Surfing culture and hand shaping surfboards in Wollongong
Posted on: Mon, 2010-02-08 09:51
Over the past year I have been conducting a series of interviews and research tours with a group of well known surfboard makers in Wollongong. As a surfer myself I have been aware of the changes occurring with the surfboard making industry - locally and gloablly - whereby hand making skills are being increasingly replaced by computer automation.
Basically most surfboards now being sold in surf shops are produced using profiling machines. This method uses a series of measurements punched into a numerical control software program, with the profiling machine carving out the polyurethane blank, to create the surfboard structure.
In Wollongong, there are a number of 'shapers' who have resisted the wider industry trend, and continue to produce surfboards using traditional hand-making methods. The interesting part is these shapers are approaching retirement age and have expressed uncertainty regarding the future of hand-making in the Wollongong region. Some have attempted to plan for succession, while others have said they will simply close the doors once they retire.
Emerging from my work has been a story of creativity and craftmanship within hand-making surfboards, which I am documenting into an article. Surf culture has been commodified into a multi-billion dollar per year industry (apparel, surfboard trade, tourism etc), and is particularly important to Wollongong and the surrounding south coast region.
With world-class surf breaks, surfers and board makers, I have been motivated to investigate these cultural assets and their significance for the region. Check out some of the pics below from my research, which show the process of hand-making a surfboard.
| Attachment | (click to download) | |
|---|---|---|
| The blank, cut, plained and sanded down to rough size | 86.08 KB | |
| Tuning down the boards' edges and thickness | 85.46 KB | |
| Glassing the board | 95.98 KB | |
| The glassing area | 111.78 KB | |
| The glass sets when exposed to UV light. | 92.32 KB | |
| The colour design room for the board | 79.66 KB | |
| Boards for sale in the shop | 108.37 KB | |
| Using the board in the water. | 95.14 KB |
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Interviewing professional
Interviewing professional creative practitioners in Broken Hill during 2006-07, both traditional and contemporary craft practitioners talked to me about how using either local raw materials and local traditions of making (or both) was connected to the ‘genuine’ quality of their work.
From a traditional method of stockwhip making - that had evolved to 'fit' Far West NSW location conditions of use for this (once important) piece of equipment - to found objects, picked up (say) during a walk along the banks of the drought-stricken Darling River, whose shape, location and the emotion experienced by the maker during that 'moment of discovery' inspired and influenced the form of a contemporary craft object; but was not actually used in the object's fabrication.
Both local making traditions and response to place were, to the makers, intrinsic qualities of 'hand made'.
Sounds like a really
Sounds like a really interesting parallel here Lisa...
Does anyone else have any knowledge/stories to share about similar 'hand made' cultural products/things?
I know from my 'experienced' surfboard shapers, that some have only ever been motivated to satisfy the local 'custom' market (where a surfer comes into the shop and orders a very specfic board, the shaper then goes away and makes). They enjoy the face to face relationships built through regular and repeated customer interaction...
Others have made attempts - some very successful - to activate wider international markets, particularly in the US, Brazil and Japan, where orders for boards can be put in over the internet. However, these run the risk of being lost or diluted and then filled by surfboards made in other regions.
Something else which has emerged from my research, and is worth discussing, has been the connection between the "hand made" production techniques and the surfboard itself (product). This dynamic is talked about as a "soul exchange" between shaper, surfboard, rider and ocean. The shaper pours hard work, knowledge and skill into the board, which then enables a surfer to connect with the waves. The board responds to their own unique physical attributes, surfing ability and the waves at locations which they surf.
Hand shapers argue that profiling machines (automated techniques) don't provide the same tuition for a rider. The soul exchange is interrupted.
During my travels in rural
During my travels in rural and remote NSW while working with Regional Arts NSW, I observed a number of older arts, craft and design practitioners using more traditional, 'hand made' production processes and selling to national and international markets.
They were all master creative practitioners and, in almost all cases, there was no plan to pass on their skills through apprenticing or mentoring (and where there was it was almost always to pass on to younger family members).
I was (still am) concerned that they and their markets had not been seen as local "cultural assets" by regional development agencies with thought given to retaining the skills set and markets in the region.
Let's talk further about this...