This is a board that was made by John Witmore in Cape Town in the mid 60’s. It is a board with a triple stringer and was very popular within the South African surf scene. John Withmore had the franchise for Hobie surfboards in South Africa. The Designs of those “Log” surfboards did not change to much during the course of time. We’re guessing that they worked awesome back then and still do now.

Jimmy Bannanos who died recently custom ordered the board to John. It was the only surfboard he ever had and was part of the first generation of surfers in South Africa. He told about it on a wedding to his friend and shaper Des Sawyer about 30 years later. He told Des if he went to Londen and Des offered him to make a new 3 stringer surfboard. Jimmy agreed and swopped the board with Des who displayed it at Nina’s in Jeffreys Bay.

John Whitmore (1929 - 2001) Started building his first surfboard in 1954. Their instruction came from an article by Hawaiian surfing legend, Tom Blake, in a 1939 edition of Popular Science Magazine they had come across. As from that day an introduction to surfing was done on the African continent. John featured in the iconic Endless Summer movie.


Get John’s full story here: https://web.archive.org/web/20140808215744/http://surfingheritage.co.za/site/miles_masterson

* Dimensions of the board are estimates
* Contact us if you have more information, we would be happy to add it to the story