| The Gul surfboard Museum is the most comprehensive board collection in the UK dating from the early sixties up to the mid-eighties. The Bilbo label jumps out as the most common, and rightly so. Many shapers were taught their trade at Bilbo and passed that knowledge on to others. There were a lot of other factories around but not making the same quantities as Bilbo. They were based in Newquay but many of the boards in the collection were made in other UK surfing destinations such as Wales and North Devon. It’s interesting to see how the shapes and lengths evolved over a relatively short period of time. Weight was a major concern, so as technology moved on boards got lighter and then shorter. You can pinpoint the golden years of surfing and surfboard manufacturing in the UK as being between 1965-1975. The beginning of the seventies saw the length reduced by two to three feet, this was influenced almost certainly from overseas. Australia is very high on the list due to many Australian surfers and shapers funding their trips by shaping for various brands. |
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As travel became
cheaper and easier our surfers
were picking up ideas from abroad, namely
Hawaii and California and later surfers from
South Africa were visiting the U.K.
Surfboard manufacturing slowed in the late
seventies with the boom of windsurfing and it was not until 1980/81
that Simon Anderson invented the “Thruster” which started a
revolution and kick started the popularity of
surfing again. Around the same time, Newquay had its first surf
competition which was
sponsored by Gul.
The Gul museum is home to some of the finest examples of surfboards
that depict the growth and turning points of surfing and surfboard
technology in the UK over a 30 year period.
The full collection can be viewed at the Head
Office in Bodmin, Cornwall. |