“hello miki, my name is Joe”. thats how he introduced himself. I let Joe in and asked him what I could do for him. we had a chat and very soon I knew this guy is special. he was 28 and a little bit years old and the little bit was a bit bigger than mine. he shapes since 1956 he said, hollow paddle boards and still makes them. and he did introduce Midget Farrelly to shaping with Balsa, somewhere in the late 50’s, early 60’s I assume. he was interested in the future, I was much more interested in him and the past. he was a happy man and happy with what he was doing, that was easy to see. so today I went to Blacky (Blacky is around since the dinosaurs) to find out a bit more about Joe and Blacky showed me the boards he has to glass for Joe. Roy, Bert, you will love these. the bottom one with the hot iron design is a balsa/eps sandwich, the other one is solid. look at the detail, no wonder this guy has a happy smile.
and here is Blacky with the reverse profile fin, he tried hard not to be on the photo…
i love the hot iron work…
when i was a kid , i saw my uncle doing designs in timber with a welder…
ive always wanted to do it on my boards with an electric soldering iron …just never done it …at one stage i was talking about a branding iron , like cattle branding…never got past the idea stage ,
i reckon a good artist could go crazy with that concept…
love wood …
blacky looks like hes done some time with surfboards…clean work…
the iron work was kool …thats inspired me now…
regards
BERT
you guessed right about Blacky. how many squeegees? how many boards? but he was once a ripper in the water too as the pic proofs. don’t think he worked too many hours from 9 to 5 in an office…
those pics invoked a certain feelgood kinda warm feeling …
ive been digging through heaps of old movies and photos myself lately …its a dificult feeling to describe , seeing old beach and surf photos of my grandparents and uncles and mum , a certain sense of pride tinged with a sadness ,cant think if theres a right word to descibe it , but definatly get a buzz out of the historical shots…
i found this one today…
my uncle booma was always telling me about this beach buggy that his older brother built in 1959 …
even tho there was waves right out the front , the best waves were about 20 ks away …my grand parents would only take them surfing on weekends …
because my oldest uncle ben was only 15 he couldnt drive on the roads ,so he made this beach buggy with my grandfather who was an engineer …booma reckons him and ben would fly along the beach to the surf spot after school every day ,they ended up finding better waves on the way …
he was telling me the car had a 3 seater lounge , with board racks above it …
i always considered it a bit of a tall story …because all this happened before i was born ,i could never visualise it , then today im going through my grandparents photo album and i find this …
i grew up in the same house as the photo and remember playing on this old relic in the backyard which was over grown with weeds , half buried and a rusted heap…
the surfing hillbillys…
second pic of booma when he was 21 in 1970…
some of the waves he used to push me into when i was a toddler , was bordering on life threatening…
worst thing was , my mum encouraged him…she would stand in the shore break and yell out " go this one , go " booma would push me over the edge and mum would pluck me out if i came unstuck or grab me off before the shorebreak pounding…
funny, the memories from old photos…
regards
BERT
hmm look at the length of that board, and then the date.
And there’s me thinking the shortboard revolution did’nt get going until 68 
i dont get it ??? dont the dates match up …??
if it started in 68 and that photo was in 70… did i misinterpret your comment?
regards
BERT
Bert, he’s referring to the Blacky 1966 photo. Clearly a shortboard.
dont you hate it when your stupidity shows…doh…
regards
BERT
having seen the quality of your boards, Bert, stupidity is probably the last thing you can be accused of.
went back to Blacky to get more info on the board and he said the foto might have been taken in 1967 at Kirra showing his ‘66 trophy’s. the board could have been a 8’ or even a 7’6 he said. I asked him how he was going with the girls at that time as he looks like a chick magnet but he said he was one generation too early…
I am absolutelly sure I have seen that beach buggy before. maybe in my last life or maybe it is my imagination because it looks like a beach buggy should look like. absolutelly stunning… and what a place to grow up…