Looking for info on this board (the one on the right in the photo). This is the board that started the surfing scene in France in 1957. At the time, Peter Viertel (who was a Hollywood scenarist) was working on a film adaptation of Hemingway’s “The Sun Also Rises” and was shooting a few scenes in Biarritz and nearby Spain. When he saw the surfing potential of the waves in Biarritz he had a surfboard sent to France along with other goods for the film. The rest is history, the board stayed in France when he left and a few pioneers used and copied it.
My question is: is there anybody out there who could tell what was this board’s brand? Nobody here can remember that and there seems to be something written on the tail block but it’s hardly visible at all. i tried to focus on it but the photo isn’t good enough. Any idea, someone?
The outline, is very similar to boards from the 1954/55 time period, that were being shaped by Matt Kivlin and Joe Quigg. If I had to pick one, I’d say it was by Kivlin. Malibu was a Hollywood hangout in those years. So the boards owner, with a Hollywood connection, could well have had a board made by one of those guys.
If the board came to France in 1957 there were very few actual surfboard labels at the time. The writing on the tail could be anything. Given that the owner had a Hollywood connection there’s a chance it could be a Quigg. Quigg made the prototype (so to speak) for the Malibu “chip” when he shaped a board for Darrylin Zanuck, the daughter of the co-founder of 20th Century Fox. Ms Zanuck dated Tom Zahn, another Malibu legend. A fair number of Hollywood people surfed Malibu in the fifties, including Richard Jaeckel, Cliff Robertson, and Peter Lawford.
Thank you, SammyA, too. Looks like the search narrows down to either Quigg or Kivlin. Especially since Viertel was professionaly connected to Richard D. Zanuck.
A good friend of mine is currently writing a book about Peter Viertel (who, before introducing surfing to France, had had a very interesting life as a spy for the OSS in Germany…) so looking for any info.
