*Addy Jones hands over a classic 1973 Baddy Treloar pintail single-fin to Baddy’s stepson, Dan Ross. Photo Harry Triglone*

Addy Jones is one of those guys who never throws anything out. In fact, he spends a lot of time fossicking through stuff other people have thrown out, looking for lost gold – discarded household goods waiting to be refashioned into something useful and given a second life.

But Addy’s also got a sharp eye for old surfboards, and when a few years ago his mate was showing him around his shed, Addy spotted something sitting in the corner that immediately called to him. “The board was sitting in the corner in a board cover, standing on its nose. I just said to him, ‘What’s in there?’ He goes, ‘Take a look.’”

Addy took a look and almost fell over. In there was a classic downrailed, pintail single-fin, shaped by surfing legend David ‘Baddy’ Treloar under the Native Surfboards label. Best guesses so far say it was shaped in 1973. It was a rare find, but even rarer was the condition of the board, which only sported a single round pressure ding. “Rare as rocking horse shit,” is how Addy described the find. Baddy shaped selectively during the late ‘60s and into the ‘70s, and very few of his boards survive today… even less in mint condition like this one. “My mate needed some money at the time and he asked if I wanted to buy it.” Addy describes the purchase price of a thousand bucks as “a bargain.”

Fast forward a few years and the board is living in the rafters of Addy’s place on Flinders Island. Addy won’t surf it… it’s too precious. But when he recently had some visitors over from the mainland, Addy knew one of them would be particularly interested in the board.

*Shaped under the Native Surfboards label, the Baddy Treloar board was a rare find… even rarer considering it’s mint condition 50 years later. Photo SA Rips*

Dan Ross was Baddy Treloar’s stepson, but their relationship ran far deeper than that. To Dan – and his generation of young surfers growing up at Angourie – Baddy was a huge surfing influence, a no bullshit spiritual adviser, and the keeper of simple, small town coastal values. Baddy had moved up to Angourie in the early ‘70s and lived a life fishing, surfing and shaping for almost 50 years, before passing away in 2019. On the day he died he surfed the point at Angourie one last time before coming in, sitting under a pandanus tree, and checking out.

Addy knew Dan would lose his marbles when he saw the board and nudged him into the room and asked him to look around. “I spotted it straight away,” says Rossy. “I picked it up and it just felt like magic. I got full goosebumps… and that’s when Addy asked me if I wanted it.”

Dan has seven surfboards at home shaped by Baddy. Eight now including the Native board. Some of those boards are Baddy originals from the ‘70s, but there are also a number of boards Baddy shaped in recent years at the insistence of Dan and his brother, Ben. Baddy hadn’t shaped in a long time, and the boys hassled him to shape them each a replica of the board he’d shaped and surfed in the classic surf film, Morning of the Earth. After years of knocking them back, Baddy finally relented. The Ross brothers did rock-scissors-paper to see who’d get the first board, and Baddy was off. He had no surviving templates and had to shape by memory from 45 years earlier… which for Baddy was not a problem. He possessed near total recall on surfboard dimensions, classic swells, and weather systems going back decades. Baddy used a bent fishing rod to put the curve in the rail and the finished boards, as Rossy puts it, “were just incredible.”

Baddy went on to shape maybe 20 of these classic boards for local crew, but Dan recalls he had one condition. “When you picked your board up you had to go down to the point and catch a few waves on it while Baddy watched on. He always wanted to see how the board went.”

*Shaped originally for the pointbreak at Angourie, Dan took his Morning of the Earth replica over to surf the world’s best pointbreak, Jeffreys Bay, South Africa.*

Back on Flinders, Addy Jones played the same card. “I said to Dan, I said, ‘If anyone is going to ride this board brother, it’s going to be you!’” So Dan took the board out for its first surf in almost 50 years. “Went pretty well too,” Dan reckons. “I might have one more surf on it on the point when I get it home at Angourie, but that’s a bit sketchy cause the board doesn’t have a leg rope plug. Once I do that, then I’m retiring it and it’s going up on the wall.”

ADDY FINDS A BADDY: “IF ANYONE IS GOING TO RIDE THIS BOARD BROTHER, IT’S GOING TO BE YOU!”