WA surfing/surf industry pioneers the late Barry ‘Joe’ King and Brian ‘Coley’ Cole were multi-skilled craftsman with wood and foam.
Barry’s surfing mates reckoned he must be ‘Joe King‘ and the nickname stuck . In the late fifties ‘Joe’ King was a pilot and flew an Austen monoplane to Rottnest Island to get his hours up for a commercial licence. His surfing mates often kicked in for the trip and did winter flights to Rotto with Joe. The boys were sometimes allowed to take-over the controls over the ocean 😊.
Brian Cole was a professional firefighter. Outside of his firefighting duties, Brian was passionate about surfing. He not only spent his leisure time riding the waves, but also crafted his own surfboards.
L-R Ian Scott, Owen Oates, & Barry ‘Joe’ King at the back of the Mayfair.
Epoxy Surfboard 1958
In 1958 ‘Joe’ King and his surfing mate Brian ‘Coley’ Cole made a homemade 9ft triple stringer polystyrene foam (coolite) surfboard. The foam was sourced from packing foam material in boxes used to protect fridges. The lads glued strips of polystyrene foam together (with epoxy resin) and added triple wood stringers to strengthen the surfboard blank. The shaped board was glassed with fibreglass and epoxy resin.
Joe and Coley surfed their experimental epoxy board down south.
Note: New generation epoxy surfboards are made from polystyrene (PS/EPS) core blank with a coat of epoxy resin. Traditional fibreglass surfboards are made from polyurethane (PU) foam with a coat of fiberglass and polyester resin.
Brian ‘Coley’ Cole (second from left in the photo below) holding the short homemade epoxy board.
L-R Ray Nelmes, Brian Cole, Jim-Keenan, Des Gaines, Laurie Burke, John Budge & Artie Taylor.
King & Cole Surfboards 1962-63
Brian Cole and Barry ‘Joe’ King launched WA’s first foam surfboard business, King & Cole Surfboards, in Wembley in 1962 using Bennett Surf Blanks from NSW.
Note. In 1962, Cordingley Bros (Rex & Colin) and Hawke Bros (Len & Peter) also relocated their surfboard operations from their parents’ backyards to showrooms and factories in Subiaco and Osborne Park.
Brian ‘Coley’ Cole. “I went to Sydney NSW in 1959 to see what was going on. I had a shaping job organised with Barry Bennett, but my mate Bob Pike (Big wave legend) had a milk run offered to him, so we swapped jobs and I took Bob’s job so I could work at night and surf during the day.
Barry Bennett was the first one to make foam boards and I had the number six foam board in Australia from him.
I then bought foam blanks from Barry back to Perth and shaped the first foam surfboard in WA. When all the WA guys started getting them sent over from over east and after I worked a summer at Caves House Yallingup, I thought, “I’ll start getting blanks from Barry Bennett and start making my own boards.” And that’s how I started in 1962, myself and Barry ‘Joe’ King.
Joe’s father was a builder with a large shed on the corner of Salvado and Station Roads in Wembley. We repaired boats there and made surfboards.
In 1963 Joe & I got the travel bug and headed overseas chasing waves. We sold all our surf industry gear and surf pioneer Len Dibben bought some for his surfboard business.” (Extract Surfing Down South book 2014).
Upon returning to Western Australia from overseas in 1964, Brian married his partner Rhonda and made himself a fibreglass Malibu surfboard in his backyard in Scarborough.
Brian’s 60 year old fibreglass Malibu surfboard is now on display at the WA Surf Gallery Aravina Estate Yallingup.
In 2006 Surfing WA awarded Brian the Len Dibben Award for his outstanding service towards the development of surfing over an extended period.
Rest in Peace Barry ‘Joe’ King and Brian ‘Coley’ Cole.
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