Whale

Some were calling it the biggest swell in 65 years. Waves of 18 meters were recorded off Tasmania.
All I know it was big enough to deposit this visitor on the ledge at the point.




photo from Brett Walker

Deus / Boardcollector surf Swap No'3

Deus Surf Swap 3 will be boardcollectors last Surf Swap in Sydney.
I will be relocating with the wife, child and dog to Encinitas, 1 of top 3 best surf towns in USA.
As much as I'd like to take 60 plus boards with me to California, most are going to stay here, but I'll be offering a heap for sale on Stefan's wall of vintage.
Come along and say Goodbye.

Surf Antiquarian

Here's a link to a nice article in the European magazine POC on the Boardcollector by Shelly Jones, page 55.
I'm pretty stoked to be sharing page space with the legendary innovator Bunker Sprekles and his ridiculsley short 'space chip' surfboard.





Photo by Trevor King.

Deus / Boardcollector surf Swap No'3

New additions include SPUNK RECORDS with fresh music CD's and DVD's like Andrew Kidman's Last Hope and surfer artist Bret Walker.

We still have room on Stefan's wall of vintage for your pre-1990 stick of any price or condition. To reserve a space contact keith@deus.com.au or 0417 217 530

Team Bolt, team jacket.

While cleaning out under the house I found this beautiful, satin, Team Bolt bomber jacket that I stumbled upon a number of years ago in Hawaii. It goes perfectly with the Team Bolt twin fin and adds another layer of detail and interest to my collection, for me.
I like to imagine it could have belonged to one of the 70's Lightning bolt team riders like Gerry, Rory, MR or Margo.
Around the same time I started picking up old wetsuits from the same era as the boards from my collection. Thinking that I could surf the boards in the matching wetsuit and get the whole experience of the different eras. I found out quickly, of course, that this was a stupid idea, as stiff, heavy, second hand wetsuits are as useful as second hand food.

Deus / Boardcollector surf Swap No'3

What: Deus / Boardcollector vintage and retro surf Swap No'3.

When: Saturday 9th of October. 9am till 4pm.

Where: Deus Ex Machina carpark. 104 Parramatta rd Camperdown. Sydney.

Who: The who's who of Australian alternative surf culture.

Alby Falzon. Pioneer and film maker. Will be here with Morning of the Earth paraphernalia, surfboards and DVD's.
Marty Worthington. Australia's most famous airbrush artist. Famous for art work gracing Terry Fitzgerald's speed machines, will be here with examples of his work for sale.
Tony 'Air Speed'- Pinstriper and custom painter. Will be here to pin stripe your vintage surfboard, skateboard, sign or toilet seat (as per Big Daddy Roth).
Jeff- Bric a Brac.
Graeme from Bing- with his latest made made offering direct from the USA.
Benny from Six Ounce- Pulling out his collection and representing for the boys at Surf Culture Bondi Junction.
Wayne from the Central Coast- showing and selling a life time of collectible surfboards.
MEX- and his collection of Australian surf Culture.
Tony- bringing his beautiful vintage surfboard collection. All for sale to the right buyer.
Surfaid- will be doing a booth to help our surfing neighbours to the north.
PLUS
Monkey Bike club will be here will bikes on display and for sale.
PLUS
Deus Cafe will be doing Bacon and Egg rolls for brekkey with espresso coffee and Pizza slices, garlic prawn skewers and Corona's for lunch.
PLUS
Lucky door prizes.
PLUS
Stefan's wall of Death. Bring your pre-1990 surfboard and $10 and we will sell your board for you while you enjoy a beer or coffee and walk the meet. I'll be busting out my collection and throwing it up on the wall!


We can fit a couple more stall holders if you get in quick.
Contact Uncle Keith on keith@deus.com.au or call him on 0417 217 530 with any questions.

See you there!


photo by Alby Falzon.

Single Fin Exhibition from Deus Bali celebrating the creation of the single fin.

Allow me to share with you the beautiful, hand sewn, hand screen printed catalog from the Single Fin exhibition at Deus Bali.

Jim Parkinson's rail channels.

Design innovator, Jim Parkinson in 1979 from Jackson Surfboards.


Omar found this lovely Jackson thruster for me on the NSW north coast. It features unusual soft, deep and long channels that run up the lenght of the rails that I have never seen before. I would have written them off as a blip on evolutionary design timeline of the modern surfboard and not thought of them again except for a strange co-incidence.
I sold a Al Byrne shaped Byrning Spears channel bottom thruster on ebay for $50. I was'nt very stoked, but the guy I sold it to on the Gold Coast was. He was blown away! He told me he only surfs Al Byrne channel bottoms and Jim Parkinson rail channels on the long and fast point breaks of the Gold Coast like Burleigh and Snapper rocks. He swears by them, says they are the greatest piece of surfboard design in history. Then Gavin sent me pics of his Jim Parkinson rail channel thruster. I better paddle it out and get up to speed on this innovation that I never knew existed.








Gavin's Jim Parkinson rail channel design.

Frank Latta tribute.

Earlier this year the surfing world lost one of its great innovators, the surfer and shaper Frank Latta.
Filmaker Steve Core has produced this tribute.

A board collectors philosophical quandary

A problem shared is a problem halved. So I share with you my good friend, Gavin's, quandary. We welcome every one's opinion in the comments box.

Gavin wrote-
Remember the MR twinnie that was MR's own comp board?



I have talked to two local restorers and Randy (Rarick in Hawaii) about the best way to get this board restored.

The local guys believe it should be kept as original as possible, which obviously means limited restoration work.
Randy on the other hand recommends "glass off restoration, which involves foam reshaping, but a much better looking final board - like new really.
The cost of the glass off restoration would be approximately $1000USD. But the final board could be worth quite a bit.

My quandary lies in my feelings that to go to glass-off means that in reality you are getting a reproduction of the original, as the subtlety of shapes are lost.
Most collectors wouldn't be so concerned, but I can't help but agree with your claim that this is the pinnacle of twin fin development by the master - hand shaped, painted and glassed by MR.
In which case it seems wrong to mess with the board too much.

To clean it up as it stands involves either leaving it strictly as it is, re glassing and no new logos, or new logos, sanding back a little to clean up foam and touch up with some paint on foam, or Randy's route.
Obviously Randy's would be worth more financially long term, but is it MR's board then?
I'm really challenged by the idea.

Regards
Gav



Damion's opinion-
I have seen Randy's work. He is incredibly talented and obviously has a deep love and respect for vintage boards. The restoration he did on the Rory Russel Lightning bolt at the Surf Heritage museum was absolutely amazing.
I am personally interested in the design and history of old boards, so to me the dings and breaks in the board are a valuable record of the life and times of the board. I would also be interested in riding the board, to experience how it works. So I would do a minimal restoration, clear and watertight.

Robert's opinion-
I collect vintage guitars. If I found a vintage guitar that had been broken on stage by a famous musician I would simply build a wooden box frame for it and hang it on the wall as it. It would be worth a lot more preserved this way than restored to original.

Phil's opinion-
I was at a vintage car auction recently and saw a Mercedes 2 door that had had over $65,000 spent on the restoration sell for $23,000. A similar model can that had been raced in the 60's that was in original, rough, condition sold for more because of the obvious history in the car. The restored car ending up being bought by someone who was going to use it as a everyday commuter car.

Dare's opinion-
This is like the problem they are facing at the ancient Hindu temple complex at Angkor, Cambodia. There are two teams working on its preservation. The French team are trying to preserve it in 'as is' condition. They want to protect it and not let it deteriorate any further. The Italian team what to restore it to original condition, recreating the stolen statues etc. I can see both sides of the argument.

John's opinion-
The board is not much to look at as is. I say do a full clean up and restore it to its original beautiful condition. Then it can be cherished forever.

Randy Rarick's opinion-
I really like it when different people weigh in on their most favorite status of a collectable board. As Gav pointed out, I'm a true believer in taking a board that is this trashed and bringing it back to as original as possible condition. It requires a full glass off restoration. I equate it to a full "frame off" restoration of say a classic Holden. If you find one with the paint peeling, the upholstery ripped, the engine blown up, it is "all original", but what's it worth in that kind of condition? So, you do a frame off, respray it to the original color, use NOS upholstery and redo the interior and then rebuild the engine to original specs. When you are done, you still have the original car, but now it is totally presentable. The same goes with boards, if they are that beat, then that is the way to go. Of course, if you find one in what car parlance is known as: "preservation class", that is an original, that maybe you clean the wiring, and detail the inside and out, but no repairs, no new paint, just an original that has been cleaned up. Then you have a clean "all original" car. The same goes for surfboards. If you find one that maybe is slightly tanned, or has some shatters, but all you do is clean the wax off and not do any major repair or restoration work, then you'll have something that is both desirable to the hard core aficionados, but at the same time can be appreciated by the discerning collector. I approach all old boards with what I call "The 3 R's". You assess if it needs: repair, refurbish or restore. Each has it's own degree of involvement, but the ultimate goal is to try get it to look as original as possible. I know guys who tell you to not even take the wax off a board! Well that might be great if it was last ridden by a world champion, but no board went out of the showroom with wax on it! So, my recommendation is always leave it as close as possible to the original, or do what is necessary to make it look as close as possible to the original and in a case like this MR, it's too far gone to just repair it. It's probably too far gone, just to try refurbish it, so that only leaves the last resort of a full blown restoration to bring it back to life!

Hope that sheds some insight, from someone who has worked on over 10,000 used boards!

Aloha,
Randy Rarick
Sunset Beach, Hawaii