Surf's up - for sale

150 surfboards from the golden age are looking for a home. ROSALEEN MacBRAYNE meets a father and sons who are parting with a collection amassed over 15 years.

Surfies riding a wave of nostalgia are being offered a break by a Mt Maunganui family.

Mike Murden and his sons, Dave and Chris, have put their collection of 150 classic surfboards - gathered over more than 15 years - up for sale.

Reputedly the largest collection of vintage boards in New Zealand, the Kiwi icons - with a few Australian and American models thrown in - reflect this country's surfing roots.

The Murdens never planned to collect classics. The boards accumulated through their surfboard manufacturing business and shop, High Voltage. Some were traded; others they bought because of their passion for dungers (big boards) of all shapes, sizes and styles.

When the firm moved premises this year, they realised just how many "not for sale" boards there were. The count came to 190 but 40 have already found new homes.

It was a hard decision to part with them.

"The question is, are we surfboard makers or surfboard collectors? We are torn, but we have to be practical," sayS Dave Murden.

So they listed the boards on their website and called for tenders.

"It's sad, but we are hoping someone who wants an instant collection will buy them all. It would be really neat if they could be displayed all together somewhere we can still see them," Dave Murden says.

A number of the boards - mostly from the 1960s and 1970s - have not been restored.

"Some came in their original condition and we wouldn't touch them. The odd scrape and scratch gives them character."

It is hard to single out the stars from the huge variety, ranging from kneeboards to longboards. Each has its own look and history.

About 80 per cent are New Zealand-made, shaped by pioneers like Dennis Quane, Ted Davidson, Peter Way, Roger Land and Bob Davie.

Mike Murden, now in his mid-50s, has been a surfer for more than 30 years and, like his sons, rides the waves at every opportunity.

Happy to see the revival of longboards in recent years, he built himself an 11ft 2 inch (3.4m) long and 25 inch (64cm) wide "super tanker" in 1999.

At 4 inches (10cm) thick and weighing 9kg, it is a far cry from the 20kg boards of his youth.

Many of his contemporaries gave up the sport after longboards fell from vogue and shortboards swept in during the early 1970s because of their more radical performance.

But the 50-somethings have been flocking back to the beach, often to relieve the stress of busy middle-aged lives, and they are enjoying the flexibility of the lighter modern longboards.

Young surfers, too, are converting to the longer models.

A graphic artist who started making boards under his Auckland house more than 30 years ago when his sons were babies, Mike Murden has been manufacturing surfboards for a living in Mt Maunganui for more than 20 years.

It will be hard parting with the classic collection, which will probably go to auction if a suitable tender is not approved at the end of this month.

But Dave Murden reckons father and sons won't be able to resist hanging on to more vintage boards that may come their way. "We will just have to have them, and it will start all over again. Surfboards are definitely collectable."

HV Surf