Chris Thomson grew up on the Isle of Wight, learning to surf at an early age with one dream, ‘surfing’. Chris left school at 16 and went to Newquay to live his dream, he became a surf coach and had a successful competition career with big name sponsors O’Neill and Fat Face before starting ‘Errant […]
Mar 23, 2012 | Categories: Surfer Profiles, The Nineties | Tags: archive, Argentina, auction, Australia, Bali, beach, Billabong, blog, BPSA, California, Cameo Sports, Canada, Canary Islands, Cape Verde, Chris Thomson, compton, Compton Bay, Costa Rica, Criag Holland, Dean Bowden, Dylan, Errant, Errant Surf, Fat Face, Fistral Backpackers, France, Gambia, Hawaii, history, Holiday, Holidays, IOW, Isle of Wight, Japan, Josh Jupe, longboard, Los Locos, Mexico, Morocco, Nasal drain, Newquay, Nick Thomson, Night Surf, O'Neill, Orkney Islands, people, photo, photographs, portrait, Portugal, Sailing, Saturday Job, Sea water, Singapore, Smash, social hub, South and North Maldives, Spain, stoked, surf, Surf Coach, Surf Trip, surfboard, Surfer, surfing, swell, The Noughties, The Offspring, Theresa, Tom 'Rappas' Ramplin, Tom Ramplin, Uruguay, waves, wetsuit, Whitecliff, Whitecliff Bay, wightsurfhistory | 2 Comments »
At that time I had a board that had been made by a guy called Fitz at Westcoast boards based in North Devon. (Fitz subsequently died, I believe he tried to cool his electric shaper down by plunging it into a bucket of water). This board was fairly extreme for the day at 6’3”, and was an absolute delight to ride, but I found great difficulty in picking up waves, you had to be much nearer the hook than I was comfortable with and so I decided to sell it. I approached Tony Macpherson who was spending his holiday in a camper van on the beach in Bidart and suggested something along the lines of that if he would put the word out amongst the French surfers and sell it for me he could have 10% of the sale up to £30 and 50% for anything above that. However, I knew that the French customs had started clamping down on people selling surf equipment without paying import duty, so I told Tony not to put an “A vendre” (for sale) sign on the board, but just use word of mouth amongst the French guys. A couple of days later we went back up to Bidart, my board was nowhere to be seen. “Good” I thought, “Tony’s sold it”. When I asked where Tony was, no one knew. All that they could tell me was that the previous evening the police had shown up, and had whisked Tony and my board off somewhere. When Tony returned a few hours later it transpired that he had put a for sale sign on the board, and the police demanded to see the import documents, but when those weren’t forthcoming they had dragged him off for further investigation. The result was a fine of 290FF or forfeiture of the board. 290FF was about £30 which was approximately the value of the board, so Tony had told them to keep the board and had walked.
Sep 30, 2010 | Categories: The Seventies | Tags: 1970's, 1973, 290ff, 4 Aout 1973, 4 August 1973, 4th August 1973, 63, 70's, A Vendre, Anthony Macpherson, archive, Bayonne, beach, beaches, Bidart, compton, Crowded, Customs, Daughter, Duty, Fitz, For Sale, Forfeiture, France, French, Frenchman, Gaol, Guethary, history, Holiday, Hutch, Investigation, IOW, IOW Surf Club, Isle of Wight Surf Club, Jail, Less Crwoded, longboard, Mike Hutchinson, Mike ‘Hutch’ Hutchinson, North Devon, Pat Morrell, Patrick Morrell, people, photo, photographs, Police, Receipt, Sale, Spain, St Jean de Luz, stoked, surf, Surf Trip, surfboard, Surfer, surfing, swell, Tony Macpherson, Vendre, Ventnor, waves, weather, Westcoast boards, Westcoast Surfboards, wetsuit, wightsurfhistory | Leave A Comment »
Being a woodwork teacher, Hutch had made his own board, out of plywood naturally, and an invitation to try it at Compton was made. ‘Don’t try to shoot the curl’ he said, ‘just ride the white water’ What the bloody hell did all that mean?? Suffice to say that after half an hour I was exhausted, having totally failed to catch anything let alone ‘shoot the curl’.
Sep 27, 2010 | Categories: Surfer Profiles, The Sixties | Tags: 1" Pine Stringer, 1957, 1960's, 1965, 60's, Aluminium Channel, apprentice, archive, Bae, Bae Systems, bathroom, beach, Ben Kelley, Big Ear, Blue Peter, body surf, break, Brighstone, carpenter, Cascemite wood glue, Cat, Channel Islands, compton, Compton Bay, Cornwall, Cowes, crests, Cultural Revolution, Curl, Da Cat#, Dabell's, Dad, Dave Jacobs, Dave Jake, drainpipe jeans, drop-in, DSOTM, dumped, England, Experimental Workshop, fibre glass, fin box, foam blank, Gidget, Gidget Goes Hawaiian, Grange Chine, history, Holiday, Hurricanes RFC, Hutch, inventor, Inventor of the removable fin box, IOW, Isle of Wight, Jake, joker, July, Keith Williams, Kelley's Left, longboard, Magpie, Malibu, Man on Fire, Mickey Dora, Mid 60's, Mike Hutchinson, Miklos, Miklos (Micky) Chapin Dora III, Motorcycle jacket, Neap Tides, October, Odeon Cinema, Odeon Picture House, offshore, Pat Morrell, Patrick Morrell, pearl, Pictures, Plessey, Plessey Radar, plywood board, plywood surfboard, Polystyrene, Polystyrene foam, rainbows, removable fin box, resin, rockers quiff, Roger Backhouse, Rugby, Sandown, shaper, Shaping, Shoot the curl, Shore, shore break, Sid Pitman, Sidney Pitman, spray, steve williams, stoked, surf, surf board, surfboard, Surfer, surfing, swell, swim, Teacher, The Cat, The Savoy, The Sixties, TV Programme, Uncle Fred, Waimea, Waimea Bay, waves, White water, wightsurfhistory, Woodwork, Woodwork Club, woodwork teacher | 2 Comments »