This board is a Chris Jones signature model and at 7'10 x 23 x 2 3/4 marks a transition down from the 9 ft plus longboards which Bilbo had been making. It charts the beginning of the shortboard revolution in the UK which saw boards hitting 6 ft by 1970 ! Chris was inspired to shape this model after meeting Wayne Lynch and Nat Young ( who were being filmed for Witzig's film Evolution) and seeing them surf similar boards while on a surf trip to France; and also seeing a visiting US surfer using one at Newquay.
Its a fun and manouverable shape, which had a huge 12 +inch fin originally, mine has broken off a bit. The resin tint with red pin line would have been more expensive at the time so it was probably a custom board rather than a plain stock board. The bilbo logo has faded a lot, I think it was originally red. The board has a nice refined simpicity, the deck shows almost no rocker and there are two knee dents from where it has been knee paddled. The board was offered to me by a guy in Newquay who saw an article I did in a local paper; it needed a couple of repairs so it seemed right that CJ should fix it up 40 years after he originally shaped it !
