Danny Hess

I first met Danny Hess when came out to Australia for the very first Alley Fish Fry I organised some 8 years ago. He had never been to Australia and arrived with his wife Erin and a number of his great looking boards in a Wicked Camper van.He gave one of his boards to Dick Van Straalen. He is a very quiet and humble craftsman who has great wood working skills that many of us envy.This clip is a great insight into the man.He lives in San Francisco and works with a collective of other arists in this great setup.

www.hesssurfboards.com

Byron Bay Surf Festival this weekend

Come along and be part of a wonderful weekend of surfing culture and events, workshops and markets, demonstrations, movies and music. This is truley a great couple of days.

Check it out at :www.byronbaysurffestival.com

NEW: FREE bus shuttle between Clarkes and Wategos to get you to all Sunday beach events!

Surf Culture Now - from fun workshops to film events, inspiring presentations to music shows, people are coming from far and near to join in, and the Festival Program is STACKED. Don't miss out!

Print out your personal BBSF pocket guide HERE

The Sunshine Coast Eco Challenge

Eco Challenge Sunday 9th November Kawana Surf Club 

The Surfrider Sunshine Coast Eco Challenge showcases green and sustainable culture, leisure and business.

Featuring live music, a wooden surfboard event, awesome skateboard jam and demos, interactive art & eco-workshops, massive kites on the beach, drums on the beach and an eco-village filled with market stalls. With local innovative and sustainable products alternate to common consumer goods.

The event is carbon offset and in its years in existence has achieved a carbon neutral status or greater.

The event is all about creating awareness about our coast's issues and our environment through sustainability initiatives and supports Surfrider Foundation's "Rise Above Plastics" campaign. Encouraging everyone to think about their use of plastics.

For the rules and conditions of the Eco Challenge Wooden Surfboard event :  www.surfingqueensland.com/event.

Or more info on the whole event : www.surfriderecochallenge.com

The 2014 Byron Bay Surf Festival next weekend

"The three-day Byron Bay Surf Festival spans across four venues downtown and at the beachfront, manifesting in a mind-blowing display of high quality art, fashion, food, music, demonstrations, presentations, programs and every kind of ocean play from bodysurfing to tandem and ancient Hawaiian craft.

Attendance was huge last year and it came in a color and diversity reflective of Byron’s creative and unique community. The high vibe and glowing spirit of the festival was oozing from every facet and people were blown away by the cultural exchanges, quality and organization of the event."

Stay tuned for more festival event highlights - byronbaysurffestival.com

Here is a little of what went on last year...

Countdown to Byron Bay Surf Festival

FROM TREE TO BOARD | WOOD SPLITTING DEMO

 

Andy Ceglinski, owner of Wooden Anchor, is a 4th generation timber cutter and avid waterman, who will bring the practice of traditional bush skills and axe work to the beach with demonstrations of splitting a Paipo (belly board) and hand planes straight from a log using only hand tools and a very rare traditional Polynesian “dugout” surf canoe ancient surfcraft replica.

 Wooden Anchor, is a small locally owned sawmill with strong focus on producing quality sustainable timber products including paulownia timber for wooden surfboard construction.

Wood splitting, Main Beach – Sat 25th Oct

AND

Traditional Surf Canoe paddle, Wategos Beach – SUN 26 Oct

Wooden Anchor will also have Paulownia timber to purchase for DIY projects.

Traditional “ducout” Polynesian Surf Canoe replica.

Check this and more of Andy’s projects – www.woodenanchor.com.au

Two from Holland

 Simon from the Netherlands wanted to share his first two wooden boards with you.I believe they are of hollow framed construction.

The Italian Lis Fish

Silvio Arveda from Nord on the East coast of Italy has just built a hollow wood Steve Lis fish. He has sent these pics to share with you.

For all the details on the complete build process then check it out here.bonsai-lisfish.blogspot.it

Toothpick in the UK from Australia

 I often get sent some interesting questions and sometimes they are of a historical nature and that is not really my area.Here is an email from thae UK....

Hi Grant,

Just thought you might be interested in a board that I picked up last week in Mylor, Nr Falmouth,Cornwall UK. It was supposed to have been bought back to Cornwall after the second world war from Australia by a families Great Grandfather, this info is second hand, so I am trying to get more concert info to be sure.
It is 11ft 7 1/2ins x 21ins  4 1/2ins thick. The forward few feet of the deck has been replaced but poorly! and is delaminating.The bottom is one piece of ply but with the top veneer joined mid way, I presume the deck was the same originally. I was told that ply was standardised by 1952 so presume it was made before then.
I would be interested in any information on this type of board. history that you might know about? Craig Baird of Surf World commented on FB that it was interesting in that it was under 12ft and quote I saw by Matt Warshaw that Toothpicks under 12ft where considered surfboards.
Any thoughts info would be great to here,

Alex Williams

So if you can help Alex send him an email - alexcam1@btinternet.com

Rasta on the Byron Bay Surf Festival

www.byronbaysurffestival.com/program

Traditional wooden canoe demo

Going back to the roots of surfing, even further back than the ancient 16th century Hawaiian Olo surfboard, this year we’ll be showing you a replica of a traditional ‘dugout’ Polynesian Surf Canoe. History that Tom Wegener brought to light with Dave Rastovich and talented wood craftsman Andy Ceglinski.

After a massive undertaking of sourcing the right tree, transporting it to a place where it can be worked at and then realising that it was a huge mission to shape a traditional canoe with only hand tools…it took Tom Wegener, Dave Rastovich and finally Andy Ceglinski almost 1 year to finish off this traditional surf canoe replica.

 

Wategos Beach, Sun 26th Oct, 9 am – 2 pm

(specific demo time dependent on conditions – check on the day)

Don’t miss this one of a kind Traditional Polynesian Surf Canoe Demo at Wategos surfed by some who may dare.

Sergi heads to Roti

Sergi from Flama surfboards in Spain came out to Australia for a month and was my guest speaker at the surf museum for the Wooden Surfboard Day. On his way home he headed through Bali and hopped over to Roti where he had some uncrowded fun on two of his wooden boards and one I gave him.

The Slimmons , The Simmons and The Single fin got a workout. These were quite possibly the first wooden boards surfed there.

www.flamasurfboards.com