Surfing Girls print “The Tamblyn Girls” is a design from my Vintage Surf set of illustrations and is inspired by bellyboard surfing. A couple of surf girls splashing into the water with their wooden belly boards.
Size : A4 size paper, which is 210 × 297 millimeters or 8.27 × 11.69 inches
Printed on high quality etching paper 310gsm.
Signed and dated.
My illustrations are inspired by my family’s bellyboarding heritage. My grandparents both grew up in Perranporth in Cornwall, and my grandmother’s family started surfing and making wooden boards after the First World War. I remember my great Uncle Arthur taking his wooden belly board down to the beach at Perranporth when he was well into his 70s!
The World Bellyboard Championships are organised by the National Trust and take place in Cornwall each year in September. No wetsuits are allowed and prizes are won for the best outfits, which involve a lot of flowery hats, fifties swimsuits and all in one knitted stripey costumes for the men which sag upon contact with water.
I went to boarding school in Cornwall, and during half term holidays my Granny Tamblyn would occupy my brothers and me by showing us her family albums of photos taken on the beach, pointing out the faces and names of gangs of cousins, great uncles, aunties once removed (whatever that means) near the beach huts that no longer exist, from summers long, long ago.
All images Copyright Alison Bick 2014.