In this episode I chat with John from Sanded Australia, a surfboard materials supplier on the Central Coast of New South Wales, Australia.

The beginning of John's relationship with the surfboard industry goes all the way back to when he was a young man making boards with his friends. One of his friends was involved in building boats so that is where they sourced their materials - Expanded Poly Styrene (EPS) foam and epoxy resin.

In the years to follow John pursued windsurfing and would become sponsored. This allowed for him to work with his shaper/designer and have a good insight into how the windsurfing community was quick to embrace alternative materials and push the technology of the various constructions looking for an advantage.

Sanded started out from a shed in the backyard as John established himself, made important contacts and built stock. He was able to sustain this for a few years but ultimately had to secure more space. John speaks about the impact COVID period had on his business and the continual growth since. Business has been so good he tells how he will have to look for a bigger warehouse in the next 12 months.

The main driving force behind John's success is his open mindedness and willingness to try different things. The collaborative work he has done with Colan Australia to develop Flax, Basalt and Pineapple cloth has set him apart from other suppliers. Furthermore, John's honest appraisal of the products he tests has surfboard manufacturers at all levels paying attention.

John knows the value of good customer relations and many people I know speak highly of his customer service and quick delivery times. Sanded ships products all over the world and we are lucky to have someone like John in our industry in Australia.

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In this episode I chat with Beau Armstrong from Armstrong Surfboards.

I was travelling home from Queensland when I stopped into the Bennett Surfboard showroom and was greeted by a young man behind the counter, Beau. We chatted briefly and I discovered he made surfboards. I told him I would check out his social media and headed off down the road.

As I drove the many hours back to Victoria, I thought a lot about how I observed the surfboard industry and wondered what draws younger people into the industry these days. In my experience the surfboard is the same everywhere, however it also has its differences.

Beau is a young man in his mid-teens that was looking for a new challenge. As he travelled home from a family holiday, Beau started researching surfboard shaping. After many hours of watching YouTube clips and dissecting what information he could from the videos, he purchased a surfboard blank and proceeded to hack at it in his front yard. Beau had been bitten by the surfboard bug and his journey had started.

I was keen to hear how his journey into the surfboard industry was going, what attracted him to surfboards as well as what his future plans are. It turns out Beau has been fortunate enough to meet great people in the Sydney surfboard industry, and they have provided him with an invaluable education.

I am really excited to kick off the year chatting with Beau as it represents fresh starts and big opportunities.

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In this episode, Luke Howarth from Howie shapes and I discuss the subtleties of a surfboard foil or profile. The distribution of foam in a surfboard is often overlooked but it can have a big impact on how your board performs.

We chat about the evolution of foil in a surfboard and how it relates to the different styles of boards. I ask Luke about what he thinks of 'swing weight' which is a term commonly used in discussing bigger boards and explain why I prefer to focus on 'momentum'.

You cannot talk about surfboard foils without discussing the various deck designs available such as s decks, single concave and double concave decks as well as the Greg Webber 'Crinkle cut' design that melted social media.

Ultimately, we end up discussing flex and who we see as the shapers pushing the boundaries. Flex is difficult to measure in a surfboard and how we want the board to flex for optimum performance changes for different waves. Luke shares his experiences with stringerless EPS boards, his research and development process and how he applies carbon on them.

Surfboard foil is not talked about enough but hopefully our chat will stimulate some further discussion.

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