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  bob simmons
1949 - 1953

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Bob Simmons Malibu Circa 1947
Surfer July 1976 Volume17 Number 2 Page 46
Les Williams Archives

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In both surfing centres the ancient Alaia designs retained popularity and were still being replicated, although lenghts had increased up to 12 feet and weight had been greatly reduced by laminating balsa wood between redwood stringers and rails. Alternatively timber sections could be chambered before lamination. See Popular Science magazine, 1938. These were the first factory boards,  manufactured by Pacific Homes Systems in California, noteably the infamous Swastika model of 1939.

During the late 1940's Bob Simmons' experiments with surfboard design had convinced him of the benefits of scooped nose lift, and he became known for his ''scarf'' jobs - sections added to an existing timber board on the nose to allow more lift. It was this work that led him to the use of resin and fibreglass, developed during the Second World War, to strenghten the added sections. Although not primarily seeking weight reduction, he also experimented with polystryene foam, in use as an insulation material. The foam reacted unfavourably with polyester resin, but Simmons laminated the foam inside solid wood rails and plywood decks and bottoms. This construction approach would be reprised in the late 1980's with the development of timber laminated epoxy boards.

Bob Simmons - or Dave Barham,  Malibu, 1948. Photograph :  ? Surfer July 1976 Volume17  Number 2 Page 61.

These experiments resulted in the development by Bob Simmons,  Matt Kilvin and Joe Quigg  of the modern surfboard – a shaped blank covered with fibreglass and resin with attached fin or, on some examples, multi (twin) fins. At some stage the timber laminated  timber/polystyrene blank gave way to the simpler all balsa wood blank that allowed infinite design variation in the shaping. Intially examples of this design featured a multi-glued  blank of 4'' x 5'' x 36'' balsa sections, recyclyed bouyancy from World War Two rescue rafts and lifeboats.

An  example of a balsa wood board of this period is held by the Australian National Maritime Museum, Darling Habour, Sydney. Catalogue No.00015142
Image below,

Previous to Bob Simmons' work the fin had become an accepted addition. Although its first use is credited to Tom Blake in 1934, because of the emphasis on paddling, the small size relative to the board, the increased danger and the difficulty in attachment, many riders did not consider fins as a necessity. Fin use did not become established until the 1940's, the experiment by George Downing and Wally Froiseth in Hawaii. They made a test board with a removable fin slot and rode it with different fin designs in different positions, and without a fin. Their conclusion was that the finned board had superior performance, virtually regardless of fin design. (Kelly, page 121)

The introduction of fibreglass largey solved the structual difficulty of attaching the fin and  complexities of fin design would be an area of intense experimentation for the next forty years. Bob Simmons made a
on some examples, twin (multi) fins.scooped nose lift and rope turning handles. All features with further work to come.

Australia
Circa 1950
Surfboats adopted the tucked stern, as opposed to the original double-ender design inherited from the whaler. This design is still in current use, 2001. Some veteran boatman of the time believed the double-ender more sea-worthy and this design is still used in similar craft in the USA - the Dory.
 Harris, page 48

1950-1951 The first recorded fibreglass and balsawood surfboard in Australia accompanied Hollywood actor and Malibu Point surfer,  Peter Lawford.
He was in Australia in 1950 to film ‘Kangaroo’,
Released in June 1952, it was the first Technicolor movie filmed on-location in Australia
Filming was based at Pagewood Studios, Sydney, and locations included South Australia, New South Wales and Queensland.
See  http://www.us.imdb.com/title/tt0044788/maindetails

 In 1954, actor Peter Lawford, filming in Australia, aroused widespread interest amoung surfers with a board called a Malibu...       - Greg McDonagh in Pollard, page 56.
 The board, identified as a finless board by Dave Rochlen Surfboards, was housed at Bondi for most of its stay and ridden by locals, Jack 'Bluey' Mayes, Ray Young and Aub Laidlaw.

Image left, Actor Peter Lawford and other Malibu Surfers, The Pit , Malibu, circa 1953. Lueras, Page 115. Ricky Grigg Collection. Lawford brought a fibreglassed board to Australia in 1950, while on location to shoot Kangaroo.

It was possibly a recreated Hot Curl design, dating from 1937, similar to boards made by Joe Quigg in this period.
For the Hot Curl Story, see Fran Heath in LEGENDARY SURFERS.
Also Matt Kilvin on Joe Quigg and Dave Rochlen, in Longboard magazine, Vol No. pages ? )
Dave Rochlen was the favoured builder amoungst Hollywood surfers, noted for the outstanding quality of the colour and decor design.
 

In 2006 the Bishop Musem published the much anticipated Surfing - Historical Images from the Bishop Museum, edited by DeSoto Brown. On page 143 a photograph titled  Importantly the board clearly bears the offset script "MALIBU" on the nose. It is clearly the board Lawford took to Australia, confirmed by a photograph printed in Brawley (2007) page 216, see below.  .

In 2007, renowned suf lifesaving historian Sean Brawley wrote of Lawford's 1950 visit in his history of the Bondi Surf Bathers Life Saving Club.
The start of the Malibu era in Australian surfing is usually associated with the year 1956. At Bondi, however, the revolution had knocked on the door six years earlier, when the Hollywood actor Peter Lawford came to Australia to make the film Kangaroo. The brother-in-law of John F. Kennedy brought with him a 10 and a half foot, banana nosed, solid balsawood board designed by Californian builder Dave Rochlen.

Lawford never called the board a Malibu, and the Bondi locals called the style a Zip board because of its greatly reduced length and' zippy' behaviour on a wave. To those lucky enough to ride it, the board simply became known as Peter, and the first Australian to take it into the surf at Bondi was chief beach inspector Aub Laidlaw.

With Lawford in South Australia making his film, Laidlaw and Basil McDonald were the most frequent users of Peter. Performing a number of rescues, the board soon had the words W.M.C. Patrol stencilled to its face. The third most frequent user of the board was 'Bondi Mermaid' Pam Pass. Pass had had difficulties riding a sixteen, but with Laidlaw's careful tuition she was soon a competent practitioner. For a time Peter was stored in the McDonald surfoplane concession before it found a more permanent home in the North Bondi board rack.

Laidlaw's and McDonald's use of the board suggests that the two men saw that it possessed certain properties for lifesaving that the toothpicks did not, a fact that would be recognised in the 1960s when the Malibu became the basic design for SLSA rescue boards. This said, the board did not spark the type of response that would greet its return in 1956. When Lawford collected his board and returned to the States, there was no rush to reproduce the design, and Bondi board riders turned their back on surfing's future. This rejection was the result of three factors. First, Lawford was not a particularly outstanding practitioner of the art of surfing and therefore was incapable of showing Bondi board enthusiasts its true potential. Second, Laidlaw's and McDonald's practical use of the board had not seen them explore its recreational capabilities (though allegedly Pam Pass did this with some success). Third, reputedly; 'Peter' did not possess what the 1956 Malibus had -a 'skeg' (fin):9 It would be the power of the fin that would mesmerise surfers in 1956.
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When the American and Hawaiian teams arrived in Australia in 1956 for the international carnivals they brought their surfboards with them. In stark contrast to the toothpicks, the American boards amazed many an experienced Australian surfer when their owners showed what the boards were truly capable of. Without fins the Australian boards simply had no capacity for lateral movement once a course had been set on the wave. With fins, the Americans could not only alter the course of theboard but, with a deft transference of weight, they had the ability to increase its speed on the wave.

Brawley (2007), page 216.
 

Brawley (2007), page 216.

circa 1955 Scott Dillion and Barry "Magoo" McGuigan, members of Bondi Surf (Lifesaving?) Club, surf balsa boards in California at Hermosa Beach, courtesy of local Surf Life Guard Stations.
- Scott Dillon Interview by  Neil Armstrong. Longboarding Magazine, Number 5, Autumn 1999, page 23.
- Scott Dillon Interview 29th June 2005. Coffs Harbour NSW.

1956 John ‘Nipper’ Williams, of Queenscliff S.L.S.A, obtains a balsa Malibu, bought used in Hawaii, and surfs it at Manly Beach, NSW.
-   Biographical Note in Pollard, page 71.

"...'Nipper' Williams, who had been using a beat-up old Malibu for six months, also was showing form.
'Nipper's' board was about 8' 6" and had been brought back by a travelling Australian businessman
for his 11 year old son six months earlier. Everyone else thought it was a joke - except "Nipper" and
several thousand Californians."

In early 1956 Scott Dillon returned to Bondi and puchased a milk-run, a job that was condusive to his surfing activities.
Mid 1956 he encountered 'Flippy' Hoffman, a visiting American surfer, seriously ill with yellow jaundice.
Flippy Hoffman was a member of a famous surfing family that included Walter and Joyce Hoffman.
While Hoffman was hospitalised, his balsa/fibreglass semi-gun was surfed by Scott Dillon at Bondi Beach.
The board featured an unususal concave deck.
By the end of 1956 Scott Dillon had ordered an Okinuee, a finned hollow timber board, from Gordon Woods.
- Scott Dillon Interview by  Neil Armstrong. Longboarding Magazine, Number 5, Autumn 1999, page  23.
- Scott Dillon,  phone conversation, 2000.
- Scott Dillon Interview 29th June 2005. Coffs Harbour NSW.

"By chance the liner carrying home of the Americans to Australia also carried two Australian
surfboarders returning from a world trip.
They were Scott Dillon and Barry "McGoo" McGuigan and their non-surfing mate Bruce Laird. Obsessed by the possibilities of what they had seen of the short board in action overseas, the boys persuaded one of the Yanks ('Flippy' Hoffman ?) to leave his board in their care at Bondi while he journeyed to Victoria for the big surf carnival.
This board, the first of its kind to be used regularly south-side, was stored at Ross Kelly's house and was ridden to a standstill, till its owner returned to claim it."
Bob Evans : Remember the time when? Surfing World Vol 16 # 4 1972 pages  30 to 35.)

John Ewell with a Bob Simmons' early model timber/styro-foam laminate board, circa 1951.
 Uncredited. Probably John Ewell Collection
 Surfing Magazine Vol 25 No. 2 February 1989. Page71

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Kit Horn, Bob Simmons and Buzzy Trent.
Solid Laminates, Malibu, circa 1941 - 1944.
Surfer Magazine
March 1981 Volume 22, Number 3, page 36
The photograph is uncredited.

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1961 Harris, Reg. S.The History of Manly Life Saving Club 1911-1961
Published by Manly Life Saving Club, NSW Printed by Publicity Press Ltd.

1966 Finney, Ben and Houston, James D. : Surfing – A History of the Ancient Hawaiian Sport
Pomegranate Books P.O. Box 6099 Rohnert Park, CA 94927  Reprint 1996

1968 Kahanamoku, Duke With Brennan, Joe:  Duke Kahanamoku’s World of Surfing
Angus and Robertson Publishers Sydney , Australia 1972 2nd Edition  A&R Paperbacks, Sydney , Australia

1970 Margan, Frank and Finney, Ben R. :  A Pictorial History of Surfing
Paul Hamlyn Pty Ltd, 176 South Creek Road, Dee Why West, NSW 2099.

1964 Pollard, Jack (ed.):  The Australian Surfrider
K.G.Murray Publishing Co.P/L,142 Clarence Street , Sydney Australia

1972 The Best of Tracks   (Vol. I) Editors : Falzon, Albert; Stewart, John; Grissim, John. :
Tracks Publishing Co Pty Ltd. P.O. Box 178 Avalon, NSW.
'Bob McTavish’s Personal History of Surfboard Design – Pods for Primates Parts 1' (pages 120 – 122).

1992 Stell, Marion K. :  Pam Burridge
Collins Angus & Robertson Publishers (Australia) Pty. Limited
A division of Harper Collins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Limited
25 Ryde Road, Pymble NSW 2073, Australia

1997 Warshaw, Matt : Surfriders – In Search of the Perfect Wave
Tehabi Books, Inc. Collins Publishers, 10 East 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022

1978 Warwick, Wayne A Guide to Surfriding in New Zealand Second Edition
Viking Sevenseas Ltd Wellington, New Zealand

1979 Young, Nat ; Photographs by McCausland, Bill: Nat Young’s Book of Surfing
A.H. & A.W. Reed Pty. Ltd. 53 Myroora Rd, Terry Hills, Sydney.

1983 Young, Nat with McGregor, Craig : The History 0f Surfing
Palm Beach Press,40 Palm Beach Road, Palm Beach NSW 2108 

1972  Surfing World. Volume 16 #4.  Bob Evans : 'remember the time when...' pages  30 to 35. 

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