Edge Spoon Kneeboard mould 1960s-1970s
Date1960s
Object number00026678
NameKneeboard mould
MediumFibreglass
ClassificationsToys, games and souvenirs
Credit LineANMM Collection
HistoryGeorge Greenough (b. 1941) is an innovative kneeboarder, designer and film maker from California who now divides his time between Australia and the USA.
In the 1950s Greenough rode briefly as a stand up surfer then switched to kneeboarding and mat-riding because he liked to be closer to the water. He was the first person to film inside a breaking wave (tube) which he did crouched on a kneeboard with a heavy camera on his shoulder. He started making regular visits to Australia in 1964 and became friends with leading Australian surfers and board designers Bob Mactavish and Nat Young. Greenough developed a flexible "spoon" kneeboard with a fibreglass kneeling area edged in foam on the nose and rails which enabled him to perform fast and extreme turns and cutbacks, manoevures which were impossible for stand-up performers on their larger more cumbersome boards. This led to a radical change in Australian surfbboard design and the move to the vee-bottom board and then shorter boards.SignificanceThis material is representative of Australian surfboard design and surfing memorabila in Australia in the 1960s and 1960s. This was a period when the professional surfing ciruit was in its infancy and surfers such as Midget Farrelly and George Greenough were consolidating their reputations as significantt board designers.
1977 - 1978