Do you ever think about who makes the fibreglass in your boards and where it comes from?

Me? I rarely do, and I’m paid to think about such things.

Yet this week I wrote a story about fibreglass, a story that has been slowly creeping up on me over the last eighteen months.

Back then I wrote a few shorter articles on Sanded, a material wholesaler from the NSW Central Coast. John at Sanded always had great products and was often spruiking the work of Colan Fibreglass.

I wasn’t familiar with Colan yet the name imprinted itself in the grey matter. Then, like a song once heard and often repeated, the name Colan kept cropping up.

While chatting to Hayden Cox he’d mention his supplier.

Dylan Perese too, when talking about his new work.

And while scrolling through Instagram I’d increasingly see Colan tagged. 

I’d like to think I’ve got a keen nose for a story but the truth is I sometimes have to be beat over the head to get started.

When I did get around to researching Colan Fibreglass I found, to my great surprise, that their story starts way back in the sixties when Colan first began servicing the surf industry.

From the beginning they were innovators, yet this small family-owned Australian company had to weather globalisation, stay abreast of changes while enduring the import onslaught, and all while operating an Australian manufacturing base.

Colan allowed some of Aussie surfing’s greatest visionaries to realise their potential, and they enabled the last great shift in board manufacturing.

And if that doesn’t get your inner Dick Smith smiling, Colan now exports to some of the largest overseas labels, such as Pukas in Spain or ...lost in the US.

One click on the straight media shows that sovereignty and reshoring are coming back into fashion, but here’s a company that never wavered from their roots.

Worth a story you reckon..?

- Stu

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