This 1966 image showing smartly suited northern beaches board builders donating surfboards to the South Vietnam war effort comes from the amazing Surfresearch website, run by the unstoppable Geoff Cater.
Photograph courtesy of Dennis McDonagh, copied from Geoff Cater’s Surfresearch website.
According to Geoff, the photograph is also held by the Australian War Memorial along with the following press release:
[ref SMT/66/179/EC]
July 1966
Nearly $500 worth of surfboard equipment, given by seven manufacturers, was handed over to the Australian Army on behalf troops in South Vietnam, at Victoria Barracks, Paddington, on Wednesday, July 20. The equipment was received by the Acting Chief of Staff (Colonel P. Tancred).
Pictured receiving the boards, Colonel Tancred thanks Denis McDonagh (McDonagh Bros Surf Boards Pty Ltd, Harbord Road, Brookvale) , on behalf of the manufacturers.
The manufacturers with their gifts from the left are:
Messrs Lance Platt (L. and J. Platt, Surfrider Board Shorts, of Foam Street, Harbord),
Danny Keogh (Keogh Surf Boards Pty Ltd., of Sydenham Road, Brookvale) ,
Scott Dillon (Scott Dillon Surf Board Pty Ltd, of Winbourne Road, Brookvale),
Bob Brewster (Manly Surf Shop and Stor-A-Bord, Pittwater Road, Manly),
Gordon Woods (Gordon Woods Surf Boards Pty Ltd, Harbord Road, Brookvale),
Bill Wallace (Wallace Surf Boards, Winbourne Road, Brookvale),
Barry Bennett (Barry Bennett Surf Boards pty Ltd, Harbord Road, Brookvale).