PNG surfers shape up

Papua New Guinean surfers in Madang were recently shown some of the techniques of timber surfboard building by Australian shapers Tom Wegener and Bryan Bates.

They shaped balsa boards with axes, machetes and other hand tools.

Surfing Association of PNG (SAPNG) president and co-founder Andrew Abel hopes the training may lead to an ongoing industry.

He says balsa trees are in abundance in PNG’s jungles and that the boards – with round noses, square tails and no fins – can be sold to tourists as well as be used by the locals.

The training was provided to Tupira Surf Club members who came from Tavulte, Tupira, Simbini, Rurunat and Suara villages.

Abel says it came about thanks to the connections of Supreme Court judge, Justice Nicholas Kirriwom, and Nicki Wynnychuck.

Justice Kirriwom is the patron of Tupira Surf Club and Wynnychuck is a surf camp manager.

Abel says the SAPNG, set up 28 years ago, has grown beyond “just a surf movement”.

“It is now a movement for positive change and empowerment.”

He says the SAPNG is already empowering women with its Pink Nose surfboard campaign, which encourages women to surf and addresses issues of equal rights and domestic violence against women.

Now, he says, the training in surfboard shaping has empowered the men who participated, by providing them with the finer skills of timber board shaping, as practised by the ancient Hawaiians. ■