John Conway Eagle twin fin early 70s

Here's a radical little twin fin from Ryan's collection. Made by John Conway under his Eagle surfboards logo, around 1971/2 ,so part of the short lived first wave of 70s twin fins. It was made in Newquay at John's St Thomas rd. factory, which he took over from Fred Bickers and had been the Bickers factory in the mid 60s. Its a pretty radical size too, 5'6 x 21, so pretty small, and similar in some ways to the short and wide twin keelers which some of the more creative shapers are making today. It looks like John shaped up the top 2/3 of one of his standard singlefin blanks, cut out a wide diamond tail (similar to Phil Jay tails) , kept the standard amount of nose rocker and then made a couple of skinny fins (the early twinnies often had pretty inadequate sized fins) . A well preserved example of the the thinking and experimenting that was going on at the time. A beautifully finished board too with the pinlining and big logos. Ryan found it at Pool car boot sale a few years ago where it was for sale for £35 !! The board was definitely made for standing not kneeling, and has one of the classic old rubber stick on leash plugs. Great board..

                                                      1973

                                                    John in 1972

A couple of mini Conways - Ryan's board with my 5'4 which dates from around 1971