Frank Latta and San Juan
I first met Frank when I worked for Peter Clarke Surfboards at Brookvale. Frank worked for Peter Clarke on South side at Taren Point, and Barons , and at Peters Christmas Party, at his place, both factory workers got together, and after a small chat with Frank about Snooker, which both of us had been playing since 14 a kind of mutual friendship was maintained over many years. If you don;t know,... Frank was from Cronulla he was the best surfer from there, and was a holder of Golden Gloves( boxing) and maintained that rep till the day he left Cronulla, with another reputation as a fine shaper( it would be hard to find someone who didn't like the way his boards rode). It was nearly 8 years until I saw Frank again, and that was when he became San Juan's shaper about 1978. He was a competent and fast shaper and within a short time , with the help of an also fast glasser, but no sander, boards started to stack up. I got asked to do some sanding while working for Roy at Bare Nature to help them out, which I did, but the resin had hardened up on the boards, as the youngest Fillercoat was 2 weeks with some 4 to 5 weeks old,and this made it very hard sanding, that is, it would take twice as long to machine them apart from the hand sanding. Anyway eventually we caught up and San Juan found a full time sander and Frank continued at full speed ahead. Franks boards were well sought after, they were what I call, Hot Dog boards, highly maneuverable and well suited to North Coast waves. He had a close association with Simon Anderson and on Simons many trips north the pair were inseparable , they surfed made boards and surfed and a few memorable days at Lennox are what I remember well of same dam fine surfing. Frank was always surfing, and at night , practicing or playing competition Snooker( he was good) he became Northern districts champion! in and out of the surf , he made a lot of good friends tho, a couple of hotheads in the water, thought they were kingshit, and learnt very quickly, what many years in a boxing ring teaches you . One guy I remember,Frank kept saying to him before it started" now your sure you really want to do this, we can just walk away and forget it" , but as I said they were hot heads and Frank was always cool, and one punch later............ As the years rolled on after Franks Marriage broke up, He met Michelle and they went on a trip to India which she had won, and on the same tour was my Mum and her sister Aunty Edie, Mum told me about it, and when I finally caught up with Frank , he said he couldn't believe that he'd run into Tiki's mum in bloody India and said they ended up hanging with her for most of the trip and had a ball. I never saw Frank for many years until one day at Scotts Head Alb
y Falzon pointed out Frank in the water on a bellyboard surfing. We ended talking for some time that day and the next and I couldn't get over how well he looked still , he was still passionate about boards but his hip was that bad he couldn't shape anymore nor could he play snooker( he was just as passionate about snooker as surfing) The news of Franks death was a shock to me , he was a great guy, chirpy and full of energy, you don't get many like Frank coming out of the mould, he was unique and if my mum liked him ..... yeah he was alright.... Miss ya Frank
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THE BASTARDS STOLE MY BOARD!!!
HEY GUYS AND GALS, ON SUNDAY NIGHT OF THE 5TH OCT MY BOARD WAS STOLEN FROM MY PLACE ,IF ANYONE FIND
S HER A REWARD OF A FREE FULLY FOILED FIN OR FINS IS YOURS, AND ITS GOOD TO KNOW WE HAVE SUCH FINE UPSTANDING PEOPLE STILL KNOCKING OFF BOARDS , THERE MATES MUST BE PROUD TO BE FRIENDS WITH THEM. The board is 9'5 x23 3/4 with a seasnake motif on the bottom and a TIKI motif on the deck the fin is orange and yellow as in the photo
Broken Head board made on the Beach
About 80 to 81( these were hazy pot fueled days) when I went back to Byron Bay , I was living in a tent with ocean views at Broken Head caravan Park, and was working for both Roy at Bare Nature and Warren Cornish. At the park there were a few long term renters and one of them( I cant remember his name so I'll use Bill) ,who was living close to where I was, asked me if I was interested in making a Knee board for him, I jumped at it as I was in need of money, and then he asked me to make it in front of where we were living,which is, more or less nearly on the beach. He had a 72 Landrover, so we made some stands and started working on the shape using the Landrover as a wind break. He left it all up to me with the shape and glassing ,so it ended up being a concave bottom with a bat tail at 5foot 6 by 22 inch wide and 3 inch thick, now at the time I was riding a 5 foot 4 kneeboard standing up when it suited the board ( which usually was on the small side)and I was pretty keen to also try this out too, and it became nearly like I was making my own. The shaping outdoors was ok but the drama came with the glassing ....I started glassing early in the morning , so as to avoid the wind , but by the time I was pouring the resin on( it was a yellow tint) the wind came up and I had 4 other guys hanging on to the glass to stop the glass flappin all over the place.... it was the same for the top,the dam wind just kept coming up early, and the beautiful half ripple half perfect fillercoat really put the icing on the cake, I nicknamed this the Windfinish.... , so the wind sand and sun ,made for an outside surfboard making experience that I have never repeated. I remember one of the guys from Warren Cornish's passing by when going for a surf when in the middle of glassing, and within a short time my expertise at outside boardmaking had become legendary Ha!! I handsanded the filler and gave it a wet and dry finish, so from start to finish not a machine touched her she was truly a HANDJOB. I made the fin at Roys and this was the only part of the board a machine was used, and then the the crunch time...surfing it! Bill took it out in a pretty fair kind of surf for Broken , came in said he loved it , couldn't believe the speed and how good it was on the turns . I took it out for a standup and was impressed , for a widetail single fin it really did hang in the turns really well but it was the fact the whole dam thing was more or less made on the beach in 3 days with bits of sand an whatever else was blowin in the wind, she was a true Broken Head board made on the beach with passion....
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