Update to intro by Neil Bird in Spain. 10 March 2022.
Neil Bird. – “Thanks Graham Wills for sending the article. Would be great to get intro corrected. In the 70s I worked with Phil Usher at Odyssey. Never worked for Santosha. And I came to Spain in 1979. Bruce Smith came over because I was here in 1982. I supposed this happened because my article is just about kneeboarding, My story re glassing etc in the surfing industry is the bigger part and involves heaps more people, factories etc between Perth and Spain. I’m currently trying to get it on paper. I have intention to do a kinda book/video combo. The Super 8 footage I have of the 80s is historic and full of great waves. Anyway, could the intro be corrected? Thanks Graham. See ya, Neil.”
…………………………………………………………..
Note: See corrections to this intro above. In the 70s WA kneeboarder NeilBird was glassing for the likes of Murray Smith and Santosha Surfboards. Neil also worked for Odyssey Surfboards in WA and stayed with new owner Bruce Smith after Nev Hyman and Phil Usher sold. Neil later followed Bruce to Spain in the early 80s where he has resided since.
This is Neil’s brief history of his involvement in the surfboard/kneeboard industry in West Australia and Spain
West Australia
Around late 1972, early 1973 I started to kneeboard, having previously used “Coolite” boards as “kneeboards” at Triggs third carpark in the swimming area. My brother and I would catch the bus to Triggs where we had our boards stored at my older brother-in-law’s home.
My first kneeboard was a backyard-built slab of foam and fiberglass that I soon changed for a half spoon made by Tom Hoye. I purchased it through the Sunday Times Reader’s Mart from Shane Wilton who was one of the top West Australian kneeboarders at the time.
Later in 1973, I started to mess around with a stripped-down surfboard blank in my Mum’s garage. From that time the foam, resin and fiberglass mix became an important part of my life.
I loved the Tom Hoye board. From third carpark I progressed to Trigg Point, then started to surf the Spot, and soon after started to surf down South.
Around 1973 and 1974 was when I made my first kneeboard and labeled it Comet Kneeboards.
1977 Comet kneeboard (deck) made by Neil Bird. Photo courtesy of Graham Wills.1977 Comet kneeboard (bottom) made by Neil Bird. Photo courtesy of Graham Wills.
Also around then, driving to check out the surf at Triggs one morning, I picked up a guy hitching with a board. He was a kneeboarder named Ross O’Brien. It turns out he was building kneeboards in his parent’s garage and was way ahead of me in both making boards and kneeboarding. I picked up bits and pieces from Ross regarding kneeboard and surfboard building and we surfed together a lot, especially at the Spot in Yanchep. Ross ripped on a kneeboard and made great kneeboards, probably the best in those years. Although we didn’t work too much together, our lives in Western Australia’s surfboard industry were full-on. In the mid 1980’s, I was glassing for Muzza Smith and Ross for Santosha. Between us we were glassing over 70 surfboards a week but only two kneeboarders!
My Comet Kneeboards received a helping hand from Roger Lowe, our family TV repairman who also kneeboarded. His son’s also kneeboarded, so he invested some $’s in me to improve my small business. This was probably 1974/75.
During the period 1975 – 1978 I managed to have my Comet Kneeboards on sale through a couple of surf shops. Rob Conneeley’s Surf Hut in Yallingup, (later John Malloy with his Bali Hai surf shop at Yallingup) and Bill Girdwood with the Oceans Surf Shop in Perth city. They both helped me out by stocking a couple of my kneeboards on consignment. It was always great when they phoned me to say another one sold! Thanks to the three of them.
1975/76, my first flight on a jetliner. Went to New Zealand for 2 months, scored some perfect surfs, especially “Puni’s farm” from the articles written in “Surfing World” magazine. When I saw the photos, it made me want to surf it. I got there and to this day it’s still in my top beach breaks ever surfed.
It was around 1976 when I met Phil Usher (Odyssey Surfboards) at Triggs. Nev had just left to seek fame and fortune in Queensland. We got into talking about surfboards etc and not long after I started doing dings and sanding for him. I was already spraying my kneeboards as I had a small compressor and had found the right paints that didn’t break down when glassing. We did a swap; I used his shaping bay and he used my compressor. Pretty soon I was glassing his Odyssey’s as well. The start of a long friendship. I did my Comet Kneeboards out of the Odyssey “box” on the corner of Newcastle and Loftus Streets in West Leederville. Great times and lots of boards were built there.
1980s Odyssey twin fin surfboard (bottom) glassed by Neil Bird. Photo courtesy Denis Keane.1980s Odyssey twin fin surfboard (deck) glassed by Neil Bird. Photo courtesy Denis Keane.
1979 was my first trip to Europe. Noel, a surfing buddy in Perth, travelled to Europe the year before. He ended up in the Basque region of Spain. I had seen a photo of Mundaka, labeled “a French lineup,” in one of the surf magazines at the time. The classic photo of the left peeling off next to the church. He had surfed it and, in a letter, had drawn the wave, setup etc in pencil. That’s where I wanted to go. I went, and I am still there.
I was still coming back to Perth, glassing, doing my kneeboards etc at Odyssey with Phil. Things changed when Phil decided to go to Queensland to live. Kind of follow in Nev’s footsteps. This could have been 1980 or so. Phil offered me the Factory and Odyssey label for $2,000- $3,000. It was tempting but it would have meant no more travels to the Basque country, no more Mundaka or not seeing an already very special person there or just the lifestyle in general. So no, I didn’t accept the offer. That choice led to Bruce and Gus getting a loan from Bruce’s dad and they took over Odyssey Surfboards. Maybe early 1982 Gus sold his part to Bruce’s brothers, Craig and Grant. Odyssey Surfboards was then the three brothers Smith: Bruce (shaper), Craig (sales) and Grant (sander) running the business. I was glassing for them.
During the Odyssey times, I also glassed a lot of Blair Meiklejohn’s radical knee-well designs. Blair literally ripped on his kneeboards. Mark Fitzpatrick “Fitzy” also started to shape his design kneeboards at Odyssey. He was also an excellent kneeboarder. Odyssey during the 1970’s and 80’s had a lot of great kneeboarders using the label. I remember an Odyssey Surfboards kneeboard contest in the late 70’s that had around 50 or 60 kneeboarders in it which shows just how popular it was back then.
From 1979 I was starting to spend more time in Spain than Perth. Around the end of 1987 was when I stopped coming back. I had been from 1985 to 1987 glassing the summer/autumn for Murray Smith doing mostly Hotbrewz Surfboards. During those times I continued shaping my kneeboard designs at Muzza’s. Although the emergence of the Morey Boogie had affected kneeboarding in a big way, there were still quite a few kneeboarders in Western Australia.
Spain
Referring to my kneeboard shaping history the province of Vizcaya where I live in the Basque region of Spain didn’t have a lot of kneeboarders. I shaped kneeboards for most of those who did kneeboard at the time.
Mundaka is the perfect kneeboard wave. It’s perfect for any mode of surfing obviously, but particularly great to kneeboard. I was fortunate to have surfed it when it was virtually empty. Amazing days of long, long barrels.
2013 Neil Bird kneeboarding in Spain. Photo courtesy of Neil Bird.
I lived in the Canary Islands from around 1990 – 1999 glassing, shaping kneeboards first on the island of Lanzarote and then on the island of Tenerife.
From 2005 – 2019 in Perth I was glassing for Chris McKenzie at Oceanline Surfboards, for summer/autumns and providing my kneeboard designs for quite a few of the kneeboarding fraternity of Perth.
Here in Spain, I got right back into shaping kneeboards after the first Kneeboard Festival put on by the Cantabrian Kneeboard Club situated in the province next to Vizcaya, Cantabria. This was around 2008. From then up to the present day I can safely say that kneeboarding is well and truly alive in Spain, Europe, and the world. I’ve shaped kneeboards for kneeboarders from countries including Spain and Canary Islands, France, Portugal and Ireland. A special thanks to Cantabran kneeboarder Ruben Gutierez, a double World Master’s Kneeboard champion and numerous times Spanish Champion, for using my kneeboard designs.
A big thanks to Pedro from Portugal for using my designs in the last World Titles in New Zealand. To my other kneeboarding friends who have also won Spanish Championships and attained good results in the world championships, a big thanks for purchasing my kneeboards. To all the kneeboarders who just surf to have fun, thanks. It has also been a pleasure to have glassed and finished off a few kneeboards from kneeboarding icons David Parkes and Steve Artis.
Here are two of my kneeboards that were prizes for the kneeboard festival in Somo, Spain 2021. The orange/blue board is 5’9″. It’s being donated by the Cantabrian Kneeboard Club and will be part of the main raffle. The other board is 5’10”. It’s donated by me. It will be in a separate raffle between contestants, guys & girls, who have not previously won a kneeboard in past years.
2021 Neil Bird Sneilneeboards raffle prizes for kneeboard festival in Somo, Spain 2021. Photo courtesy of Neil Bird
My current kneeboard label is Sneilneeboards made in my factory located in the beachside town of Bakio, Vizcaya.
2022 Neil Bird with a custom Sneilneeboards kneeboard in Spain. Photo courtesy of Neil Bird.
Looking forward to the 2022 World Championship in Aviero, Portugal.
Adios
Neil Bird
Vizcay, Spain.
Kneeboard Exhibition
The WA kneeboard fraternity will launch a Kneeboard Exhibition at the WA Surf Gallery, Aravina Estate, Yallingup on April 9, 2022. The exhibition is expected to run for approx. two months and will feature WA kneeboards (including a Neil Bird Comet Kneeboard), photos, posters and stories. The Gallery is open free to the public from 11am to 5pm daily.
Update to intro by Neil Bird in Spain. 10 March 2022.
Neil Bird. – “Thanks Graham Wills for sending the article. Would be great to get intro corrected. In the 70s I worked with Phil Usher at Odyssey. Never worked for Santosha. And I came to Spain in 1979. Bruce Smith came over because I was here in 1982. I supposed this happened because my article is just about kneeboarding, My story re glassing etc in the surfing industry is the bigger part and involves heaps more people, factories etc between Perth and Spain. I’m currently trying to get it on paper. I have intention to do a kinda book/video combo. The Super 8 footage I have of the 80s is historic and full of great waves. Anyway, could the intro be corrected? Thanks Graham. See ya, Neil.”
…………………………………………………………..
Note: See corrections to this intro above. In the 70s WA kneeboarder Neil Bird was glassing for the likes of Murray Smith and Santosha Surfboards. Neil also worked for Odyssey Surfboards in WA and stayed with new owner Bruce Smith after Nev Hyman and Phil Usher sold. Neil later followed Bruce to Spain in the early 80s where he has resided since.
This is Neil’s brief history of his involvement in the surfboard/kneeboard industry in West Australia and Spain
West Australia
Around late 1972, early 1973 I started to kneeboard, having previously used “Coolite” boards as “kneeboards” at Triggs third carpark in the swimming area. My brother and I would catch the bus to Triggs where we had our boards stored at my older brother-in-law’s home.
My first kneeboard was a backyard-built slab of foam and fiberglass that I soon changed for a half spoon made by Tom Hoye. I purchased it through the Sunday Times Reader’s Mart from Shane Wilton who was one of the top West Australian kneeboarders at the time.
Later in 1973, I started to mess around with a stripped-down surfboard blank in my Mum’s garage. From that time the foam, resin and fiberglass mix became an important part of my life.
I loved the Tom Hoye board. From third carpark I progressed to Trigg Point, then started to surf the Spot, and soon after started to surf down South.
Around 1973 and 1974 was when I made my first kneeboard and labeled it Comet Kneeboards.
Also around then, driving to check out the surf at Triggs one morning, I picked up a guy hitching with a board. He was a kneeboarder named Ross O’Brien. It turns out he was building kneeboards in his parent’s garage and was way ahead of me in both making boards and kneeboarding. I picked up bits and pieces from Ross regarding kneeboard and surfboard building and we surfed together a lot, especially at the Spot in Yanchep. Ross ripped on a kneeboard and made great kneeboards, probably the best in those years. Although we didn’t work too much together, our lives in Western Australia’s surfboard industry were full-on. In the mid 1980’s, I was glassing for Muzza Smith and Ross for Santosha. Between us we were glassing over 70 surfboards a week but only two kneeboarders!
My Comet Kneeboards received a helping hand from Roger Lowe, our family TV repairman who also kneeboarded. His son’s also kneeboarded, so he invested some $’s in me to improve my small business. This was probably 1974/75.
During the period 1975 – 1978 I managed to have my Comet Kneeboards on sale through a couple of surf shops. Rob Conneeley’s Surf Hut in Yallingup, (later John Malloy with his Bali Hai surf shop at Yallingup) and Bill Girdwood with the Oceans Surf Shop in Perth city. They both helped me out by stocking a couple of my kneeboards on consignment. It was always great when they phoned me to say another one sold! Thanks to the three of them.
1975/76, my first flight on a jetliner. Went to New Zealand for 2 months, scored some perfect surfs, especially “Puni’s farm” from the articles written in “Surfing World” magazine. When I saw the photos, it made me want to surf it. I got there and to this day it’s still in my top beach breaks ever surfed.
It was around 1976 when I met Phil Usher (Odyssey Surfboards) at Triggs. Nev had just left to seek fame and fortune in Queensland. We got into talking about surfboards etc and not long after I started doing dings and sanding for him. I was already spraying my kneeboards as I had a small compressor and had found the right paints that didn’t break down when glassing. We did a swap; I used his shaping bay and he used my compressor. Pretty soon I was glassing his Odyssey’s as well. The start of a long friendship. I did my Comet Kneeboards out of the Odyssey “box” on the corner of Newcastle and Loftus Streets in West Leederville. Great times and lots of boards were built there.
1979 was my first trip to Europe. Noel, a surfing buddy in Perth, travelled to Europe the year before. He ended up in the Basque region of Spain. I had seen a photo of Mundaka, labeled “a French lineup,” in one of the surf magazines at the time. The classic photo of the left peeling off next to the church. He had surfed it and, in a letter, had drawn the wave, setup etc in pencil. That’s where I wanted to go. I went, and I am still there.
I was still coming back to Perth, glassing, doing my kneeboards etc at Odyssey with Phil. Things changed when Phil decided to go to Queensland to live. Kind of follow in Nev’s footsteps. This could have been 1980 or so. Phil offered me the Factory and Odyssey label for $2,000- $3,000. It was tempting but it would have meant no more travels to the Basque country, no more Mundaka or not seeing an already very special person there or just the lifestyle in general. So no, I didn’t accept the offer. That choice led to Bruce and Gus getting a loan from Bruce’s dad and they took over Odyssey Surfboards. Maybe early 1982 Gus sold his part to Bruce’s brothers, Craig and Grant. Odyssey Surfboards was then the three brothers Smith: Bruce (shaper), Craig (sales) and Grant (sander) running the business. I was glassing for them.
During the Odyssey times, I also glassed a lot of Blair Meiklejohn’s radical knee-well designs. Blair literally ripped on his kneeboards. Mark Fitzpatrick “Fitzy” also started to shape his design kneeboards at Odyssey. He was also an excellent kneeboarder. Odyssey during the 1970’s and 80’s had a lot of great kneeboarders using the label. I remember an Odyssey Surfboards kneeboard contest in the late 70’s that had around 50 or 60 kneeboarders in it which shows just how popular it was back then.
From 1979 I was starting to spend more time in Spain than Perth. Around the end of 1987 was when I stopped coming back. I had been from 1985 to 1987 glassing the summer/autumn for Murray Smith doing mostly Hotbrewz Surfboards. During those times I continued shaping my kneeboard designs at Muzza’s. Although the emergence of the Morey Boogie had affected kneeboarding in a big way, there were still quite a few kneeboarders in Western Australia.
Spain
Referring to my kneeboard shaping history the province of Vizcaya where I live in the Basque region of Spain didn’t have a lot of kneeboarders. I shaped kneeboards for most of those who did kneeboard at the time.
Mundaka is the perfect kneeboard wave. It’s perfect for any mode of surfing obviously, but particularly great to kneeboard. I was fortunate to have surfed it when it was virtually empty. Amazing days of long, long barrels.
I lived in the Canary Islands from around 1990 – 1999 glassing, shaping kneeboards first on the island of Lanzarote and then on the island of Tenerife.
From 2005 – 2019 in Perth I was glassing for Chris McKenzie at Oceanline Surfboards, for summer/autumns and providing my kneeboard designs for quite a few of the kneeboarding fraternity of Perth.
Here in Spain, I got right back into shaping kneeboards after the first Kneeboard Festival put on by the Cantabrian Kneeboard Club situated in the province next to Vizcaya, Cantabria. This was around 2008. From then up to the present day I can safely say that kneeboarding is well and truly alive in Spain, Europe, and the world. I’ve shaped kneeboards for kneeboarders from countries including Spain and Canary Islands, France, Portugal and Ireland. A special thanks to Cantabran kneeboarder Ruben Gutierez, a double World Master’s Kneeboard champion and numerous times Spanish Champion, for using my kneeboard designs.
A big thanks to Pedro from Portugal for using my designs in the last World Titles in New Zealand. To my other kneeboarding friends who have also won Spanish Championships and attained good results in the world championships, a big thanks for purchasing my kneeboards. To all the kneeboarders who just surf to have fun, thanks. It has also been a pleasure to have glassed and finished off a few kneeboards from kneeboarding icons David Parkes and Steve Artis.
Here are two of my kneeboards that were prizes for the kneeboard festival in Somo, Spain 2021.
The orange/blue board is 5’9″. It’s being donated by the Cantabrian Kneeboard Club and will be part of the main raffle. The other board is 5’10”. It’s donated by me. It will be in a separate raffle between contestants, guys & girls, who have not previously won a kneeboard in past years.
My current kneeboard label is Sneilneeboards made in my factory located in the beachside town of Bakio, Vizcaya.
Looking forward to the 2022 World Championship in Aviero, Portugal.
Adios
Neil Bird
Vizcay, Spain.
Kneeboard Exhibition
The WA kneeboard fraternity will launch a Kneeboard Exhibition at the WA Surf Gallery, Aravina Estate, Yallingup on April 9, 2022. The exhibition is expected to run for approx. two months and will feature WA kneeboards (including a Neil Bird Comet Kneeboard), photos, posters and stories. The Gallery is open free to the public from 11am to 5pm daily.
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