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By Don Fleming
One
day, about two summers ago, a couple comes into our antique store in
Prescott, Arizona. The lady notices my display of old surfboards and
particularly the hollow plywood kook box hanging from the ceiling. She
says “I have one of those out behind my house in Riverside, except mine
is made of welded steel.”
In
my most authoritative voice I told her I knew quite a lot on the
subject and there are no steel surfboards, her’s could maybe be a
motorized aluminum. She told me no, it was steel, and that she had a
receipt from the day her father bought it in 1938. I wasn’t convinced
but after some more discussion I told her I’d stop and look my next
time in California.
Well,
I misplaced the phone number ,then found it again, and a year had
passed. When I arrived at her rural house in Riverside I found the
welded galvanized steel surfboard with spiders and a mummified cat
under. It was out behind the house where it had laid for the past 40
years or so.
I
stand corrected and informed. I bought the board from the lady, which
included the 1938 handwritten bill of sale. It is very professionally
built with rolled edges, bottom rocker and
well thought out template for its day. Unfortunately there is no
history other than her dad’s name, Joe Bridges, bought it from Bob
Shope or Shupe and the year was 1938. We do know that Joe once owned a
sporting goods store, a grocery store and a gas station in the city of
Corona, California. His daughter said he never was a surfer. Maybe
someone out there can add to this information…
Email us at web@surfersjournal.com if you can.
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