pods
for primates : a catalogue of surfboards in australia since 1900
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midget
farrelly
1963 to 1966
Midget Farrelly and
Makaha Trophy, December 1962.
Photograph : Ron Church
Reprinted in Australian Longboard Magazine
June 2004 Page x
Dec 1962, Makaha International
Championship, Hawaii.
1st Midget Farrelly Women Nancy Nelson
USA
1963 January 2 Makaha Contest
Midget
Farrelly 9 ft 7” Hot Dog balsa at Keyo Surfboards. Makaha Championship
winning board.
1963 Keyo Surfboards “International Custom”
model-Midget’s Makaha trophy decal dorsal fin
1963
Advertisment :The Victorian Surfer
Volume 1 Number 3 March 1963.
BALSA
WONDERWOOD OF THE WORLD
RECENT INTERNATIONAL CAMPIONSHIP WAS WON ON A BALSA SURFBOARD
IMAGE
For "BIG GUN" and Midget Surfboards insist on BALSA.
ARTHUR MILNER and Co. Pty Ltd
JOYCE STREET SPENOVALE PHONE - 346-9363.
1963 Speed board by
Midget Farrelly via Phil Edwards(US) 10ft6”Multi stringers,tail blocks
at Gordon Woods Surfboards-as ridden by Nat Young via Mike Doyle(US)
P. Jack Eden
Lester Brien, Cresent Head, NSW,
circa 1963.
Photograph By Tony Denoon
Surfer Magazine, Volume 4 Number
1
February - March 1964 Page 63
1963 Duke Kahanamoku
- Guest of honour at the 1963 Australian Championships, Bondi Beach, 22-23
November and promotional work for K.G. Murray Publishing Co.'s The
Australian Sufrider.
Program Cover :
1st World Surfboard Titles
Manly, New South Wales, Australia
May, 1964
Sponsored by Ampol Petroleum Limited
in conjunction with the Australian Surfriders Association.
Reprinted in Australian Longboard Magazine
June 2004
1964 World Titles, Manly
Thin railed Hot Dog 9ft-9ft6” by
Bob McTavish/Bob Cooper/Russell Hughes/Kevin Platt via Joey Cabell (US-World
Championships Manly ‘64) at Hayden Surfboards. Joey Cabell Model By McDonagh
Surfboards.
P. Jack Eden
- Bob McTavish : Pods
for Primates Part 1 in Tracks Magazine,1972.
1964 Bellyboard/Kneeboardby
Barry Bennet-twin rounded keel fins
1965 Stringerless
by Midget Farrelly-Peru World Championships Nose lift, thin rails, light
weight, George Greenough (US) fin-stage 1
1965
July 4 Tom Morey Innvitational Noseriding Contest Ventura California.
'Won' by Mickey Munoz riding a Hobie Surfboard,
shaped by Phil Edwards, featuring flat nose rocker, kicked
tail and a concave nose.
US designers went into overdrive in the
develpoment of Noserider models:
| The Eliminator by Greek Surfboards |
The Performer by Weber Surfboards |
| The Ugly by Con Surfboards |
The Stretch by Gordon and Smith Surfboards |
| The Penetrator by John Peck/Morey-Pope
Surfboards |
|
Variously featuring flat nose rocker, narrow
high kicked tails, concave and stepped noses.
The design included the first use of low
rails by Tom Morey, followed by further development at Gordon and Smith
Surfboards by Mike Hynson, Mike Haley and Skipp Frye).
Fin design was even more varied - Hatchet
fins by Dewey Weber, the Tunnel fin, and Surfresearch's The Fin Wing(?).
A Nose patch became a common decor feature
-contest coring was based on the time a rider could stand on a marked section
of the front 25% of the board. See # 109.
Manufacturers often added these, particually
to noseriding models, but many riders added the decor post-production.
This feature was a excellent marketing
tool for Morey-Pope's coloured aerosol wax alternative - Slipcheck and
competitor Grip-Feet
This was the first professional contest
- 25 invitees, purse of $1500.oo.
This was the first objective contest -
the rider scoring against the clock. A ride of 20 seconds was/is outstanding.See
Notes About Surfing.
Phil Edwards' design and the host
of variations were exported to Australia by late1965.
Kampion
pages
103 -104
Nat
History pages 100 -101
1965 George
Greenough’s Spoon (US) flexible kneeboard - Velo SS. Clear
flex bottom, molded from Velo 1 (a spooned deck balsa kneeboard, 1962?),
added foam rails and Stage II fin. Red pigment rails and fin reinforcement.
The board was warped during construction (asymmetric). 5 ft x 22 inches,
14 inch pod ?.
Hot
Generation / Evolution/ Innermost Limits of Pure Fun/ Crystal Voyager.
Australian Surfers Journal
Vol2 #2 pages 72 and 86
1965 December Nautilas or Cuttlefish by Nat Young
at Gordon Woods Surfboards. Greenough spoon nose, foam centre and flex
tail. 8 ft x 23". Dubbed "Nat’s Folly" by Midget
Scott Dillon
Museum Collection
Carter
pp 26-27,
Nat's Nat page?
1966 Sam-
a Joey Cabell derivative designed by Bob McTavish, George Greenough (fin)
and others (Cord Surfboards, Honessee Surfboards-Qld). Shaped by
Nat Young(Gordon Woods Surfboards,Sydney). Fist ridden The Kick, Collaroy.
Last ridden final 1966 World Titles, Ocean Beach California. The board
disappeared during post-contest celebrations.
Single stringer,thin rails,9ft 4",22”
wide, 6” pod, 2. ½ ” thick with 12” Greenough stage 2 fin.
Hot
Generation
Nat's Nat page?
surfresearch.com.au
REFERENCES FOR THIS
SECTION
books
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).
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
film
1985 A History of Australian
Surfing Nat Young.
magazines
1971 Modern World
July Shane Steadman/Terry Fiztgerald (possibly) : 'Surfboard
Design' pages 30 to 36.
1972 Surfing World.
Volume 16 #4. Bob Evans : 'remember the time when...' pages
30 to 35.
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