The Byron Bay Surf Festival is on again

Byron Bay Surf Festival is BACK
24 - 26 FEBRUARY 2017

"Surf Culture Now"

Wax-up your favourite boards, pack your car, grab your friends and head to Byron Bay this summer! The celebrated and award-winning Byron Bay Surf Festival…is back!!!

The BBSF crew took a slightly cheeky but strategic step and moved the annual Festival event from October to February, and for two very important reasons…to align the festival with surf season, and to celebrate the last days of summer with a bang! 

Founded in 2011, the annual Byron Bay Surf Festival is a non-competitive event focusing on surf culture; highlighting creativity, innovation, environment and sustainability. 

ABOUT

The 3-day event is a fusion of ‘Surf Culture Now’, featuring over 25 different free and ticketed events, including: surfing, surfboards, design, art, music, film, yoga, markets, fashion, presentations, education, demo’s, literature, history, food, health. Culminating on the final day, Sunday, with the highly popular freestyle&stoke surf sessions event, incorporating the hunters&collectors surfboard swap sell & demo, along the pristine shores of Wategos beach. Boasting a large international attendance it comes in a colour and diversity reflective of Byron Bay’s creative and unique community.

After winning the Surf Culture Award at the 2015 Australian Surfing Awards, for best contribution to surf culture, the Byron Bay Surf Festival increased it’s reputation as the best surf culture event in Australia and one not to be missed by any surfer, culture vulture, beach-goer, ocean enthusiast, art lover and any local or international visitor. The festivals mission statement reads, ‘present and maintain the culture of surfing, as an expression, art and lifestyle. Ensure that the festival reflects the values and creative culture of the Byron region and community.’ As world renowned film maker Jack McCoy quoted one year:
 “This was an amazing festival spoken from the heart to the community. There was so much Aloha, you guys really did the community a service which was felt all around town.”

Seems the mission of the festival continues being accomplished!

SCHEDULE

Friday

 Starting on the Friday afternoon with the Internationally curated artshow at the Lone Goat Gallery, the festival then moves up the road and on to Byron’s main beach foreshore for the sunset cinema which begins with a traditional welcome to country blessing from the local Arakwal and Bundjalung tribes, then on to the feature film, also including a short film, and then rounding off the first evening with live music and cold bevy’s at Byron famous ‘Beachy’ hotel.

Saturday

 The Saturday of the festival on Byron’s main beach foreshore is huge! Lined with the sprawling Surf Art Market and tipi pop-up zone this curation of all things culturally yummy tends to lure the curiosity of surfers, non surfers, the young & old, visitors, families and all sorts of ocean lovers and explorers alike, with people from many nations joining in each year. Starting with 7am yoga on the beach this indulgent day includes artshows, films, presentations, demonstrations, workshops, and an entire surf literature lounge schedule of book talks, signings and readings.

An international line-up of both established and eclectic surfboard shapers usually haunt the tipi zone exhibiting their new creations and talking with curious customers, onlookers and design junkies. All these happenings are bedded in amongst a gourmet of local and mostly organic foods, beautiful and innovative surfcrafts, delectable and cool fashion, and all this groovin’ along to the sound of live music acts from Byron Shire and many other parts of Australia. 

All events throughout the 3-day festival are free entry, aside from the community centre events, the Sunday evening wrap-up party and the greatly anticipated and high profile ticketed event on the Saturday evening. This sunset event, presented in an amazing natural environment with an intimate stage tucked in the trees along the coast, will include acoustic music, the very popular short film comp finals, an exciting surprise event and 2 amazing final live music acts.
TICKETS for this event will be very limited and will go on Sale with first locals release November 1st (stay tuned!!)

Sunday

The Sunday is beach day!! Rise and shine early at Wategos beach with the freestyle&stoke surf sessions including the hunters&collectors show, sell and demo of collectable, unique, and modern surfboards which litter the grass and foreshore in a spectacular display of handmade, art-driven and sustainably produced surfcraft. Right at the tip of Australia’s most easterly point BBSF will be hosting a handful of unique surf sessions. Most interesting could be the finless and tandem demonstrations or the newly introduced surfer/shaper session, along with the regular sessions including logs, mermaids, legends and fish categories and the very popular Party Wave Invitational cash dash which lands one very lucky surfer $1000 cash!! Brainchild of event organisers the freestyle&stoke surf sessions do not focus on traditional competitive surfing but rather it’s about the fun and pure stoke of freestyling your own creative way across a wave on the surfcraft of your choice with a peer-voted surfer in each category taking honours.

Wrapping up this amazing weekend it’s only good manners that we throw a little party on Sunday eve! This event will include live music, food and after a hot summer’s day, probably plenty of bevy’s. Again, tickets will be very limited for this event and will go on sale with second release December 1st.

This is such a great event and it is so good that it is back on. Check their website for updates

www.byronbaysurffestival.com.au

 

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.