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TELL EM I'M SURFING

A personal look back at the first years of surfing in kent by Paul Knowles

When did it all start? I often wonder just how people become involved with surfing. This is how it happened for me around 37 years ago.

Pop music has a lot to answer for - the influence of the American West Coast sound in 1964 took my adolescent interest, in an effort to be different and be noticed. It was the sound of "I Get Around" and "Fun Fun Fun" from the Beach Boys and other Californian groups that inspired my imagination. The interest in surfing developed from the pop songs of the early sixties. Living on the coast I had a working knowledge of how the winds and tides worked, which helped understand the sea in all its conditions. A trip to the 1965 Boat Show at Earls Court in London introduced me to a new company called BILBO who were up from Newquay to promote themselves and surfing. I purchased a copy of "SURFER" a skateboard imported from California, and an original Californian surfers T-shirt. My dreams were coming true - things I had only heard about in songs and seen on record sleeves were becoming a reality. I could hardly believe I was looking at a real surfboard - the 10 foot Malibu boards towered over the South Sea Island style straw hut on the Bilbo exhibition stand. More copies of Surfer Magazine were obtained. With an eagerness to try surfing, I set about making my own surfboard from marine plywood to a plan published in Boys' Own Magazine. Passing my driving test in early 1966 gave me the chance to put the set of wheels on the road I had brought for my seventeenth birthday, a 1952 Ford Popular, complete with metallic blue paint, cut around bonnet, nerf bars, twin carbs and reupholstered in the style of a Californian "Hot Rod".

 

With the home made board on the roof I was of to Camber Sands to try the thing out. Having got a year's skateboarding under my belt (see Sidewalk Surfing), and there weren't many of us about then - remember, this was 1965/66 - I at least had a sense of balance. I managed to ride the board on 1 foot of white water at Camber. The dye was et - better things must be round the corner. And so it was in September 1966 that I drove away from work on a Friday lunch-time to head west for Cornwall and Newquay - the adventure of my young life was about to start.

    Arriving in Newquay at 4am I slept in the Ford near Fistral Beach. The scene that greeted me was more than I had bargained for - those waves were BIG! My God, how could you ever get out there, least of all ride one back in! Moving round to Great Western Beach, I walked along the shore at 7am and watched the perfect 6 foot glassy waves roll in - and not a surfer in sight. Its a scene I can still see in my mind like it was yesterday. I had never seen waves like it in my life. I mad up my mind that I had to check out the surf shop first and find out how to learn to surf and see if I could afford a real surfboard. I ended up with one of those white foam body boards, body boarding as we know it today hadnt been invented yet, but it was a first for me in the rolling mountains of white water at Fistral. But I was yet to see a real surfer riding a malibu board; no one yet perhaps tomorrow.

    I was soon to see a real surfer with his 10 foot board an baggies, no wetsuits or leashes then. the waves were smaller today, Sunday, and so I saw a handful of guys surfing the beaches of Newquay. I needed my own board, and another visit to BILBO and a tour of the factory (everyone was welcome) .

The old Bilbo factory Newquay the board Paul bought is the one on the ground 3rd from right. (Picture from You Should Have Been Here Yesterday).

A chat with an Aussie lifeguard over for the summer and I soon purchased his second-hand Keyo board brought all the way from Sydney.

Here's a picture of that very board found in the book "You Should Have Been Here Yesterday" by Rod Holmes & Doug Wilson. Apparently the big ding was caused when the board was used to surf The Cribber and ended up being washed round the Towan headland, this was all nicely repaird before Paul bought it (see picture top of this page)..

My first surf on a real board was near. Driving to near by Watergate Bay I got my first ride in 2 ft surf. "I could stand up!!" I spent two wonderful weeks driving up and down the Cornish coast, finding little bays with glassy waves, one or two or none in the water. Before I left Cornwall an enormous swell arrived and I was to witness a sight that still leaves me in no doubt that the power of the sea must be respected. It was a wave so big, braking off the point at Fistral . I was later to find out that wave was the "Cribber" and no one had dared to ride it yet. Apparently a guy called Rod Sumpter was to make an attempt. But I had to get back to Kent. I would return to Cornwall many times, make new friends in Kent and find out that surfing could be done nearer to home, at Joss Bay, Ramsgate and Folkestone - it had only just started. "Mum", I would say "tell 'em I'm surfing."

Take a look at the photo archive of the original kent surfers. To see some photo's of this era.