Surfboard collector reunited with a long-lost love

John Quellin reunited with his classic boards from the golden age of surfing in New Zealand. PHOTO/Alison Smith.

Whangamatā artist John Quellin is being flooded with memories of stoke after he was reunited with a board that's become a piece of surfing history.

John was working at the late Bob Davies' factory at Mt Maunganui alongside surfboard-shaper pioneers when he was given a board for Christmas from master shaper Rodney Dahlberg, also known as Grub.

It was shaped at a time when there were no dimensions written on boards and no attachment for a legrope. John estimates it's a 6'7 and says one of his artwork sprays tells the story of the times: "The sunrise, sunset and a bit of space-out."

It came to him from Doug Pearson, a vintage surfboard collector who shared the story on his Facebook page, New Zealand Vintage Surfboard Collectors.

John regaled Doug with stories about the golden age of surfing in Australia and New Zealand and his artistic vision after experiencing the travelling-surfer life in Bali,
when dirt tracks took him to near-empty beaches in Kuta.

After his visit to collect the board from Doug, he was given another Hot Buttered board owned by the collector, with a spray by pioneer spray artist and John's mentor, Martyn Worthington.

John says he offered to restore it because the boards are rare items, preserving New Zealand and Australia's surfing history.

"It needs to be carefully hand-reglassed. A lot of people don't realise what working at Hot Buttered means. Frank, who shaped this, put the nurse fin on a twin fin, which led to Simon inventing the thruster."

Whangamatā later became the home to many of these world-leading surfboard shapers, when the late Bob Davie moved to town to open up Saltwater Surfboards.