Tigger and Graham Nile with Tig boards in Manly en route to the 1970 Bells beach World titles in Australia. Thanks to Roger Mansfield for the photo. At this time Graham was surfing Tig shapes.
From the same year - Tigger and his quiver of Tig shapes bound for Morocco and Portugal, January 1970.
Tigger on the yellow butterfly gun at Carcavelos, Lisbon, Portugal. Photos by Beverley Williams.
This is an old Tig that surfaced recently on a surf forum, great turquoise tint . This one says 'Neil's rasta special', though Tig can't remember which Neil it was. It's interesting to hear what Tigger thinks of these old boards. -'' Every time one of these crops up I get frustrated by the fallibility of my memory. I am one of those people who think they can remember everything... but confronted by photos like this you realize just how much you have forgotten. Isn't there some saying about "Those who lived through the 60s..."Anyway. I cant quite work out who Neil was, or the rasta connection. Could have been Kiwi Neil Wernham who worked as a spray artist at Tris surfboards, or Neil from Plymouth who was one of the Trevose Head Surf Crew. Or yet another.The weird thing about this one, from my perspective is that the shape, and size are from my jolly good surfboards period around 1975/6. But the sticker is from the Tig surfboards period which ended in the late 60s. Frankly it just looks too sophisticated to be a Tig. And rasta seems more 70s somehow too.I do have a really dim memory of one or two of my customers requesting the earlier sticker instead of the Jolly Good Surfboards sticker. Maybe that is it.The green solid on the underside would be a repair.That turquoise on the deck came straight out of my favourite tin of transparent pigment. A cure for Seasonal Affective Disorder way Cheaper than the airfare to sun and turquoise waves.
This is an old board Alex picked up recently ,which under all those layers of paint could be one of the first Tigs , from the late 60s.Tigger was quite intrigued by this one - ''The red "Flames" board you have there is an interesting one.Bit Battered and superficially modified by the look of it, but probably genuine. I don't really remember doing hand drawn stickers except right at the very beginning so it is probably a very early one 68_69_70 perhaps. It is possible that the original sticker faded and it has been redrawn over the top in pen.I seem to remember I usually hand wrote dates on the stringer under the glass - just in front or behind the fin. 10th board for 1969 would have the number 1069, for example. Any writing like that lurking?Looks to me like this is was originally a transparent yellow tinted board that has been glossed later in its life with solid red, then the flames. Very hotrod. You might want to remove the red and see what lies below. Give it to a sander in a surfboard factory for the added gloss coat to be be sanded off and you could even have it re-glossed. Some of the foam looks like it may have collapsed a bit. Had really dodgy foam in the early days. Lots of faults in it.Very interesting. I quite like the shape. Alot like the boards I saw Michael Petersen and Wayne Lynch ride at the world titles in Bells Australia in April 1970 - I did some like that when I got back in the Summer of 70. What is the earliest date on the registration stickers?
Thanks to Tigger for his insight and old photos.
This is an old board Alex picked up recently ,which under all those layers of paint could be one of the first Tigs , from the late 60s.Tigger was quite intrigued by this one - ''The red "Flames" board you have there is an interesting one.Bit Battered and superficially modified by the look of it, but probably genuine. I don't really remember doing hand drawn stickers except right at the very beginning so it is probably a very early one 68_69_70 perhaps. It is possible that the original sticker faded and it has been redrawn over the top in pen.I seem to remember I usually hand wrote dates on the stringer under the glass - just in front or behind the fin. 10th board for 1969 would have the number 1069, for example. Any writing like that lurking?Looks to me like this is was originally a transparent yellow tinted board that has been glossed later in its life with solid red, then the flames. Very hotrod. You might want to remove the red and see what lies below. Give it to a sander in a surfboard factory for the added gloss coat to be be sanded off and you could even have it re-glossed. Some of the foam looks like it may have collapsed a bit. Had really dodgy foam in the early days. Lots of faults in it.Very interesting. I quite like the shape. Alot like the boards I saw Michael Petersen and Wayne Lynch ride at the world titles in Bells Australia in April 1970 - I did some like that when I got back in the Summer of 70. What is the earliest date on the registration stickers?
Thanks to Tigger for his insight and old photos.
