History: 1958 Bing Copeland and Rick Stoner Sail to Tahiti and New Zealand
Photos: Bev Morgan. Left: Bing sailing the Jinni somewhere between Hawaii and Tahiti. Right: Bing making sure the boards are secure before sailing from Moorea to Papeete. Bottom Right: Rick & Bing in Tahiti with Jinni behind.
In the Spring of 1958 Bing Copeland and Rick Stoner hopped on a boat named Jinni with Bill and Jean Schallenberg who suggested they come along as they sailed around the world. Bing and Rick had just finished their time in the Coast Guard so they were free to travel and explore the world.
“They had a 42-foot, cutter-rigged sailboat, the Jinni, and we were very used to sailing it,” says Copeland. “Of course we signed on. We jumped at the chance.”
The Schallenberg boat got Bing and Rick to Tahiti and Moorea before it needed repairs and was heading back to Tahiti. As luck would have it the two adventurers met a 65-year-old retired harbor pilot from Brisbane who had a schooner sailboat and was heading back to Australia. So Bing and Rick jumped on with him and his crew and ended up visiting Roratonga, Bora Bora, Fiji and finally New Zealand.
There time in New Zealand played a large role in the eventual opening of their first Surf Shop and surfboard manufacturing operation that would be realized in the Fall of 1959. There label would be called “Bing & Rick Surfboards” and the shop was opened on the Strand in Hermosa Beach.
To read more detail about this time be sure to purchase “Bing Surfboards fifty years of craftsmanship & innovation” here: https://www.bingsurf.com/product/bing-surfboards-book/
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I started surfing when I was about 15 in Virginia Beach, and my first board was an old funboard from WRV that was about 7’6” and had glass on thrusters and an insane airbrush.
