This old footage was tucked away in a house in London for decades, forgotten about until it was recently unearthed. It shows Lewis Rosenberg and Harry Rochlin and others trying stand up surfing on holiday in Cornwall in 1929. This is the earliest film footage of stand ups in the UK so far...Lewis made the 7-8ft balsa board himself based on Hawaiian designs of the time. He was inspired to make it after seeing a newsreel of Aussies surfing .I wonder what happened to the board ? The film was donated to and restored by the Museum of British surfing, and has been a good source of publicity for them in national tv and press.
More about the story of the film can be found at http://www.museumofbritishsurfing.org.uk/2011/06/30/standing-proud/
and
http://www.itv.com/anglia/old-surfing-video-found68861/
Gobsmacked ! What a wonderful piece of British surf culture history . If Lewis Rosenberg does turn out to be the very first 'stand up' British surfer [which it almost certainly looks like] then it should be commemorated in some way [possibly at beach in footage]
ReplyDeleteHarry Rochlin was my great uncle and i remember his stories about making their own tent to go camping & the seaside with 'uncle Lew'. Harry was 96 when the interview took place. From other films and family research we recon the date is correct
ReplyDeleteThe man interviewed is Harry Rochlin, not Lewis Rosenberg. Harry must have taken the film as Lewis is featured in most of them.
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