Ahoy. I have just bought a Cooper board from a grommet in J-Bay South Africa - who said ‘it belongs with an old grey haired git like me and not in the his greasy paws’. I need to know where it was made and by who, and so far have drawn a big blank - it does not appear to be South African made. Anyone out there have a clue? It’s a 7’ wide up front gun with a bump winged narrow swallow tail. Resin tinted aqua with red pinline. Much obliged.
It could be by Bob Cooper.A legend for sure.He is an American that moved to Australia many years ago and now owns a surf shop.I just got through reading a great article in an older Surfer’s Journal about him.He was famous here in the sixties for the Morey Pope “Blue Machine”.
Hey Grob see if that board was shaped by Richie West. He shaped at Coopers at that time.
Thanks for that Kirk, I am searching the Net for info on Richie Wst right now.
surfresearch.com shows this info:
Cooper Surfboards
Coffs Harbor NSW
1970
Shapers Bob Cooper (USA); Billy Tolhurst
1977
Shapers Bob Cooper (USA); Billy Tolhurst and Richie West (USA);
1980
Shapers Richie West
So it appears to be a Richie West, numbered as 148. Seems Richie was the guy who opened up the Wilderness Surf Shop
‘Like all surf shops of that era, Wilderness was an extension of a way of life. On a shoestring, Duncan, with Danny Hazard and Richie West, built boards a few blocks from the beach, watching the winds and tides, breaking away to surf when a swell hit’
Do you think this board has any value? I think Richie appeared in Crystal Voyager… Thanks for the help there Kirk.
I spent many hours watching Richie and surfing with him at Rincon,such a great surfer/shaper.All that stuff that went on at Wilderness is still a big influence in what I ride today. Duncan is still at it, making some nice hulls.And Mike Cundith who started it with Richie is in Byron Bay making great boards.Yeah its worth something ,fix it and ride the hell out of it!
Hell it’s been a fun ride just trying to ascertain the shaper of this board, and now it turns out to be a legend who created it. I am stoked - the board only cost me R144 plus two surf mags. That’s like about US$21 or something? So far I have waterpapered her down and am gonna get a raked back fin made up as the previous owner ground the old one down to just about nothing. I would dig to get in touch with Richie to let him know where one of his shapes ended up, and to ask what the ideal fin shape would be. So thanks again Kirk. PS - it’s going from flat to a bit of something here at J-Bay, been a wqeek of crap so am totally amped for an after work sesh. Hope you’re getting some swell too.