13/05/2026
Shane Stedman’s (R.I.P.) recent passing has jogged my memory on some of the amazing surfers and shapers he had in his team or the Shane Gang as he liked to call them. I will share a few boards over the next little while that all came out of the Shane factories.
This one has always intrigued me. To me, Ted Spencer has always been an enigma, one of the leaders in the competitive scene of the late 60’s, involved heavily in the reduction of board length, bring part of the Angourie / Palmer Island Wilderness Crew and then with the well regarded White Kite model being so popular. He left Shane and competitive surfing to work briefly with Ron Wade and then became a Hari Krishna I believe, to end up in the islands, charging and becoming a Realtor. From what I’m told, Ted isn’t all that interested in talking about his past innovations in surfing these days?
This particular board came from Adelaide, and has an intriguing inscription on it. Having any inscription during this era was unique in its own right, but this has both the word “TED” and “ Gull” written in elegant script along with the classic bird like images to highlight the Gull reference I assume? Was it shaped by Ted, for Ted? Was it the precursor to the White Kite?
Please share any Ted Spencer anecdotes you may have?
