring UK venues in 2003, with founder Peter Robinson beginning the historical research and building the collection in 1997 – so it is currently celebrating its 1st and 10th birthdays!

We currently have a major new exhibition for you to see – Sixties SURFER! – it looks at the decade when modern surfing culture first arrived on the UK’s beaches in the 1960s. Exactly 50 years after the Britain’s first surf shop opened its doors, it taps into the source of this new wave of surfers, and the enduring footsteps they left in the sand for generations of dedicated wave-riders to follow.

‘Sixties SURFER!’ is the biggest display of original British surfboards and memorabilia from the 1960s ever seen in the UK – including what’s thought might be Rod Sumpter’s iconic board ridden in the 1966 World Surfing Championships. The show samples the films, photography, music and fashions of this groundbreaking decade that changed the face of British surfing forever.

It has been made possible by sponsorship from businesses across Devon and Cornwall including 1960s wetsuit pioneer Gul, Wavelength surfing magazine, Finisterre clothing, Skinners Brewery, The Thatch pub, Marsdens Cottage Holidays, Parkin Estates and The Red Barn.

Alongside the new exhibition, there are sections on early UK surfing history, North Devon surfing and the environment and fun children’s activities.

Today is the first anniversary of the award-winning Museum of British Surfing opening in its new permanent home in Braunton, North Devon – and it’s also 10 years ago that we began work on our first public exhibitions around the UK!

To celebrate, this weekend (April 6th & 7th 2013) all visitors will receive a free car sticker & postcard. Then next Sunday April 14th we’re having a special ‘Locals Go Free’ day for anyone living in EX33, EX34, EX31 and EX39 postcodes – simply bring along printed & current identification showing your name and full postal address! We’re open from 11am to 5pm at the moment, with suggested last visit at 4.15pm.

The Museum of British Surfing is a registered charity and opened in North Devon for the first time on April 6th 2012. It originally started out as a mobile museum touring UK venues in 2003, with founder Peter Robinson beginning the historical research and building the collection in 1997.

“It has been an amazing journey that has led us to where we are now,” said Pete, a former ITV News reporter. “It would not have been possible without the support of my wife Bianca, my family and many friends here and around the world. A big thank you to everyone who has helped over the last 16 years – especially all of charity’s trustees past and present, in particular Richard Gregory who has been with me since the start.”

“To be part of a network of respected surfing historians & authors worldwide is a true honour, and the work that has been shared by everyone to uncover so many fantastic British surfing stories from the past 235 years is nothing short of incredible. There are too many to list here individually, but my dear friends Sandy Hall and Tom Pohaku Stone in Hawaii deserve special mentions for their massive contributions over the years.”

It is the first & only dedicated museum celebrating surfing history in Europe. Among the many important historical discoveries made by the museum’s team in the past decade is earliest known surfing in Britain, which took place in 1890 when two Hawaiian princes & their English guardian rode waves at Bridlington on the East Yorkshire coast.

We currently have a major new exhibition for you to see, looking at the decade when modern surfing culture first arrived on the UK’s beaches in the 1960s.

Exactly 50 years after the Britain’s first surf shop opened its doors, ‘Sixties SURFER!’ taps into the source of this new wave of surfers, and the enduring footsteps they left in the sand for generations of dedicated wave-riders to follow.

‘Sixties SURFER!’ is the biggest display of original British surfboards and memorabilia from the 1960s ever seen in the UK, and samples the films, photography, music and fashions of this groundbreaking decade that changed the face of British surfing forever.

The exhibition has been made possible by sponsorship from businesses across Devon and Cornwall including 1960s wetsuit pioneer Gul, Wavelength surfing magazine, Finisterre clothing, Skinners Brewery, The Thatch pub, Marsdens Cottage Holidays, Parkin Estates and The Red Barn.

Alongside the new exhibition, there are sections on early UK surfing history, North Devon surfing and the environment and fun children’s activities.

The Museum of British Surfing received grants towards its design & build from Leader 4 Torridge & North Devon, North Devon Council, North Devon Coast Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and Devon County Council – and received support from Braunton Parish Council.

The official opening in April 2012 was performed by two of the highest profile British surfers on the international circuit, longboard champion Ben Skinner and big wave expert Andrew Cotton.

During its time touring the UK with its mobile surfing museum it has run major surf heritage exhibitions in Newquay, St Ives, the Eden Project, Chapel Porth, London, Aberdeen, Brighton, Coventry, Grimsby, Thurso, Havant, Christchurch, Marton, Woodhorn and Whitby. It was founded in 2003 with a grant from the family of the late Viscount Ted Deerhurst, who became Britain’s first professional surfer in 1978.

A massive congratulations to 12 year old Lewis Morgan from Gwynedd in Wales, the winner of the Museum of British Surfing’s 2012 children’s surfboard art competition announced today, Easter Sunday!

Lewis was picked from hundreds of entries that were drawn by children during their visit to the museum between May and December last year. His winning entry will now be shaped into a surfboard by Gulf Stream Surfboards in Woolacombe, North Devon and auctioned to raise funds for the surfing museum charity.

The final was judged by museum trustee Richard Gregory, a filmmaker & graphic designer, and award-winning shaper Jools Matthews the founder of Gulf Stream.

Richard said; “We both thought that Lewis’s drawing was colourful, bold, confident and holistic in its design. We’d like to congratulate him on a great piece of work – it is amazing how creative all the young people were during their visits to the museum. All the entries were great, and the finalists outstanding. Truly inspirational.”

The competition was open to children aged 5 to 16. A winning design was picked each month by museum staff & volunteers and seven went through to the final: Hazel Beale aged 16 from Kent; Cuba Chapman aged 8 from Somerset; Freya Axten aged 10 from Belfast; Lewis Morgan aged 12 from Wales; Finn Balmont aged 11 from Australia; Tom Dean aged 13 from Scotland; Tabitha Cook aged 11 from Lincolnshire.

The 2013 surfboard art competition is already underway, and as part of the Sixties SURFER! exhibition that’s open now we’re asking young people to come up with a winning ‘Malibu’ or longboard design – good luck!