From logs to legends: Rare vintage surfboards hit the market

SURFBOARDS from the golden era of Australian surfing are up for sale, as 80-year-old Torquay collector Rob Dunn clears out the final pieces of a lifetime collection.

Dunn, who began surfing in 1957, is offering between 70 and 80 vintage boards dating from the 1940s to the 1980s, many of them made by pioneering Australian shapers or linked to local legends.

The boards span decades of Australian surf history.

“I’ve been collecting all my life,” he said. “It’s just what I was brought up with. We were riding 16-foot wooden longboards in the ’50s — no leg ropes, no wax, just tied to the roof of the car with a towel and some rope.”

He once ran a small surf memorabilia business through eBay and word of mouth, but he quietly closed it down a few months ago due to injury and the physical toll of managing it alone.

Collectors and hospitality venues are among the potential buyers.

“I was running it 24/7, and I’ve got no muscle content left in my knees,” he said. “I’ve sold them everywhere — the States, New Zealand, all over Australia — on my own. It just got too much.”

At its peak, the business supplied collectors, surf resorts and pub fit-outs across the country, including high-end venues in Byron Bay and Bondi.

“One collector spent $36,000 fitting out a pub up north,” Dunn said. “Another was ready to take the lot for a pub refit, but the builders got in the way. That’s how serious some buyers are.”

The boards range in value from a few hundred dollars to more than $20,000. One of the most valuable was shaped by Wayne Lynch for Rip Curl’s managing director in the 1970s.

But Dunn has always tried to keep the trade low-profile.

Many of the boards were shaped by famous Australian boardmakers.

“I turned down a full double-page feature in the Sydney Morning Herald,” he said. “I didn’t want every man and his dog knocking on the door just to look and tell me how lucky I am.”

Despite stepping back, he still gets calls from CEOs and collectors wanting help to offload their own surfboard stashes.

“It’s a funny thing. Their wives are on their backs to get rid of the boards before they drop dead,” he said. “So I tell them, I’m not in business any more — but if I feel like it, I may sell them on consignment.”

The last of Rob Dunn’s boards are now up for grabs.

Dunn’s final boards are expected to attract buyers ranging from private collectors to hospitality venues.

He has hundreds of photographs documenting the collection, including rare black-and-white shots of Torquay surfers from the 1930s to the 1950s.

The collection includes rare pieces linked to local surfing legends.

“I’ve got original photos of Vic Tantau, the first guy to make balsa boards in Victoria,” he said. “And a series of colour shots of one bloke inspecting a board he shaped in 1967, a few weeks before he died.”

“I also have to vacate my storage soon, so I am offering 25 percent off across the board.”

Though he is technically retired, Dunn doubts the phone calls will stop any time soon.

“You create a market like this, and it just keeps going.”

For more details contact Anglesea Surf Centre on secondhandsurfboards.com.au or 5263 1530, or phone Rob Dunn on 0425 700 648,