Welcome to the August edition of the Board Bazaar, brought to you in a timely fashion mid-September. We here at Swellnet enjoy the immediacy of online, we just don't always employ it. And hey, all these boards are 20+ years old so what's the rush?

Later this month Damion Fuller - AKA the Board Collector - is holding a surfboard swap/exhibition thing at Bondi Pavillion. Jointly sponsored by Deus Ex Machina, Surf Swap 8 is on Sunday September 27th, come along if you wanna show some old boards, buy or swap gear, get boards or memorabilia appraised, or simply ogle rows and rows of shamelessly gratuitous board porn. Full details here.

Might as well kick off with a board that'll be on show at Bondi. This Hot Buttered Terry Fitz-shaped Drifta sold on eBay last month for a handsome $3,168 - a not unsurprisng amount considering its condition (mint!) and features. A classic of the pre-thruster era, the Drifta has a three fin config 'cept with side biters. The Martyn Worthington spray eschews 70s dolphins and dragons for early 80s motifs. The seller bought it in '82 for $20 and has done an astounding job of keeping it intact. Safe to say he earned his 1,584% profit.

Approximately ten years before shaping the Drifta - actually probably just over ten years - Terry Fitzgerald shaped this Shane single fin. It was early days for Fitz, the board is marked as #321, though he wasn't far off starting his own operation, Hot Buttered Surfboards. Might've even had Isaac Hayes playing on the stereo while mowing the foam on this 6'0" S-deck double-ender. The seller had it pegged as a reno project but fell short of time. After 16 bids it sold for just $56, a straight up bargain despite its less than stellar condition. 

In the 80s Rod Dahlberg and Greg Webber shaped together under the Insight label though their approaches to design were wildly different. Dahlberg always shooting for perfection with clean refined lines, ironing out flyers into smooth continuous curves, while Webber was the experimenter, tweaking and exploring, trying out all sorts of weird shit much of which worked. Don't tend to see too many Dahlberg Insights these days but this clean unit went up for sale on eBay selling for a criminal $36.55. I'm still kicking myself. Hope the auction winner feels guilty.

“Selling surfboard for son who is overseas, don't know much about surfboards myself.” It sounds like a classic case of father/son communication. If son had told father that his board had once belonged to Occy, father could've said as much in the ad and fetched a higher price. As it was only keen-eyed collectors clicking on the photos found out. Occy rode Dahlberg's for a few years while on the 'CT, including his title year, so this 6'8” may well have some real history to be uncovered. The buyer - who scored it for $200 - can scour old shots of Occ and see if he recognises his purchase.

While trawling eBay the words 'Isometric Stringer' caught my eye and I was fascinated. 'How does an isometric stringer work?' I wondered while clicking the ad. It turned out to be an asymmetric stinger shaped by Bob Cooper. No less fascinating, in fact probably more so as I'm riding an asymmetrical myself these days. This mid-70s version is an Aipa-style sting on one side and bog standard double flyer on the other - I'm sure the different fins are a feeble fix job. It was probably shaped by beatnik Bob during his Coffs Harbour years, and sold for a reasonable $261.

Roots, man, this stick has got some. Shaped by Neal Purchase Snr under the Shane label - coincidentally, or perhaps not, both fellas spawned great surfers in NPJ and Luke Stedman. It's had a bit of resto work somewhere along the line though the work is modest and very clean. Going on the logo it was likely shaped in 1967, immediately prior to the shortboard revolution, which means the high aspect ratio fin is probably original. That fin, designed by Greenough, played a significant part in the revolution. A sole bidder scooped the board for $699.

Was there a concept behind Bruno Buzzolan and Gunther Rohn's mid-80s T&Cs? I'm not talking about the designs but the sprays. Every deck had a day-glo spray jobby, every bottom left demure white. Yin and yang. Town and country. Hmmm...?  This Buzz-shaped T&C is true to concept though the deck is partially obscured by full deck grip. A frenzied 35 bids took it to $308, while just a week later another T&C went for $250 despite being in better condition and having a better deck spray - the bottom, of course, was the same shade of white.

The holy grail of Aussie board collectors is a first gen Energy Thruster shaped by Simon. However, there's not many around so if you want a board with interest you've gotta think laterally. This Frank Latta-shaped Energy thruster was shaped under the same church steeple though a few years later so it has status by association. And Frank himself was a shaper and surfer of renown - a notable boxer and pigeon trainer too! - so by matter of degree this board distinguishes itself from the common fodder. It sold for $121.50 and I'm sure that punter is chuffed with their buy.

So it's gotta be an authentic Simon? Well yeah, but it's also gotta be first generation. This Energy Thruster was shaped by Simon though it came a few years and a logo change later. 1985 in fact. Nevertheless it was shaped by the big man himself and still has the Energy logo, albeit a later version. In its favour it was shaped for Steve Robertson who was the recipient of a few original Thrusters. The market balanced the pros and cons and deemed it to be worth $215 and who am I to say the market is wrong? Ahh fuck it, I'll pipe up, this board was worth more.

Earlier I mentioned the wild experiments and serendipitous discoveries of Greg Webber. In the early 90s he was making slender, highly rockered boards under the Insight label. Like McCoy with Lazor Zaps, people thought Webber went too extreme, however the design hinged around concaves and though the bend was taken out of the banana, the concave stayed in. It's Webber's lasting contribution to design. This 6'3" Insight banana board was bought by a lucky punter for $250 and features the carbon fibre strips popular at the time.

Might as well come clean, the punter who bought the Insight was me and I'll be showing it with a bunch of other Webber-shaped Insights at the aforementioned Deus/Boardcollector Surf Swap 8 at Bondi Pavillion. Come on down.

Also worth noting that Richard Hadlee will be hocking the last part of his incredible surfboard collection at McKenzies next month. You remember Richard? Here's an interview Swellnet ran with him immediately prior to his last auction.

Till next month...