For Wegener Surfboards, the Festival was great fun and gave us lots of publicity. We caught up with hundreds of our best friends in our shack at surf city and revelled in the success of the finless surfing movement.

The Wegener week kicked off prior to the Festival, when we made a custom Olo for Dave Rastovich. We started with huge slabs of paulownia and spent two weeks milling, gluing, and shaping the wood into a fine 16-foot, 160-pound, solid surfboard. In the surf shack we oiled the board and Dave surfed at Granite Bay. Tears welled up in the eyes of the onlookers as Rasta skilfully steered the board across the walls of water just as the Hawaiian royalty had done in the distant past, demonstrating as he did so how surfing is truly the sport of kings.

The contest started with a free finless surfing exhibition, mainly on alaias and my new foam version of the alaia. The surf was absolutely perfect and the likes of Harrison Roach, Christian Wach and Taylor Jenson were happy to surf first point with no competition from other surfers. The viewers were very enthusiastic and the comment I heard most often was that the boards were much faster than anything they had seen before. Also, they couldn’t believe that a finless board could hold into a tube so well.

I was pleased to see that my new mini-tuna foam boards were surfing at a very high level alongside the alaias. I have been working on the foam tuna hulls recently, mixing them with flex from an EPS blank. I cannot believe how much water is displaced by the ‘Tuna’ tail – do check out the previous entry in this blog and how we learned about lift. The big rooster tail that Isaac Blyth is throwing out in this picture is formed because of the water rushing through the concave. Also, check out the line of spay thrown by Jacob Stuth as he does a bottom turn on his peanut. Jacob is still the master alaia rider.

During the week there was a shapers forum on surfboard design. There was the largest group of shapers I had ever seen and I was absolutely beside myself to share a stage with heroes like Bill Wallace, Bob McTavish, Mark Richards, Simon Anderson, and Peter Townsend. We each gave a bit of a talk on our contribution to surfboard design, and I spoke about how the surfer in the Diamond Head photo showed me about how the ancients had used concaves and parabolic rails.

[L to R] Simon Anderson, Mark Richards, Thomas Meyerhoffer, Phil Jarratt, PT holding the photo, Micky Munoz, Mike Henson, Bob McTavish, Bing, Joe Larkin, Bill Rice, Gordon Woods, Bill Wallace. And me talking.

There was plenty going on in the evenings, too. Richard Tognetti, the great Australian violinist, played live to surf clips including Derek Hynd riding finless at Jeffreys Bay. Jack McCoy hosted a night of short, living-room-style surf movies including Denny Auberg’s (he was there) Super-8 footage behind-the-scenes of ‘Big Wednesday’, and George Greenough’s new narration for the tuberiding sequences in ‘Innermost Limits’. One night, the real Gidget, Kathy Kohner Zuckerman, hosted a girls’ night out featuring fashion, stories, and music… The fun never ends during the Festival.

During the week the surf was pumping off its head all day long and surfers were soon weary from the hours paddling. After surfs, we relaxed in our Wegener shack in surf city and talked story. We had lots of time to contemplate where surfing is going and what surfers would like. It seemed to me that shapers have been focusing on fins on boards for a very long time and not looking at flex and twist in surfboards. The alaia is based on flex and the new foam tuna/alaias I am making are held into the wave by flex more than edges or concaves. I think I will be focusing on taking what we know about fins and the boards based around them and mixing them with the advantages of flex in the future.

One thing I have noticed is that almost all surfers want a light surfboard that is easy to transport yet can still catch waves. The alaia is the smallest and easiest board to travel with, as well as the best board in the world when on the wave, but it is very difficult to paddle. For the vast majority of surfers, the EPS foam tuna board will be a very good surfboard. It is very small and light, easy to paddle, extremely fast – which suits good surfers – and easy to belly board – which suits beginners. And, very important for today’s more crowded surf conditions, it is VERY SAFE to ride. There are no fins or sharp points and the foam is softer than regular boards.

My life as a surfboard maker has taken many twists and turns as I try new ways to ride waves. Nothing has been more surprising than the success of the alaia! Now I am taking a new direction to help more surfers enjoy the waves. I have been wrestling with the fact that I am experimenting with boards that are not green, and that I do not enjoy making – nothing is as good as wood in my book. But there is a place for these boards. I think surfing is a bit stuck with the domination of the tri-fin surfboard. Don’t get me wrong, these are good, but they’re a little one-dimensional. I think that this foam finless board will open up a wide range of surfing to the majority of surfers who are not interested in wood.

My love for Noosa – despite never having actually been there before – is founded on photos and tales of epic point breaks, perfect for longboarding and with the backdrop of the national park and a quaint little town.

Plus I was going to catch up with shaper and Drift’s wooden wander Tom Wegener, who resides here and has been kind enough to offer me a place to crash!

I’d checked the internet last night and there were already images coming through of 3-foot, perfectly peeling, hollow swell and it was expected to last most of the week. I won’t lie – I just wanted to get there asap!

After arriving mid-afternoon (a day earlier than planned, due to the weather) I headed to First Point (after the now routine fight for a parking space!) to catch up with Tom and shoot his finless exhibition on the beach. Strolling along the white sands and mid-way through drooling over the peeling rights that were being carved apart by the surf competitors, I bumped into Tom’s apprentice Matt – I’d last seen him in sunny Cornwall, so he was rather puzzled to find me turning up, like the proverbial bad penny, in his hometown!

Tom soom rustled up his trusty crew of alaia riders for a team shot before they all hit the water for a demo heat, including a 14-foot traditional log!

Shooting from the rocks and watching the sets has made me fall in love with Noosa all over again. It’s everything I expected, and then some.

The now-familiar stoke that Tom showed during his shaping sessions back at Newquay cam over the tannoy during the finless demo. He has so much passion; it’s no wonder he’s managed to (excuse the pun) carve his way into the shaping scene.

Some people shape for money.

Some people shape for fun.

Tom obviously shapes because he loves it.

The various shapes, styles and types of finless board in the water took full advantage of the perfect conditions, sliding and spinning across perfect Noosa faces with Tom’s stoke rippling through the crowd.

After the heat came the festival’s opening ceremony, something I was keen to witness. First off was some traditional didging by a local ripper, then came the mixing of water.

A bowl was produced and in front of the crowd people poured in water from their local breaks. By the end of the ceremony the bowl contained water from all corners of Oz, as well as further afield – Jersey, Japan, Brazil, Canada, the US and Chile.

This was truly an international event. I only wish I’d brought some of North Devon’s finest brine to add to the pot!

Next was the paddle out, and everyone who had access to a board headed for the water and got into the line-up. This was followed by the traditional Hawaiian joining of hands and Ocean Prayer. I opted to photograph it rather than participate, and it looked perfect in the setting evening sun.

As the surfers splashed water over their heads the festival was officially on.

…Roll on the next few days