First up was Mitchell Rae from the Scotts Head area of NSW where he shapes for his Outer Islands Surfboard label. He has been shaping for some 30+ years and favours balsa when building wooden boards. He has shaped them in the jungles of West Java from local balsa and for many well known surfers. Chambering is his preferred method with a layer of 4 oz glass. It has been said, “His influence in Australian surfboard design has been considerable and could be said to parallel what the Campbell Bros (creators of the Bonza) did in California. Yet he remains at the cottage industry level of production. He has followed his own path, remained his own man, stayed underground and never been seen to beat his own drum”. Today Mitchell continues to make unique craft for a largely custom market, and is widely known for his concaves, balsa guns and the “spirit eyes” which feature on the front of his boards.

A great day and a nice spread of chambered Balsa boards by Mitchell Rae , Outer Island Surfboards

Mitchell was followed by young student and university tutor Mike Grobelny from Auckland, New Zealand. Mike has just graduated with a Masters in Furniture Design from Auckland University of Technology. As a project he had looked at numerous organic ways of building a surfboard such as blanks from cereals, popcorn and the like. But decided that surfing on a board made from food while people in other parts of the world were starving was maybe not the right thing to be doing. So he settled on soild sustainable woods such as paulownia and bamboo.This he set about with his new found hi-tech computer aided skills and a CNC router. From the solid block was carved over some 6 hours a 3D hollow surfboard that really needed very little hand finishing. The main body of the board was cored out with a honeycomb pattern to lighten the board and provide a tight platform for a 1.8mm 3ply of bamboo to be used as the only deck skin. No fibreglass to seal it, just gum turpentine and wax. Very technical, but in the end very simple. Light, definitely head turning and cutting edge. He has only ever made 6 boards and he had 4 of them on display. It will be very interesting to see where he goes with this and what the future holds.

Mike Grobelny from New Zealand with a couple of samples of his high tech approach to wooden boards

He certainly had people scratching their heads and inspired many

Paul Joske resides in the Nambucca Valley on the mid North coast of NSW and has been building surfboards since 1969. In 1970 he founded Valla surfboards, which he still operates today with the assistance of his son Sage. His involvement with timber goes back to his youth when he built a twin fin belly board out of balsa, followed by his first surfboard which was hollow plywood. He has always been interested in using wood for surfboards. In 1998 he was commissioned to build the first paulownia surfboard in Australia, which was a huge success and saw the attributes of this timber realised. The board was to be a green as possible with hand made Ebony fin boxes and fins. With only a little glue holding the chambered beams together and a coat of gum turpentine and wax to seal it. It weighs in at only half a kilo more than a foam board of the same dimensions. Paul’s interest in surfing and surfboards is broad, both in the water and in the shaping room. He relishes the challenge of different designs and timbers, and building one-off specialty boards.

The Joske tent with plenty of great wooden boards built by Sage and his Dad Paul.

The Museum is such a great venue for this sort of gathering and has a wonderful collection of boards to inspire anyone interested in surf history.

The following day Sunday 7th August we were greeted with a beautiful day in the sun, but unfortunately northerly winds pushing the swell around. Not to worry there were plenty of great looking boards laid out in the park across the road from the beach at Currumbin Alley. All shapes, sizes and ages. But one common denominator was that they were all built in a variety of woods. There is no easy way to build a wooden surfboard, no matter what size. So what you find is that there is a great deal of stoke and mutual respect for anybody who has brought a board along and laid it out on the park. No matter what the outcome to ride a board you have built yourself is a great experience. A great journey of discovery really. You learn an awful lot about yourself.

For most of us it is a balance between desire, skill and the tools we have at hand. On the other end of the scale there were a number of carpenters, cabinet makers, furniture builders and other wooden workers who surf and decided to build a wooden board. First timers, self-taught and long-term shapers. A great mix of experiences and this is what the day is all about. Getting together with a bunch of like minded people and sharing what we have learned and being inspired by others around us. There are so many ways to build a board and there are so many variables and by sharing our experiences we all learn so much faster. Every thing from kookboxes to handplanes were on display.

Paul Joske and Roger Hall discuss the finer points of Rogers solid Paulownia tow board

There were young kids there looking to start a school project, to 80+ yrs Barry Regan from Ballina who builds beautiful old-school boards. A 1958 solid balsa pig shaped by Dale Velzy was great to see out there amongst the shiny modem shapes.

80 + year old Barry Regan from Balina , still building boards and getting out for the odd paddle when he can.

There is a lot of interest in wooden boards worldwide for a variety of reasons I suppose. You can build a board with a small selection of hand tools and very little mess. If it is built from paulownia you can save a lot of weight, money and mess by not having to glass it. It is something you can work away at when you have time and at the end you have created something very personal that you will have a great connection with. They will last a lot longer than a foam board. Mitchell Rae still surfs one he shaped some 24 years ago that still looks as good as the day he finished it. They can stay in the family for years and be handed down or hung on the wall as an treasured piece of art.

Flextail Balsa by Mitchell Rae

So if you didn’t manage to get down to check them out this year be sure to look in next year on the first weekend in August or check the blog to see what others are doing at woodensurfboards.blogspot.com

For just a week, they are offering free shipping to anywhere in the continental U.S. on all thier HomeGrown Kits. That will save you between $50 and $175 depending on which kit you’ve had your eye on. You’ve got a couple months to build yourself a board you can be proud of and have it ready to surf when the warm temps arrive for good.

The classic beauty of his longboard and double-fin wooden fish showcased at the event captivated me, and made me think about how difficult it is to pigeonhole surfing as either a sport or an art form.

In theory, the act of gliding on waves can reach the level of art, as each surfer has the freedom to express himself on a board in the same way that a musician is free to compose, play and sing whatever he wants. But in Brazil, things don’t always work that way. You need only take a quick look at the standardisation that prevails on our beaches and you’ll soon be puzzled by questions like: “Who determined that all surfboards should be 6’2 squash-tail thrusters?” “Who decided that all surfboards should be made from polyurethane?” “Why is every surfer trying to perform the same manoeuvres on every wave?”

There’s a real absence of freedom as a result of this standardisation of surfing. What would happen to music if all musicians were obliged to play rock, with only bass, guitar and drums? Or to art if painters could only produce pictures with a limited colour palette?

Fortunately, change is on the horizon, with the advent of new forms of surfing and the revival of old practices, as evidenced by the popularity of tow-in surfing, the SUP phenomenon, and the resurgence of interest in classic boards and alaias. This broad mix of approaches to surfing has freedom of expression on a board as its common denominator.

When I first discovered Siebert Woodcraft Surfboards I thought I had bumped into a vintage California surf brand. But to my surprise, the person responsible for this nostalgia was a 31-year-old fellow here in my hometown Florianopolis who, in 2006, began producing handcrafted hollow-wood style surfboards.

Academically trained in biology and engineering, Felipe is a self-taught shaper who combines a respect for the past with contemporary technology. The results are works of art in their own right, but they also inspire surfers to experiment with new ways of expressing themselves on the waves. To me, Siebert’s work offers a way to escape the sameness and the capitalist stagnation of the surf industry – he combines a respect for the environment with the recovery of ancient forms of shaping.

How would you define the spirit of surfing?
This is a very complex issue. Nowadays it is fashionable to be a surfer, but surfing’s roots are as an underground culture – from its birth in California in the 1950s and 60s to the beginning’s of its popularity in Brazil a little later, it was a mark of rebellion against society. So I believe the true spirit of surfing is to get something creative and different – the opposite of what happens today, where almost everyone wants to be Kelly Slater. If it were possible for us all to be Slater, it would be interesting, but that is certainly not the case.
Avelino Bastos of Tropical Brasil (one of the top shapers in Brazil) said recently: “If our strange desire to surf like everybody else went away, I think the future of design would be much better.” I couldn’t have put it better…

What’s the market for classic and longboards like in Brazil?
The longboard scene here is regionalised, being concentrated in Rio de Janeiro, Santos, and Balneario Camboriu. Here in Florianópolis this culture doesn’t exist – surfers here think longboards are for beginners or surfers who lack the physical prowess to use short boards.
Even though in California, Australia and Europe alternative models like hollow-wood longboards complete a surfer’s quiver, here even surfers with little ability insist on only surfing with the same board they see a WCT pro-surfer use. They forget that we don’t have three-foot plus, offshore clean waves everyday, and that they will eventually spend most of the summer struggling to ride their thin shortboards on the inside section.

How do you see Brazil’s surf culture evolving in relation to the traditional centres of California, Hawaii and Australia?
In California, where classic longboard is big, championships are completely ignored. I follow several websites and magazines and never hear the names of some longboard world champions such as the Hawaiian Bonga Perkins and Brazilian Phil Rajzman, surfers with a more progressive (modern) style.
Outside Brazil it seems that surf culture has split into two camps. There’s one set of people who worship the stereotypical surfer of the 1990s: bright, baggy boardies, waxed blonde hair, logo’d-up with all the major brands that sponsor the World Tour. Then there’s this new perspective, with a focus on surfing’s art and culture, which began in Hawaii and was nurtured in California from the 1950s, and has been distorted and developed over these last decades. This new segment emphasises the small and important things in surfing. The surf shops that follow this new trend value local products that can’t be found in other stores; products with soul, for want of a better word, designed by individuals, as opposed to the industrial products manufactured in China by large corporations. This enhances and develops a singular style of surfing, peculiar to each region.
In my experience, though, the majority of people lack the personality to follow their own line, and instead want to be like everyone else. It is easier to go with the crowd than to challenge yourself.

What or who inspires your work?
One of the things that excites me is to discover more about boards both past and present, and I love the movies and everything else to do with classic surf culture. Films like ‘One California Day’, ‘Sprout’, ‘Lines From a Poem’. I find inspiration in books like ‘Greg Noll: The Art of the Surfboard’, ‘Leroy Grannis’, ‘Stoked’, ‘Eddie Would Go’. There are so many incredible shapers that influence me: Tom Wegener, Greg Noll, Bing Copeland, Rich Harbor, Hobie Alter, Dale Velzy, Hap Jacobs, Dewey Weber, Gordon & Smith. And the new generation of shapers too, like Robbie Kegel (Gato Heroi), Dave Allee, Paulo Jacinto, Michel Junod, who are marrying functionality and classic style. Then there’s the surfers, like Alex Knost, Tom Wegener, Rasta, Joel Tudor, Tyler Warren, Jimmy Gamboa, CJ Nelson, Dane Perlee, among many others.

You’re one of the pioneers in the manufacture of wooden boards in Brazil; what are your plans for the future?
Actually, I’m only a pioneer – or one of them – if you consider the ‘post-foam’ generation. In Brazil, even before the arrival of PU boards, we already had wooden models called Madeirite and hollow boards based on designs developed by Tom Blake.
This past year we have had a huge number of orders for boards. We’re also creating a new line of skateboards that should be ready for release in a couple of months.
We’re currently testing some lamination techniques that utilise less-harmful materials as an alternative to resin and woven fibreglass, but I suspect it will be some time before we can stop using the ordinary resins completely. In order for us to use these new materials on a large scale, we must be certain that they have strength and quality that’s at least equal to the materials already in use.
I believe that our path will be defined by the choices customers make when they invest in a new board. New techniques and materials invariably come at a higher cost to the consumer – but hopefully many people will be willing to invest in a clean material as long as it performs as well as those already on the market.

Felipe has recently collaborated with American artists Jesse Ledoux and Dustin Ortiz, and Brazilian artist (and Drift US blogger) Jair Bortoleto to release a limited-edition surfboard – it’s the first collaboration between an shaper and an artist in Brazil to create an artist signature model. Find out more here.

www.siebertsurfboards.com
www.surfecult.blogspot.com

I’ve always enjoyed the aesthetic of wood; I guess it conjures up memories of being a kid and building tree houses in the woods surrounding my house. But it’s also the patterns… the natural flow of the grain that’s brought out by varnish is an exceptional example of how intricate and beautiful nature is. I might just hug a tree…

Years back, I was perusing the boards in Tiki when I noticed a dark wood laminate longboard with a lighter inlay, which signified the start of my love affair. It firmly planted the idea that one day I would invest in such a luscious looking stick.

Later, when I was in my last year of university and planning my final exhibition piece, the world of wood and eco surfing popped back into my field of vision. I came up with a plan and spent the next few months emailing shapers and surfers around the world, gathering info, eyeing up flights and creating storyboards. To cut a long story short, I flew to Ecuador (more to come on that in a later blog, promise) and returned home with memory cards rammed to the brim with photos and a tasty 6’6 balsa fish under my arm.

There’s something very relaxing about surfing a wooden board (and I want to point out here that I’m no pro surfer… nor am I exceptionally good. I’m an average Joe who surfs ’cos it gets me stoked). The board sits high in the water, making it easy to paddle. This positioning also means it copes well with our English mist, gracefully cutting through the chop with minimal effect on your balance. It also seems very appropriate to be harnessing the power of nature with a natural product, almost like the ocean rewards you for not filling it with polyurethane. Plus you look pimpingly hot walking down the beach with the board!

Since then I have sold that fish, but replaced it with a 9’2 D-fin longboard courtesy of Vintage Surfboards in Newquay (shaped by Mr Mark Neville at Seabase). And I’m equally intoxicated by the ride.

Bottom line is wood surfs well, looks gorgeous and is better for the environment. Sure it costs more dollar, but it don’t cost the Earth – that’s a good tick in the karma box.

My wooden stoke is hitting an all time high this week as I’m heading down to the ’Quay to meet the ever inspiring (and Drift’s champion wood-crafting wanderer) Mr Tom Wegner at Revolver for a day of alaia, sawdust, banter and hopefully a few good waves. I shall, of course, be providing you all with a host of lovely images that might possibly inspire a few of you to shape your own alaia blanks.

Take it easy.

Come along for the day and – as well as checking out the amazing boards on show – you’ll be able to sit down and talk to the guys who built them. They’ll hopefully be able to help solve any problems you might have come across during your own construction.

Like the Fish Fry, this is a non-commercial and non-competitive get together. Many hours go into building a wooden board, so you tend to find that it’s passion rather than commercial enterprise that tends to drive most wooden board builders. But Grant maintains that “There is nothing better than catching that first wave on a board you have built yourself. Come and see some great boards and maybe demo one to feel the difference in wood.”

For more info email Grant or check out www.woodensurfboards.blogspot.com