Wooden Surfboards Day 2011 & night at the Gold Coast Surf Museum

On Saturday night 6th of August will be a get together at the
Gold Coast Surf Museum.

This is great opportunity to meet other people interested in building and riding wooden surfboards of all kinds. It is also a chance to hear from some very talented individuals who build them. Building a wooden board is not an easy thing to do but a very rewarding journey. Mitchell Rae, Paul Joske and Mike Grobelny will give a brief overview of their backgrounds and experiences with building boards. This will be followed by an open question and answer forum with the guys. This is just a sample of the talented shapers locally and internationally you’re likely to meet at the Wooden Board Day in the park at Currumbin Alley the next day.

Mitchell Rae

Mitchell is based at Scotts Head on the NSW mid coast and has recently completed a small factory in nearby Urunga. He has been shaping for more than 30 years and favours balsa when making wooden boards. Over the years he has been influenced by skills he gleaned from travelling abroad – namely Japan and Hawaii.It has been said, “His influence in Australian surfboard design has been considerable and could be said to parallel what the Campbell Bros (creators of the Bonza) did in California. Yet he remains at the cottage industry level of production. He has followed his own path, remained his own man, stayed underground and never been seen to beat his own drum”. Today Mitchell continues to make unique craft for a largely custom market, and is widely known for his concaves, balsa guns and the “spirit eyes” which feature on the front of his boards.

Mike Grobelny

Mike hails from Auckland, NZ where he is a design technician in the workshop at the School of Art and Design. After a year at design school he realised his passion was more in creating and building physical objects like furniture instead of 2D visual communication.This led to an honours degree in product design.
With a keen interest in surfing he applied his newfound high-tech skills and modern technology and began experimenting using CNC routing and a large block of paulownia to create a surfboard that has the skeletal strength and high performance qualities of a synthetic surfboard.
Mike’s approach to wooden boards comes from quite a different direction and it will be interesting to see what he believes the future holds.

Paul Joske

Paul resides in the Nambucca Valley on the mid north coast of NSW and has been building surfboards since 1969. In 1970 he founded Valla surfboards, which he still operates today with the assistance of his son Sage. His involvement with timber goes back to his youth when he built a twin fin belly board out of balsa, followed by his first surfboard which was hollow plywood. He has always been interested in using wood for surfboards. In 1998 he was commissioned to build the first Paulownia surfboard, which was a huge success and saw the attributes of this timber realised. Paul’s interest in surfing and surfboards is broad, both in the water and in the shaping room. He relishes the challenge of different designs and timbers, and building one-off specialty boards.

The Gold Coast Surf Museum is in Tomewin Street, Currumbin
Saturday 6th August 6.30pm for a 7pm start
$10 admission to the Museum includes one cold drink
To book a place or buy a ticket please call the Surf Museum : Ph: 07 5525 6380

Surf World Gold Coast is a not-for-profit museum dedicated to celebrating the history and culture of surfing.

www.surfworldgoldcoast.com