Addy Jones is one of those guys who never throws anything out. In fact, he spends a lot of time fossicking through stuff other people have thrown out, looking for lost gold – discarded household goods waiting to be refashioned into something useful and given a second life.
But Addy’s also got a sharp eye for old surfboards, and when a few years ago his mate was showing him around his shed, Addy spotted something sitting in the corner that immediately called to him. “The board was sitting in the corner in a board cover, standing on its nose. I just said to him, ‘What’s in there?’ He goes, ‘Take a look.’”
Addy took a look and almost fell over. In there was a classic downrailed, pintail single-fin, shaped by surfing legend David ‘Baddy’ Treloar under the Native Surfboards label. Best guesses so far say it was shaped in 1973. It was a rare find, but even rarer was the condition of the board, which only sported a single round pressure ding. “Rare as rocking horse shit,” is how Addy described the find. Baddy shaped selectively during the late ‘60s and into the ‘70s, and very few of his boards survive today… even less in mint condition like this one. “My mate needed some money at the time and he asked if I wanted to buy it.” Addy describes the purchase price of a thousand bucks as “a bargain.”
Fast forward a few years and the board is living in the rafters of Addy’s place on Flinders Island. Addy won’t surf it… it’s too precious. But when he recently had some visitors over from the mainland, Addy knew one of them would be particularly interested in the board.
