Tupira Wooden Surfboard Workshop Tour

Namaste Woodsters. Last month I spent a week at Tupira surf camp in Papua New Guinea and was stoked to see that the locals were getting right into building wooden surfboards. Tom Wegener from Noosa and Brian Bates from Byron Bay ran some wooden board shaping workshops with the locals last year to show them the ins and outs of wooden board building. There is a good source of Balsa growing wild in the hinterland at the back of the camp so the raw materials for board building are in plentiful supply.

Nicki, the camp manager took us on a tour of the workshop to show off the fruits of everyone's labour. A real treat for an enthusiast like me.

Nicki Wynnychuk (camp manager) showing us a paipo built by the locals.

Slabs of balsa stacked and drying.

Nicki Wynnychuk showing off one of the alaias produced at the workshop last year.

Tom Wegener's 11' solid balsa longboard complete with D fin. Watch out for a sequence in Nathan Oldfield's new surf film where Tom rides this plank in some Tupira sliders.

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New Guinea Rosewood D-Fin.