Vintage Surf meet 2019 coming soon !

Vintage Surf meet 2019 coming soon !
Free to take part
We buy interesting old boards 60s/70s/early 80s in good condition. Email alasdairlindsay75@gmail.com . Also wanted - Surfing UK , British Surfer and Surf Insight magazines .
Above photo - copyright Rennie Ellis photographer archive

Friday 4 November 2011

Infinity singlefin in France

Here's another old British board which has made its way over to France. Its owned and surfed by Jean-Christophe, who wanted to know a bit more about it.
It was made on the south coast for Bob Groves' Infinity surfboards label, made in the very early 70s. Bob had started making boards in the early 60s and was part of Groves-Davies surfboards. He perfected the art of blowing his own blanks in the 60s and supplied other shapers as well as selling diy surfboard kits to the general public.
Rod Sumpter became involved after he had left his sponsers at Bilbo and wanted a board shaped for the '68 Worlds in Puerto Rico, which Bob made. In return Infinity could produce some Sumpter signature models. Jean-Christophe's board is signed MAC , could this possibly be Alan MacBride from Newquay, another Bilbo employee ? I emailed Bob but got no reply so its a mystery for the moment.
The board looks a nice early 70s shape,around 7 ft and not too skinny so good for South coast waves . Classic artwork and text font on the logo.





I've just had an email from Bob Goves which helps explain a few things about the shaper and why the board is in France -

''Alan has never shaped any boards for me, when he was in France I was in Newquay and when he came back I was starting my foam blanks & board business in Fareham then later in Bournemouth. I had an order for 40 boards from a buyer in Biarittz one year and had Rodney shape up most of them so I can only conclude this board is one of those. I did use a method of numbering boards made, numbers to letters and the M A C is probably that. As 40 odd years have passed I'm sorry to say I can't recall at the moment just what the number is. Sorry about that. Thanks for the attachments, its great to know that there are still some of my boards around. ''































Bob Groves blowing some thick blanks



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