People started surfing in PE in Kings beach in 1958 on a paddle skies, a wooden frame covered in canvas, 3ft 6 wide a rope and a pendle on the front.
Kings Beach lifesavers Bruce Matthew and Neil Stuart (Sluggo) were the first guys to make a proper foam surfboard in PE. Back in 1962 they got a design for a board from a Hawaiian surfing book and ended up making a 9ft6 in Sluggo's garage on 6th avenue, Summerstrand. Bruce worked at Bostik, so knew a little bit about glass fibre, resins and glues, so they decided to use styrofoam instead of balsa wood for the board.
They took blocks of styrofoam and glued them to a big meranti stringer, got some 10-ounce fibreglass cloth from the Carbon Black factory - where it'd been used as a dust filter - and was filthy black and had to be washed out in the sea before they could use it. They glassed it with epoxy resin and then painted it with some gloss paint. It weighed considerably less than the heavy wooden boards and opened up a whole new world of opportunities for the guys.
Pretty much anyone surfing in PE at the time was on a Seal Point surfboard, unless they'd bought boards in from John Wittmore in CT or Max Wetteland in Durbs.
By 1964 they'd made about 100 boards. The most expensive one's, with nose and tail blocks and some colour, retailed at about R100-R115. That was pricey for back then - considering a 3 course meal for 4 at the then-swishy Bell restaurant at the Beach Hotel set you back about R15 in total, including drinks! Using a "back in the day" version of the Big Mac index, a burger was about 25c - so a board equated to 450 burgers!
Source: http://www.millerslocal.co.za/pe-surf-history.html
* Dimensions of the board are estimates
* Contact us if you have more information, we would be happy to add it to the story
Rounded Square
Single finPeople started surfing in PE in Kings beach in 1958 on a paddle skies, a wooden frame covered in canvas, 3ft 6 wide a rope and a pendle on the front.
Kings Beach lifesavers Bruce Matthew and Neil Stuart (Sluggo) were the first guys to make a proper foam surfboard in PE. Back in 1962 they got a design for a board from a Hawaiian surfing book and ended up making a 9ft6 in Sluggo's garage on 6th avenue, Summerstrand. Bruce worked at Bostik, so knew a little bit about glass fibre, resins and glues, so they decided to use styrofoam instead of balsa wood for the board.
They took blocks of styrofoam and glued them to a big meranti stringer, got some 10-ounce fibreglass cloth from the Carbon Black factory - where it'd been used as a dust filter - and was filthy black and had to be washed out in the sea before they could use it. They glassed it with epoxy resin and then painted it with some gloss paint. It weighed considerably less than the heavy wooden boards and opened up a whole new world of opportunities for the guys.
Pretty much anyone surfing in PE at the time was on a Seal Point surfboard, unless they'd bought boards in from John Wittmore in CT or Max Wetteland in Durbs.
By 1964 they'd made about 100 boards. The most expensive one's, with nose and tail blocks and some colour, retailed at about R100-R115. That was pricey for back then - considering a 3 course meal for 4 at the then-swishy Bell restaurant at the Beach Hotel set you back about R15 in total, including drinks! Using a "back in the day" version of the Big Mac index, a burger was about 25c - so a board equated to 450 burgers!
Source: http://www.millerslocal.co.za/pe-surf-history.html
* Dimensions of the board are estimates
* Contact us if you have more information, we would be happy to add it to the story
