Encounters…
Just wood and cork
One of the best things of being on the road is that we discover things we never imagined to exist. So it was that day on the Mid-North Coast NSW town of Crescent Head.
“A guy up the coast here made them. Paulownia and cork”.
JJ was talking about the boogie board he held as he checked-out the swells coming off the point.
“He grows his own paulownia, too”, he said.
Paulonia (family Paulowniaceae, Paulownia tomentosa) is a durable grey/brown timber from a tree growing to 20m. Used to make musical instruments such as electric guitar bodies, furniture, veneer and plywood — and now boogie boards — its low weight and strength make it similar to balsa.
On seeing JJ’s board, Fiona, my partner, whose preferences tend towards natural materials, said she wanted one of these wood and cork-bark boogie boards.
“Better than foam”, she said dismissively.
JJ Starr opened his surf shop in Crescent Head just last year.
“It’s an authentic seventies surf shop”, he told me that afternoon by the beach.
“I sell used boards and stuff”.
It is just that. JJ calls it The Station, and it is no glitzy surfing corporation shop with big display windows. It is far more modest, housed in an old fibro house typical of those of East Coast towns. The only other resemblance to an authentic seventies surf shop I have come across was Heritage Surf, which used to occupy the shopfront that now houses Patagonia in Manly, on the Sydney coast.
So, a paulownia and cork board. Something unique in these days of foam and artifice.
The Station: https://www.pacificlongboarder.com/news/Whats-new-in-Crescent-Head-The-Station/
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