Tim Stafford Surfboards

Mostly bonzer inspired creations, made in Cornwall. Designed, shaped, glassed, sanded, finned and finished by Tim Stafford.

I make boards that are easy to ride, that feel natural under foot. Most aren't conventional but they will help you reach that point where you stop thinking about what's under your feet and start to focus on where you want to go and how you want to get there. Why bonzers?

Always happy to chat about your needs and what would work for you but please initiate contact by email or Facebook... details on www.timstaffordsurfboards.com | Ride and glide.

Tuesday 28 July 2009

American ash…

Tim Stafford Surfboards - wooden bonzer EVO3 side fins

bonzer EVO3 sides in American Ash – hand foiled by yours truly…

Why do I keep drawing lefts?

Deeply troubled by the fact that out flows another left… as a natural foot I should be drawing rights!

TimStafford-pen-artwork

SOLD... 6’8” Blunt Diamond Lava tint bonzer EVO3

SOLD...  6’8” x 21 ½” x 2 5/8” Blunt Diamond bonzer EVO3 For sale at Rocky Point Surfshop in Trevone.  tel: 01841 520275
This board has a reverse lap lava-tint with custom pen artwork of a wavescape at Trevone on the bottom. Go Pro camera mount on the nose.
Tim Stafford Custom Surfboards - 6'8" Blunt Diamond bonzer EVO3 - reverse lap lava tint  Tim Stafford Custom Surfboards - 6'8" Blunt Diamond bonzer EVO3 - reverse lap lava tint with custom pen artwork  Tim Stafford Custom Surfboards - 6'8" Blunt Diamond bonzer EVO3 - reverse lap lava tint  Tim Stafford Custom Surfboards - 6'8" Blunt Diamond bonzer EVO3 - reverse lap lava tint with pen artwork
This shape was designed originally for one of the lifeguards at Trevone, with the wave there very much in mind. The quick but crumbling take off and flat sections in the wave put a lot of demands on a board, making it a very complicated wave to get the most out of on a typical shortboard. The wide template and low entry rocker creates a stable board that picks up waves early and easily, whilst the shortened rail of the Blunt Diamond, the curvy outline and finely tuned rails keep it very loose. As with all bonzers this EVO3 encourages you to surf better – the more you put in the more you get out.
This board is ideal for anyone who wants to enjoy their surfing more through a higher wave count without compromising fluidity and performance. I’ve ridden this board in everything from waist high to well overhead in the last few months and have yet to find its limitations.

Monday 27 July 2009

Jamnesia

Heard from an old friend today, Miss Dotty, she used to take care of me when I lived on that blessed isle. This pic, me one morning before the suit went on, surfing Zoo in 1997 before the hurricane destroyed it…
Good times – big up to the Jamaican crew.
Tim surfing Jamaica

Blunt Diamonds

This was the board that started it all off again – the 6’8” blunt diamond for my lifeguard partner and long time friend Oli Myles… loved doing the tint on this one with the different colours down the one rail.. this board is pretty much the ultimate all rounder - it goes in everything and is surprising manoeuvrable for its length.

Tim Stafford Custom Surfboards - 6'8 Blunt Diamond for Olly Tim Stafford Custom Surfboards - 6'8 Blunt Diamond for Olly - resin tint Tim Stafford Custom Surfboards - 6'8 Blunt Diamond for Olly with custom artwork Tim Stafford Custom Surfboards - 6'8 Blunt Diamond for Olly with railside resin tint

Freakfish is coming….

Tim Stafford Custom surfboards - 5'11" Freakfish bonzer EVO4 - sanded and ready for pen artwork

Friday 24 July 2009

FOR SALE 6’6” Bat Tail bonzer EVO3 “One Love”

6’6” x 21 1/8” x 2 1/2” Bat Tail bonzer EVO3 For sale at Rocky Point Surfshop in Trevone.
“One Love”? This board is tinted and sprayed in memory of my times in Jamaica and carries in their national colours, green black and gold.
Tim Stafford Surfboards - 6'6" bonzer EVO3 - foam spray - FOR SALE  Tim Stafford Surfboards - 6'6" bonzer EVO3 - for SALE at Rocky Point Tim Stafford Surfboards - 6'6" bonzer EVO3 foam spray Tim Stafford Surfboards - 6'6" bonzer EVO3
This shape was designed for people looking for a high wave count shortboard without the compromises of a fish. It will suit bonzer lovers who enjoyed the original Bumblebee but wanted a bit more performance and will also be the perfect first shortboard an intermediate surfer looking to improve their basics.
The wide template combines with a straighter rail in the tail, creating a board that will change direction radically, perfect for top-to-bottom surfing. If you want to improve your bottom turns this board will help, dishing out bags of rewards every time you get it right. The bat tail provides extra bite when landing floaters as well as keeping the tail wide for easy wave catching and glide through flat sections.
This board will happily ride from waist high to well overhead, just move the rear fin back a touch as the size increases.
Ride and glide…

One of my all time favourites

Rabbit, 1979, with his classic Hot Stuff squash tail single fin… an epic plan shape and an epic spray… I have this in mind for one of my boards in the near future.

Hot Stuff-Rabbit-Australian SW No178

Sure Forms

I am going through some old boxes of the surf magazines I bought when I was kid and came across this classic design article with a section on bonzers in Surfer Magazine, November 1977 Volume 18 Number 4. I remember the article vividly and being fascinated by the concept… but along came the twin fin, and then Simon Anderson with the thruster. It would take 30 years and the influence of Tim Elsner and Steve Jacobi on the island of Simeulu to finally sate my curiosity.
Now I’m hooked. Thanks guys.
Surfer-Nov1977-Vol18-No4-p0 Surfer-Nov1977-Vol18-No4-p1 Surfer-Nov1977-Vol18-No4-p2

Thursday 23 July 2009

Love tints

For young Olly – a 6’8” x 20 5/8” x 2 1/4” double wing pin bonzer EVO3 with hand foiled American Ash EVO3 fins made by yours truly. The resin tint was done by Jason Grey at the with me on colours and pouring. This board also has an FCS fin plug in the nose for a Go Pro camera…
Tim Stafford custom surfboard - 6'8" double wing pin bonzer EVO3

Love foam

Tim Stafford custom surfboards - 6'4" double wing pin bonzer EVO3

EVO3 Double concave tri-hulls

Its a double concave shaped into a concave flowing into a V with a domed centre which the centre fin sits on. This gives the board a lot of lift and makes even a very wide tail feel very responsive rail to rail … worth all the hassle to shape I think :)

Tim Stafford custom surfboards - 6'6" bat tail bonzer EVO3

Pen artwork for a Skindog…

This was some artwork I did on my SLONG board (Short Longboard) that I ordered from the SkinDog crew…

It’s not a bonzer but i may be making a bonzer variant if this 8 footer goes the way I think it will… watch this space…

Tim Stafford custom pen artwork on SkinDog surfboard

Blame him…

Atlantic-Surfer-6-PhilClifford-VS-ad-1979
1979 Tad Ciastula of Vitamin Sea in the middle and Chris Jones (CJ) on the right, all clutching some Bronzed Aussies single fins.

Watermelon Spray

Anthony’s watermelon spray on his 6’4” double wing pin bonzer EVO3…

Tim Stafford Custom Surfboards - bonzer EVO3 shortboard

Wednesday 22 July 2009

FreakFish

Tim Stafford Surfboards - FreakFish foam  Tim Stafford Surfboards - bonzer quad

5’11” x 21 7/8” x 2 7/8” flex-tail FreakFish bonzer EVO4… shaped just for me…

Debate with a guru…

Tim Stafford shaping his Evo4 quad FreakFish bonzer surfboard I was chatting to various people at the OM Surfboard Factory the other day and we were discussing my latest board (for me) – nicknamed the FreakFish… it’s a bonzer 4 fin with what I am calling the “EVO4” set-up and a complex concave bottom…
We were shooting the breeze about the purpose of surfing. Some were saying ultimately it was all about high performance and speed, speed to do manoeuvres and go different places on the wave… I agreed with much of what was said but something didn’t sit comfortably. For me it has always been less about speed and performance and more about sensations, experimenting and trying new things, often prompted by trying different boards (like keel fin McCoy Nuggets, Cinqo 5 fins, and most recently Bonzers) most of which do not sit comfortably in the conventional performance bracket.
As if to make the point this morning I was gliding through a flat spot on a chest high onshore sloppy wave at my local beach on my Malcolm Campbell 6’6” POD… I’d moved forward to trim (where the thruster kids would have slapped, flapped, pumped and jumped about as the wave died under them)… and truly relished in the quiet effortless glide that carried me through, and then as the wave started to reform… I stepped back, dropped in to the section, bottom turned and smacked that lip like a good little thruster-kid of the 80s.
Ride and glide.