Big waves are measured not in feet but in increments of fear'.     Hawaiian surfer

Hi

For those of you who don't know me a brief into; I bought my first ski (then called a surfski) in 1977 after my Surfer mk2 surf kayak imploded on me one gnarly March day at Putsborough and I had a long swim in with not another soul anywhere to be seen. I'd soon filled in the deep seatwell and fitted a seatbelt, in 1979 I won my first contest at Watergate on a custom ski and in '83 and '85 was British ranking champion. In '83 I spent 2 months in Aus and came 4th in the NSW Open at DeeWhy Point in monster surf, Christo & Petrie were 1st and 2nd, this was probably my best ever result. In '84 went to SA for the first World Waveski Champs and was founder member of WWSA. In '85 became secretary of the BCU surf committee and started making skis for a living trading as Dirty Habits. In '86 went to Hawaii for the Worlds and won for UK the right to host 1989 Worlds. Because S.Africans would be coming to UK for this event I drafted a constitution for a new British Wave Ski Association on the flight home. The following weekend was the surf ctte agm where I announced the move and resigned from BCU - what a row that caused. 1989 Worlds went v.smoothly and I became President of WWSA for next 2 years. I stopped competing about 1992 and a few years later sold Dirty Habits after making about 800 popouts and 100 customs to concentrate on building up 'Wild Things' and rotomoulding kayaks. In 1997 was asked to be chief judge at the Worlds at Gwithian which was my last real involvement with the organised side of the sport but I still really enjoy surfing my ski and haven't changed waveski or style for 10 years, but my ski is wrecked - must make a new one!!

I wrote a history a few years back for some guy at Aberystwyth Uni but never got it back so here goes again. The intention in the 'Chronology' is to give a factual account of what happened when and without voicing any personal opinion - you can read that in 'A Personal View'. Most of the sources are from old friends, memory and Beachbreak mags and other old treasures! Some of what happened was before my time and was totally entwined with kayak surfing - so if you hate kayaks you'll just have to bear with it!
The 'chronology' concentrates on the years 1975 to 1992 which is when I was most active and is broken down into sections to make it a bit more manageable. One of the sections is a 'whos who' so if you find your name there and don't agree with what I've written please email me; likewise if I've forgotten you! As I write this my intention is to include some original articles from old publications and newsletters.
'A Personal View' is an opportunity for me to spout-off about things like 'my biggest wave' and 'why I think slash-cutbacks killed the sport' and so on.
'Waveski Design' is pretty much the same really - arguments as to what sort of designs are best for what sort of waves.

Kevin

1960's surf kayaking through to early skis, a brief intro by Vyv Cox, editor of Beachbreak magazine.

BCU surfing was largely covered by Bude Week, which ran in the first week of September for many years. It's probably true to say that the attendees were mostly river canoeists, apart from a few Cornish paddlers who probably surfed more frequently. The climax of the week was a competition held on the Saturday and Sunday. This ran for many years before my involvement, and is the oldest competition in UK and possibly anywhere. At that time everybody used slalom kayaks. (If you want more info about this period I guess John Hermes might be a good contact if he is still around St Austell) One of the leading figures involved in specialist surf craft was Tim Rule. He was the surf secretary when I first became involved and wrote an article in Beachbreak 1. We always stayed at Bude Caravans, run by Bill Cook who was a surfer and I think had a Shoe. He was a member of the local canoe club and can probably provide some info. During the same period, the top northern slalom canoe clubs, Chester, Manchester and Leeds, held an informal surf meeting at Porth Ceiriad over Whit weekend. This was very well attended, with 100 or so people attending, but no competition. One year, perhaps 1970 or 1971, Frank Goodman of Valley Canoe Products, turned up with the very first Surf Shoe. The rumour was that he had seen one in California and either copied it or took a mould from one. A few slalom canoeists tried it but nobody was impressed, largely because they couldn't loop it! The next year Chris Hawkesworth of Wild Water Centre in Yorkshire, turned up with his Surf Yak, very similar or possibly identical to the Surf Shoe but, for reasons best known to himself, he had laid up the split line vertically rather than horizontally. Within a very short time somebody managed to break it into its two component halves. The Surf Yak pretty much disappeared immediately. P&H then got into the act with the original Surfer, which I don't remember at all. They reworked the design with a great deal of input from Tim Rule, slimming it down a lot, and introduced the Surfer II. This was originally going to be called the Surfblazer but it seems the name was registered to a speedboat manufacturer, so they had to change their plans at the last minute. This was done by cutting out the letters "blaz" from the hundreds of adhesive names that had already been produced.

However, the Surfer II was to become the most successful surf kayak by far, at its peak being paddled by almost every competitor in UK events. Phil Dean, UK champion for several years, paddled one. I bought my Surf Shoe just before Owen was born, so it must have been 1971 or 1972. It was the first in the North West that I know of. The first contest that I attended was run by Dave Hayles at Porthcawl, in 1972 or 3. Surf was minute but I remember a guy named Ron (Goodwin?), in a Surf Shoe, who was making very long runs despite the wave size. He turned up at a contest at Putsborough many years later, when the Beachbreak photo of Dave Hayles on big surf was taken, still with the Surf Shoe and still surfing the same way, long climbs and drops. Another person present at that first contest was Tony Blackwell, also around for some years beforehand, and later UK champion. Paddled his own designs of surf kayak. John Kent was around in those days. P&H then took things a stage further by introducing the first commercially produced ski to my knowledge, the Surphski. This had a fairly slow start, facing some opposition from surf kayak paddlers but later became far more popular. I guess the hull and deck must have been newly moulded, not the Surfer II with a new deck, as it had very soft rails, unlike the Surfer II. I bought mine about three months before the first Beachbreak was published, to give you some idea of date. At that time it was quite rare and few people had seen one. By later standards it was far from being a hot design but survived by being the only one.