Woodern Surfboard Day 2016

What a great day and big thanks to all those who turned up with boards and made it one to remember.

These photos above care of Peter Strum of My Perspectives Photography

 Torstan aka The Wooden Budha who writes a great story on his blog on any of his projects had a nice display of his art fin making and boards

Sydney based James Robertson of Bound By Sea with his beautiful Pyrography / Wood burning / hot poker art on hand made alaia's.

There was a nice selection of longboards fishes and mini simmons from Felipe Siebert from Brazil who was out here for 3 months earlier in the year. His good friend Tiago Miotto from Umina Beach on the central coast had them there on sunday

There were 3 school teachers there on the day who head up manual arts departments at different schools in Noosa , Brisbane and the Gold Coast and have started wooden board building classes for students.

Trent Palmer from Hillbrook Anglican School in Brisbane had a great display of boards built by his students

Eiron Evans of Evanjade Wooden Boards came up with his family from Newcastle for the day. He builds hollow surfboards , hand planes , fins, wooden leash plugs and displayed some great wood craft skills in all the pieces he had on display.

Andy Ceglinski from Wooden Anchor who’s family has been in the traditional sawmill and timber business in the Byron Bay region since 1976. Andy mills and finishes Paulownia and supplies it to board builders as well as builds boards himself. He has a love of all things timber and has carved out a canoe from a whole Paulownia log using traditional tools like the adze and draw knife.

 

 

More of James's work

Also great to have traditional hand shapers like Joel Fitzgerald there and talk with hm about his interest in building a more sustainable surfboard

A great looking balsa board

Jun's first wooden board

John Winship checking out a board

Andy Wallace of Freedom Surfboards from Old Bar had some well crafted boards and he looks at each one as a piece of art. A lot of love in his boards and each one has a story. A passionate man.

Mike Connor , hollow Bush Pig

Stuart discussing the finer points

Great winters day on the Gold Coast

The pros and cons always to be discussed

Local Pottsville shaper Jun Kurahashi of Surfers Country proudly displaying his first unglassed wooden board.

Tom Wegener discussing his new cork deck baords , lots of flex

 

Some of Tom's collection of clssic boards from around the world

Admiring the craftsmanship of a John Devereux fin

Great day - Gold Coast winters day

Stuart Bywater a fine furniture maker from Brisbane also conducts wooden board building classes a number of time a year. He had a large collection of boards built by students who were there on the day as well. Great to have their support.
Stuart is also the main source of Paulownia in this neck of the woods.

A tribute board to great mate

Nobuhito Ohkawa “ Nobby” of Nobbywood Surfboards from Chiba Japan was out for the week to display a couple of boards and his beautiful multi laminated wooden fins that are unglassed and have a great flex.He has been a great supporter and made the trip for a number of years. He is a very traditional Japanese wooden craftsman , who builds a great hollow board finished in marine varnish.

At 11 o'clock we had Tom Wegener talk about what he has been up to and he gave a pretty good run down of the history of wooden boards under the Trees of knowledge.This was followed by Stuart Bywater explaining how he got into board building and the method he has developed for his board building classes.

We also discussed the unique culture we have developed as a group where we feel free to share our ideas , methods and what we have learnt along the journey of building a wooden board. It is not a fast process and there is no easy way to build a wooden board ,so there is plenty of time and effort put into making it happen. This spirit of sharing is pretty unique in the surf industry or any small industry for that matter and sets us apart.It sets us up to innovate and experiment in a collective and inclusive environment that has led to the boards that are being built and displayed looking and performing better each year.

 

Andy Wallace from Old Bar getting a bit of coverage on Channel 9

The end of another big day in the park.

Thanks everyone for all your efforts in coming along and sharing the stoke of building your own board and encouraging others to get on board.