Jackie and I headed to Byron for the weekend for the first Byron Bay Surf Festival. Friday night it kicked off at Stone and Wood Brewery with Bob McTavish giving a great intro and some early insight into the history of Byron before officially declaring the festival open. Great beer, wood fired pizza and tunes.
Saturday we checked out some of the art at Retrospect gallery , music in the park , old boards and history from the guys that came down from the Gold Coast Surf Museum. Brian, Mal, and Jack at the Community Centre , followed by Andy from Grown surfboards giving a talk on wooden boards. Caught up with Tim Baker talking about his just released book Surfari and his trip round Australia. Plenty of people everywhere and great weather. Then went back to the Community Centre to here Andrew Kidman and his band play to a movie showing behind then in the main auditorium. Great day and night of things to see and do. The surf was not grea but the water was nice.
Sunday morning I got to the beach early to help Tom Wegener and son Finley set up on the sand at Watagos. Great day and a little swell.
Vanessa and her team all set up for a big day.
Sage Joske as always had a great show of his skills and boards
The local Byron Bay Malibu Club were kept busy all day with supplying the food and drinks
Simon Jones and his Morning of the Earth boards.
Thomas Bexon had a great show of colour and a large range of boards.
Eden Saul with one of his little Mini Simmons which he rode will in very small surf.
More of Thomas's boards
There were even a couple of mermaids there enjoying the day. It was Byron after all.
Eden on his little simmons ...
These kids were having a great day
Tom and a couple of hollow wood , unglassed boards. The future.
The line up for the fishy expression session judged by the public.
Thomas Bexton
Matty Yates
Ryan Haywood found a little zipper
Two Toms
Single Tom
Great day
The Finless crew included Danny Wills ,unknown , Brett Caller and Tom
This guy sure knew how to ride an alaia, he was good.
Brett managed to make something out of a very small and tricky wave on his alaia
All in all a great weekend with lots of similar people who come to the Fish Fry for the same reason. To get together and have fun. The Byron Festival had lots of things for everyone and I am sure it will be a very successful, long lived yearly event. Nice job guys.
The Gold Coast Surf Museum currently has a great collection of art on surfboards on display from all sorts of shapers and artists. So if you would like to check them out the museum is in Tomewin Street opposite the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctaury.
" This surfboard is exhibited by the Surf world museum now. It is the special surfboard work in collaboration with Dick Van Straalen. I would like to inherit his soul and spirit."
Roger Hall in New Zealand is ever the innovator and his own man when it comes to creating interesting boards. This is his latest the 5ft 7" x 23" x 3 3/8" moni version of his Sea Creature.
It has a lot going on but never the less a great board performance wise. I saw Roger ride one at the Pass down at Byron after this years fish fry and he was all over it.
Roger loves wood and couldn't resist adding some detail to the stringer of this one. The added weight will give it the momentum he is used to in his woooden boards. Thanks to Mike Cunningham for the pics.
My latest Simmons 4ft 2" x 22 1/2" x 3"
Pretty simple really hull to flat under front foot and 5mm of concave out through the tail
Just love fresh cut foam ready to finish
A lot happens on the rail line over a very short distance. Plus I like to keep the S deck and it is a great way to keep the thickness out of the nose.It is pretty chunky in the tail to keep some float in it. Rasta Keels will finish it off nicely.
I caught up with Gold Coast small board lover, Shoji Muto at Byron Bay on the weekend. He was riding his new creation. 3ft 11" Body board inspired outline rails and rocker , with the Dick Van tail flutes. He has it all going on. He was having fun in the small onshore day at Watagos.
Jackie and I headed to Byron for the weekend for the first Byron Bay Surf Festival. Friday night it kicked off at Stone and Wood Brewery with Bob McTavish giving a great intro and some early insight into the history of Byron before officially declaring the festival open. Great beer, wood fired pizza and tunes.
Sunday morning I got to the beach early to help Tom Wegener and son Finley set up on the sand at Watagos. Great day and a little swell.
Vanessa and her team all set up for a big day.
Sage Joske as always had a great show of his skills and boards
The local Byron Bay Malibu Club were kept busy all day with supplying the food and drinks
Simon Jones and his Morning of the Earth boards.
Thomas Bexon had a great show of colour and a large range of boards.
Eden Saul with one of his little Mini Simmons which he rode will in very small surf.
More of Thomas's boards
There were even a couple of mermaids there enjoying the day. It was Byron after all.
Eden on his little simmons ...
These kids were having a great day
Tom and a couple of hollow wood , unglassed boards. The future.
The line up for the fishy expression session judged by the public.
Thomas Bexton
Matty Yates
Ryan Haywood found a little zipper
Two Toms
Single Tom
Great day
The Finless crew included Danny Wills ,unknown , Brett Caller and Tom
This guy sure knew how to ride an alaia, he was good.
Brett managed to make something out of a very small and tricky wave on his alaia
All in all a great weekend with lots of similar people who come to the Fish Fry for the same reason. To get together and have fun. The Byron Festival had lots of things for everyone and I am sure it will be a very successful, long lived yearly event. Nice job guys.
Hey Grant, saw the recent belly board creation on the blog mate and I did something similar recently. It was a ton of fun shaping it and the customer is totally stoked, I've seen him in the waves a few times and he is smiling like a grom learning to surf all over again ....My recent shaping of mini's and semi-finless boards came into play when designing and shaping this one, its great when people take their ideas to a shaper and make them a reality....,
The " Turtle " nice ...
Mark Pridmore from More Surfboards on the Sunshine Coast , getting small and getting funky. Great to see guys experimenting. Great to have ideas , even better to do something with them.
All things surf related this weekend in Byron Bay. Music , art , demos , films , surfing , board swap , markets and all that is Byron as well. It opens on Friday night with Bob Mc Tavish at Stone and Wood brewery . Check it out , should be a fun weekend and a great addition to the calendar. Another non competitive surfing get together we should support.
Start with a classic blank of course...
Inspired by a body board for sure
Add some fins
4ft x 22 1/2" x 2 5/8"
The board was built by Nacho Agote Surfboards in Los Palmas. Sent to me by Jose from the Canary Islands.
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