It's a modern twist on an old tale. Instead of sweeping the factory floors before climbing the ladder towards becoming a shaper, Avalon Starick was pouring the coffees for those working in the factory.

Though the starting points were different, the trajectories are the same: learn the easiest skills of board making first and then progress upwards, let curiousity and creativity be your guides, and a willing mentor of course.

Avalon had all three available to her, and though raised far from surfing's influence zones she's now found herself at the right place at the right time.

Swellnet: You live on the Sunshine Coast but you're from Tasmania originally, is that correct?
Avalon: Yes. I'm from Sisters Beach. So it's on the North West Coast of Tasmania.

That's up on the actual North Coast, is that correct?
Yes, it is. So the stretch of water out the front of my house is Bass Strait, so not a lot of consistent surf. Definitely fickle and it can also be really wild.

Did you get around to the Marrawah side much?
Yes. I was actually born in Marrawah, had my first three years of life down there. Dad was the principal of the tiny school down there, so I was born in Marrawah which is much more consistent than home. I've spent a lot of time there. 

Marrawah is such a magnet - almost like too much. I'm pretty scared to go down there when I go home. It can be so rugged and cold and wild, but amazing.

Did you start your shaping career down there?
No, I finished school at year 12, and deferred uni and drove my van up the East Coast of Australia. Just keen to do some travelling. I wasn't even going to take a surfboard with me, but I worked at a surf shop in town and my manager there said, "Oh, you should just throw a mini-mal on the roof."

I'd learnt to surf in Tassie, but I definitely wasn't hooked on it . When I traveled, that's when I did get hooked on surfing.

Avalon at the pointy end of board design

What was it that got you hooked?
Definitely the warmer weather, warmer water, more friendly waves. Also, more girls in the water, especially as I came up towards Byron and Coolangatta way. So many more girls, which makes it more approachable.

From someone who wasn't even going to take a board on a trip to now being a board shaper. Explain that transition.
Well, I began surfing a lot. I found myself based on the Gold Coast and got a job on the coast making coffees in the Album Surfboard showroom, when it was down at Ourimbah Road in Tweed. Through friends I got a job making coffees in there. Then yeah, I guess through seeing the boards come through that showroom and making coffees for all the board builders around Ourimbah Road, I quickly became pretty intrigued about how boards are made.

I had no idea how a board was made or any of the processes at that point, but I became interested in what went into it. 

Was there any one shaper who sort of took you under their wing? 
Yeah, Gavin Upson. He has his own brand, 1-DA Surfboards. He was shaping just down the road from the coffee shop so I would wander down there after I finished at the cafe. Gavin was in there, the Album shaping bay was in there. Luke Short of LSD Surfboards and Gary McNeill were all in the bays next to each other. I kind of flicked between all of them and eventually Gavin took me in... I pestered him enough for him to give me a two-week trial.

Back in the old days, it used to be you'd get your start sweeping the floors in a factory, and work your way up from there. But you were making coffee. It's a modern twist on an old story.
It is. Very true. Kind of a female twist too. The women would always make coffees or get the coffee, but it's still like that: Start on the floor and just work your way up.

OK, so you peered under the curtain and saw how boards were made. Did you ever see it as a vocation; that you could have your own label?
Not for a while. That didn't really cross my mind. I wanted to make boards for myself and for friends, but I didn't really think of it as a brand. I was just happy learning the craft and wanting to make a few boards for myself.

Had you ever been good with your hands in other ways, say like ceramics or drawing?
Yeah, definitely creative. I do a lot of sewing and I always have made my own clothes and still do a bit of that and just arts and crafts. Always been a bit of ceramics, bit of painting, always dabbled in a lot of things, but never got really into one kind of medium.

Building boards is definitely very creative. There's also a scientific mathematics side to it and I like how it's all intertwined.

So Gavin showed you the ropes. Then you had your own label for a while, is that correct?
Yeah. When I was working with Gavin we were ghost shaping for a lot of different brands, but in my own time I would shape, glass, and sand my own boards. That's definitely quietened down a lot this year but it's something I'd like to experiment more with down the track.

So you can make a board from go to woah..?
Yeah, I mean sanding's my least proficient part, but I could absolutely sand a board. Definitely love learning all aspects of board building. I think it's really valuable and it all helps in understanding boards. Shaping's definitely the best though.

Faded surf pic on the wall, mountains of historical resin on the floor, Avalon squeegees out a tinted bottom coat

OK, how did you come across the doorstep of Matt Parker?
Through making coffeees.

Of course...
I was making coffees, but then I worked under Gavin, where we were contracted to ghost-shape for Album. So we were shaping the Albums here in Australia alongside the Album shaper at the time, and Matt would come over. He comes over multiple times a year to just touch base with everyone. We'd watch him shape, he'd watch us shape, give us little pointers, what he likes, just kind of how his brain ticks. 

I guess he saw what I was doing. I recall he talked a fair bit about the XOCOCO idea. It took a while for that to get off the ground, but he always mentioned it to me and I was really excited by it.

But then I finished up with Gavin, went overseas for a year, and then when I was coming back at the start of this year, I reached out to Album and asked if they had any more work going. They said, "Oh, this is perfect timing. We've finally done all the back end of getting XOCOCO started and we're going to start doing boards. We'd love for you to shape them in Australia."

At left, collaborating with Coco Ho on her new line of boards, and feeling the rails on a shorter craft

So you landed on your feet again?
Yeah, it was really great how it worked out - right time, right place. It was also crazy because I'd met up with Coco twice throughout the year overseas. I just happened to be in the Maldives surf-guiding, and the resort was holding a competition and Coco was over for the competition. So I got to meet up with her a few times, even when I wasn't shaping. And then I came back, it's all just worked out so well.

So she didn't know that you were going to be shaping the boards at that stage?
No, it wasn't known that I was going to be doing them at that point in time.

It's just been launched this year, how's everything going so far?
Yeah, really well. We're really happy with how the first year's gone. In the States, they've done really well. We've only just got our Australian website launched. That's taken a bit more time. We've had so much interest. The guys in the States have been getting so much interest from Australia, from women in Australia wanting boards, which is really cool. It's probably the most interest has come from Australia. 

Will customers speak to you directly about customs?
Yeah. Definitely. I'll try to gauge what surfing level they are, also where they're surfing in the world can make really difference, the types of waves, what their goals are in surfing. But yeah, definitely trying to gauge an honest level of where they are with their surfing. 

Your next couple of years are going to be pretty busy.
Yeah, but I'm really looking forward to it. We know that it's going to be kind of a slow process for people to wrap their heads around, to jump on the boards and get a feel for them and trust them. But once they do, I just know it's going to do so well.

Can we just have a quick chat about Stab and the Electric Acid Surfboard Test?
Yeah, sure.

So your board got ridden once and then Dave shelved it. How did you feel about being a part of it and having someone like Dave critique your board?
I was so nervous. It was such a surreal, amazing opportunity for me, being so early in my career. It felt so, so nervous, but also just grateful for the opportunity.

I knew that it didn't matter how it went, it was just the fact that I got asked in the first place. But there was definitely a part of me where my heart sunk and I just...I don't know, there's part of me that feels like I let people down.

Oh, come on.
...but also I'm a bit hard on myself like that. 

It was so well done. I found it so funny. I went back and watched it and definitely had a good laugh. It was the best feedback I could have got without it being passed on, I guess.

Excerpt from Stab's Electric Acid Surfboard Test: Fast Forward to the 4:00 min mark for Rasta's foot hack for wide-taile fish

Speaking of feedback. It was on your board - a wide-tailed fish - that Dave spoke about moving his back foot sideways so it's over the inside fin while turning. I've surfed for decades and I didn't know that.
It's so funny. He's so good at articulating things. He is so poetic in the way he can voice things. It was funny, I actually ran into him on the beach in Byron maybe two weeks after my episode came out, and he came up to me and said, "Avalon, I have to tell you, I really loved your board and I really hope the boys portrayed it in that way."

And that made me feel a lot better about the whole thing.

Check Avalon's past work on Instagram