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The 1929 Beach Boys - surfing from the East End

December 8, 2011 12:27
An image from the 1929 film

By

Jessica Elgot,

Jessica Elgot

2 min read

The East End is a long way from Bondi Beach, but it was Australian beach boys who 80 years ago inspired the UK's first surfers - four London Jewish boys.

In the summer of 1929, Lewis Rosenberg, Harry Rochlin and Fred and Ben Elvey wanted to try out the strange sport they had heard about from Australia. Mr Rosenberg carved a 7ft wooden surfboard from balsa wood, and the boys took it in turns to keep their balance, wobbling above the waves of Holywell Bay, in Cornwall.

Almost 80 years later, footage of the 1929 holiday was digitised by Sue Clamp, Lewis Rosenberg's daughter in 2003.

The two-hour long film reel will by edited into a DVD, including an interview with Mr Rochlin, who died in 2007. The Museum of British Surfing's founder Peter Robinson called "a national treasure".

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