Disruption has become a new age buzzword. A catch-all descriptor of how digital technology is altering how we do business, and the surfboard industry ain't exempt. The shaping machine caused dramatic change to the industry, but other factors have also played their part.

Swellnet recently visited the Glass Hut in Wollongong, a laminating factory that's typical of the new workflow arrangement.

When the surfboard industry started in Australia each factory was its own self-contained unit. Under the one roof was a shaper, glasser, sander, and a dusty crew of dogsbodies. It didn’t matter whether the factory was located in Brookvale, Gold Coast, Torquay, or here in Wollongong, the setup was largely the same - each step in the process was completed in house.

In time the system slowly began to change: a backyarder might rent a shaping bay, a smaller company may get their boards glassed at a bigger factory. The surfboard industry became a classic cottage industry accommodating operations of all sizes. Some resources were shared, ideas too.

In the last twenty years the restructuring has only sped up to the point where stand alone factories are the exceptions rather than the norm. Increasingly common is the factory that’s shared by a number of labels and there’s a variety of reasons for that.

Firstly, soaring coastal property prices mean it’s cheaper to pool the rent rather than shell out for your own space. Secondly, the shaping machine has changed how the work is done. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, glassers are becoming a rare breed. The Glass Hut is a response to all three changes. 

The owner of the Glass Hut, Corey Waters, greets me eagerly at the front door and points out all the work that he's done to fit out the factory, including safety precautions. Just days earlier the Pukas factory in Europe went up in a fireball so there's a hint of anxiety in the air. It doesn't last, however, because the first stop on the tour is the beating heart of his factory - a flash new AKU Shaper shaping machine.

It’s stating the bleeding obvious to say computer shaping has increased surfboard production, but less noticeable is how it shifted the industry. In response to computer shaping, hub and spoke operations were established where a region would be serviced by one machine with all the cutting work flowing through the factory that housed it. Not everyone, you see, could afford the $100K plus for a shaping machine.

Corey rattles off the stats to his AKU shaper sounding every bit the proud new owner of a sports car. I nod my head in naive agreement - it sounds impressive but I’m no numbers guy. I ask what makes this piece of kit so good.

“It’s far more accurate than any other machine out there,” says Corey enthusiastically. “And it flips and matches the sides with ease. And it’s fast.” It’s even painted red.

Each point is noted with a deliberate nod of the head by Corey’s offsider, Dennis Wright. “We call him Yoda,” says Corey. “Dennis knows this machine as good as anyone, even the guys who made it.”

Slightly built with a sage-like bearing, Dennis is the cool yang to Corey’s hot yin. He’s worked in board factories all his life, he can shape, glass, and sand, but Dennis’ forte is his otherworldly knowledge of the AKU shaper. He’s the part man/part machine that makes this factory sing.

Dennis also runs his own label which operates out of the Glass Hut - as do five or six other shapers. The shaping bays are located upstairs on the mezzanine level. There’s a series of them in a row, then next to them is the spray room, and across the corridor the laminating space, followed by the board racks. It’s all very streamlined and efficient. Squint and you could be in an Ikea store...maybe.

“We’re only doing about thirty boards a week at the moment,” says Corey. “But that’ll soon be fifty, and after that….” he hesitates not wanting to be bold.  “Well...we’d like to be doing a hundred boards a week eventually.” The ambition is on show. And why not? A similar operation has worked for the Glass Lab up on the Gold Coast.

A not insignificant factor in the success of the Glass Hut works is that Corey is responsible for the workflow of other shapers. If the demand for each shaper goes up it still has to be run through the one shaping machine and the one laminating room. Is there a risk of bottlenecks?

“Well there’s four more gears in that shaping machine,” says Corey again sounding like a man jangling the keys to a new sports car. Dennis nods to show it’s possible. “And we’re gonna extend the laminating room back to there,” he indicates a point halfway across the mezzanine level that would double the size of the glassing space.

(Photo Jordan Moran)

Dylan Perese runs DP Surfboards out of the Glass Hut. He’s got his own shaping bay in there. “This setup is a bit of a change for me,” says DP.  “I’ve always made my own boards in factories or sheds that I’ve built myself.”

“Down here though, I simply shape the blank and put it on the rack [to be glassed]. I don’t have to order cloth, fin plugs, whatever...I shape the blank and pay for the result.” The difference now, besides being in someone else’s factory, is that DP has more time to talk to customers or increase his output. He can grow his business without taking on more employees.

As DP explains how the Glass Hut works I flash on the similarities between it and my own work space. I share an office with eight other people. We all work for various companies yet we pool the rent and share the services - kitchen, toilet, printer etc. I hesitate to call it a creative hub but it is a fertile little environment; ideas are often bounced around the room, daft opinions are quickly weeded out.

According to DP, a factory full of shapers has similar advantages. “I’m like a hawk when it comes to boards,” says DP. “I can’t walk down the beach without picking up someone’s board and checking it out.” Working under the same roof as other shapers puts him in close contact with what others are doing. “I can’t say it changes what I’m doing but it’s great checking boards, talking design, even telling stories. I love it. It’s inspiring.”

(Photo Jordan Moran)

Just as the advent of shaping machines changed the makeup of the industry, so to has the shortage of glassers. It’s no coincidence that the Glass Hut, and the Glass Lab too for that matter, spruik the laminating process. Glassers are rare these days, and when something becomes rare it becomes valuable.

The reason for the scarcity is that although the work is skilled, the lack of formal qualifications has deterred young workers from picking up the squeegee. The same dynamics that kept the cottage industry fluid and adaptable, such as a lack of regulations, also served to drive young people away. As one old hand recently told me: "The surfboard industry is getting old and skills aren't getting passed onto the young."

The shortfall of skilled workers is being rectified with a nationally recognised trade certificate for glassers and factory workers. In fact, Darcy De Clouett, the very first apprentice to go through the NSW system works here in the Glass Hut. Yet renewing the ranks is a slow process and until the numbers swell operations such as the Glass Hut will remain vital cogs in the industry.

(Photo Jordan Moran)

The smell of polyester resin pervades the Glass Hut, a not wholly unpleasant aroma as it carries the memories of visiting shaping factories when I was young. However, this too is prone to change as the dominance of PU/polyester boards yields to EPS/epoxy. Unofficial stats put current estimates of non-PU surfboards at 30% of the worldwide total and that number is growing.

Of concern to manufacturers is that it’s difficult to run both polyester and epoxy laminating out of the one factory. Acetone, for example, is ubiquitous in a factory laminating with polyester but it can’t be used with epoxy resin, and it’s straight up kryptonite on EPS blanks. Glassing and curing times are also vastly different which would negate any workflow efficiency.

I ask Corey about the increasing use of epoxies and what it means for the Glass Hut. He smiles and points out the front door and across the carpark. Next door is a Muay Thai kickboxing gym and beyond that are a few more units the same size as the Glass Hut. Each appears empty.

“I want to take a lease out on one of those units and replicate all this - shaping bays, laminating room, the lot - except it’ll be for epoxy surfboards,” says Corey. “You’ve gotta move with the times.”

//STU NETTLE with additional help from JORDAN MORAN