Wooden Board Day 2017

This years Wooden Board Day was part of the Byron Bay Surf Festival and it was a long hot summers day in the park. But heaps of interest in what we do as a hobby and the quality of boards on display goes up each year. A big thanks to the guys who came along and those that travelled a long way, it was much appreciated. We had people who had flown in for the weekend just to catch up and see what we were doing and ask questions about wooden board building. It was interesting in that I had a number of boat builders and carpenters who surf and yet had not thought of building a wooden board until recently and the weekend was the catalyst for them making a commitment to make a start. Lots of us start with very few wood working skills or tools compared to these guys. As I tell people, if you love your surfing there is no better feeling than paddling in on your first wave on a board you made yourself. And of the millions of people who surf world wide, very few surf on a self made board, letter lone a wooden one. "We are a splinter group".

Amazing art by Gareth Smith from Wollongong

He was at it all day long. Great guy.

Flat bed router work by Mike Grobelny from New Zealand. Inspired by bees and lots of machine time. Hand painted and varnished board by Grant Newby.

A nice lineup of wooden craft

Wooden Anchor stand.

Some nice hand foiled wooden fins

Hollow framed raw wood waiting for rails

Wooden Anchor frame kits on show.

Andy from Wooden Anchor giving all his secrets away.

The talented James Robinson fro Bound By Sea getting quizzed on how an earth he does what he does.

Bound by Sea

The insides of a hollow fish

A lot of skill and hard work

A couple of clean boards by the " Wooden Buddha " Torsen Kofler

A nice selection of chambered boards by Tyron Morgan

Steve Hann from the Sunshine Coast with some very clean modern shapes.

School teacher Trent Palmer from Hillbrook school in Brisbane with a sample of the boards he has taught his students and parents to build. Helping set kids up with a sustainable outlook on life and surfing.

Some of Tom Wegener's Paulownia botton / cork topped ,very flexi boards he has been working on and developing.

Seeking shade on a hot day.

Fin Wegener holding the fort while Tom signs his book at the book launch.

Tom and his wife take sonme time out

Free hand and straight into it on the spot.

A lot of time and detail by Gareth Smith

A nice selection

Some of Tom's "Corkies"

Some very light weight hollow Balsa boards by Nathan Grey from Bondi.

Nice detail by Stuart Bywater

Tyron Morgan looking for shade on a hot day

Great finish on a couple of Stuart Bywater baoards

Here are a couple of great looking boards by Andy Wallace of Freedom Surfboards from Old Bar. 

He selects the wood for each board to give them each a different story and character.

Alaia slayer

Nobby came out from Japan to teach wooden fin making and pass on his skills and knowledge

The history of the belly board.

Nobby and local baord maker / wooden master craftsman Mike Connor

Nobby from Japan is a fine artist in wood craft.

Lots of interest from people from all walks of life and ages all day long.

Jun from Surfers Country had a couple of his new wooden wares on display

All shapes and sizes. Even a Paulownia canoe

Duke replica hand carved from one solid piece of Paulownia

Camphor Laurel board by Stuart Bywater just shone.

A great way to get to the beach

Nice finage

A couple of nice boards by Heath and local board builder

Tom Carroll dropped by to talk to Trent about the program he has created at the school for the kids to learn new skills and set them up for the future. "A huge wrap goes to Gabe Kelly, current year 10 student whose board caught the eye of Tom Carroll. He was impressed with his shaping skills and was wanting permission to take it for a spin at Wategos Beach!"

The art of wood / art on wood

So looking forward to checking out James Roberton of Bound By Sea as he is the master of his craft. He will be in the Wood Shed precinct with all the board builders at this weekends Byron Bay Surf Festival.

From sketch to the finished design hand burnt into the wood.

A true labour of love and so many hours burning these designs into the wood. The deft touch of the master.

Less than 4 weeks to this years Wooden Surfboard Day

This year the Wooden Surfboard Day will be hosted by the Byron Bay Surf Festival where you will find us and many other wooden board builders located in"The Woodshed" precinct. To those of you that plan on bringing boards and joining in on the days display, remember it is the same as other years that have been held in Currumbin. It is a non commercial and non competitive gathering and we have been given a space in the middle of the festival in Denning Park, with great exposure to all festival goers.The site is just to the East of the corner of Bay Street and Middelton Street in Denning Park just before the kids playground area (look for the "Woodshed" sign).

We need to be in the park and setup by 9am and the day finishes at 4.30pm.

Every board displayer will need to register on the day before laying out their boards.

We will have a great gathering of very talented board builders on the day and there will be lots to talk about and share. 

At 1.00 PM we will have a Wooden Board Open Forum in the Wood Shed precinct where Andy Ceglinski will take us through all things Paulownia and it's great attributes, from seedlings through to milling it for building boards. 

Tom Wegener will then talk about the history of wooden boards and the artisan side of board building from his recently published book. 

Stuart Bywater, a fine furniture maker that conducts wooden surfboard making classes in Brisbane,  will take us down the path of building hollow wooden surfboards with timber frames.

Then Tom Wegener and Grant Newby will talk about vacuum bagging Paulownia and Cork over EPS and other possibilities.

Trent Palmer, a school teacher from Hillbrook Anglican School in Brisbane will run through his program with the students, parents and staff building boards, while including and implementing the sustainable aspects of surfing.

There are always lots of questions to be asked and this will give you a great opportunity to ask as many as you like.

If you have any questions please contact me : GrantNewby@bigpond.com