SOUTH AUSTRALIA’S ONLINE SURFING MUSEUM
Ron Smith started Smith surfboards around late 1969. Ron had worked together with his two brothers Dick and Geoff (Parpy) Smith, when they opened Geoffs Surf Shop in 1966. Geoff ran the shop, Ron ran the Surfboard Factory and Dick ran Camero boats and fibre glass factory first at 4 Port Rd, Thebarton and then at 1085 South rd. Edwardstown, where Smith surfboards originally started before moving to Morphet Vale.
Smith Surfboards
Kym Dud Sanding a surfboard at the Morphet Vale factory
Keith “Atlas Robinson and friend at Seaford
Keith “Atlas” Robinson was the sole shaper at Smith surfboards having honed his craft on the east coast. Kym “Cheeta” Dud and Mick Higgins rounded out the team.
The 1969 move to Morphet Vale
Ron and Richard out front of Geoffs Surf Shop
Prior to Geoffs Surf Shop opening, the three Brothers Ron, Dick and their father Hedley, made a trip to Sydney to buy Surfboards such as Wallace, Keyo, Dale And Farrelly etc for their shop. The shop was located on the corner of Gawler Place and Wakefield Street Adelaide.
Geoff checking out a board at the Keyo Surfboard Factory at Brookvale in Sydney
1970 Geoff and team inspect the quality
During the late 60s Geoffs opened a second shop on the southeast coast at Robe, which eventually morphed into Steves Place at Robe, run by Steve Woolston.
Guys hanging out at the surf shop at Robe
Magazine advertisement for Smith Surfboards
Meanwhile toward the end of 1969 Ron Smith purchased a Tiger Moth biplane and proceeded to do beach patrols along the metropolitan coast and the mid coast and with The Geoffs Surf Shop advertised on the side of the plane.
Ron Smiths Tiger Moth Biplane
Flying over Southport on the Mid Coast
Photos supplied by Sharon Smith