Atlantic surfboards St Ives

Living near to St Ives you'd think I would stumble on the odd Atlantic every so often, but no they remain very elusive. Atlantic was a smaller venture than say Bilbo but it still was producing boards for around ten years so where are they all ? This board was sent in by Gavin, he bought it ten years ago from a guy who had it in his garden and thought it was from Hawaii ! She's an old girl, stringerless 8ft x 22 'shortboard' from '67 /'68 ,with a very rolled hull. Gavin's going to put her through a well deserved restoration.

The early Cornish surf scene was strong in St Ives; Britain's first proper surf shop the Surfers Store was opened by Keith Slocombe in 1963. James and Peter-George Williams set up Williams surfboards around this time in Lelant with help from Keith and sold boards through his store.

In around 1965 Charles Williams as head shaper started Atlantic from a cottage in St Ives, with Colin Pryor making blanks from refrigeration foam and Dave Griffin as glasser /sander. Vietnam draft dodging Aussies Neil Redding and Chris Cannings brought experience to the factory where they worked part time. In 1968 the factory was burnt down but a government grant alloweed them to rebuild a state of the art factory which produced top boards for another seven years. Charles Williams was a strong competitive surfer, runner up three times in the British title and a member of the British team through the 60s.

Ad from Graham's British surfer from around 1970.

Heres a really nice singlefin with s deck from around 1970 with rasberry ripple resin tint and bubbly logo, a time capsule from the psychadelic era. Shaped by Kid Speed ,this one is from the Gul collection, photos by Alex . If anyone else has an Atlantic please send it in .Thanks to Gavin, Alex, Graham and Gul for sharing the elusive Atlantics.

Charles Williams