Women's Carved Surf Board, ca. 1925
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GUEST:
I acquired this about three years ago from a very dear friend. And she's had it for probably the last 60 years. It was carved, to my belief, either 1925... I have a picture from 1929 with her-- it was a female that carved it, named Bea Rous-- here in Oceanside where it was made.
APPRAISER:
Okay. Now, she actually carved this for her use.
GUEST:
That's correct.
APPRAISER:
And this photo that you weren't able to locate for today dates this between 1925 and 1929 or so. So for southern California surfing history, first starting off with Kahanamoku, who brought surfing to southern California, then it was George Freeth—very famous name around here. He learned from the duke of Waikiki, and then brought surfing here to southern California in the early 1900s. Then in the 1920s is when surfing really took off. But the history of female surfers is also very limited. It's the first board, that I've ever seen, that we can document belonged to a female surfer. If we didn't know the provenance of Bea Rous, it would have been assumed it was a juvenile board. It's hand-carved out of redwood. Some of the neat things about it are her initials at the bottom. And then, of course, we have the decorations here. This is very unusual. Some of us have been looking at surfboards for 30-plus years and haven't seen this kind of carving on a board from this era. And then of course, the squares down here that are missing what originally would have been abalone squares. I put a value on this at auction of $3,000 to $5,000.
GUEST:
Oh, that's great.
Appraisal Details
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