Handcrafted and traditional from start to finish

For more than three decades, South Coast Surfboards has been riding the waves of business, handcrafting boards and serving up coffees from its Torquay shop.

Owned by Ian Chisholm and his wife Anglea King, the shopfront in Baines Cresent carries out the whole building process by hand, on site from start to finish.

About 10 years ago, the pair introduced a café into the business, leasing it out before making the decision this year to take over the reins and scale it back slightly.

“It’s more about the boards and the brand and it’s [the café] just on the sidelines, keeps the doors open and keeps people flowing through,” Chisholm said.

“It’s really just about just enjoying the boards and that space and grabbing a coffee or something to eat.”

 

Chisholm is completely self-taught and always wanted to build surfboards, with his passion starting as a kid by handmaking skateboards.

“I had a mate in New South Wales on the South Coast, hence the name. He used to make his own boards, but in the backyard, I used to go up there at Christmas time and he’d never let me touch anything.

“A little bit more than 30 years ago, I was living in Melbourne, I had a really good job, I just packed up and moved overnight and taught myself everything.”

To this day he has never seen somebody shape a surfboard from start to finish, saying that when he entered the industry 30 years ago, it was quite closed with not many people around to help.

“Everything we’ve done, obviously I’ve had people along the way with me who had some more knowledge, but realistically everything I did was kind of just have a go at it and see.

 

“I just went ahead and made a lot of mistakes, but I think over 16,000 boards later, I’ve got it down.”

As time and processes have continued to evolve, many shapers have turned to machines, but Chisholm and his team continue to do things by hand.

“Machines are easy, there’s no skill, whereas everything we do it still trying to do it the traditional way and I think that’s why we’re still pretty successful,” he said.

“There’s not a lot of guys like me left.

“You’ll probably find in Australia, this will be the only place you can actually walk in and see boards being built by the guy who owns the company.

“Most people just shape them and they farm them out to glassing shops and they just get their work done elsewhere, and 90 per cent of it now is on a machine – this is all still hand shaping and the traditional way.”

 

With his experience within the surfing industry, Chisholm has watched how it’s changed, from shaping surfboards to people in the water.

“The thing I’ve noticed more than anything is the amount of women in the water, female surfing has just gone through the roof in the past 25 years.”

In terms of how his brand had grown and changed, South Coast Surfboards has opened up to welcome more people.

“We were a little bit more old school, we didn’t have a café it was more by appointment, it was a different sense of it was warehouse type setup,” Chisholm said.

“Now we’re full retail, my wife is really big on us being open to the public, making sure that we’re inviting female surfers.”

South Coast Surfboards also now exports to four countries, sending boards interstate, something that’s grown and developed over time.

 

Moving forward, Chisholm is ensuring the company continues to develop and change with the times.

“We’re always looking to move forward and not just sit on our laurels, because I think if you do that in this industry, you’ll get walked all over, unfortunately you can’t just keep doing the same thing,” he said.

“The surf industry is always looking for a new thing, the new flavour of the month, so whether it’s a new model or a new team rider, whatever it is, you have to keep progressing, otherwise you get left behind.”

South Coast Surfboards is known for its custom products and helping their customers find what works for them, going over the details before recommending a model and building it.

Customers can then choose their own design, and boards are ready to be collected within about four weeks.

The team has a strong focus on ensuring boards are made exactly how the customer wants.

“We keep in touch the whole way through the process. If I’m glassing the board, for instance, once I get a colour on it, I’ll send them a photo to make sure that they’re happy,” Chisholm said.

“If they’re paying good money and they’re ordering custom, they get what they want, that’s been our number one focus.”

 

The business also focuses on having a heavy workload and getting their boards out on time. Chisholm is aware it’s his name and reputation on every board, and wants to honour the quality of each product.

Across three decades in the industry, Chisholm said South Coast Surfboards had experienced ups and downs, but after being the “flavour of the month” many times, it had turned into a well-established business.

“This is what I was hoping for and intending for, it’s just taken time, but I think in the surfboard industry, if anyone’s surviving for more than 25 or 30 years, they generally have investors.

“This is all individually owned, by me.”

Chisholm believes he’s still got another 20 years of building and shaping left in him, with the hopes his son will one day take over the business.

For more information, head to southcoastsurfboards.com for follow them on Instagram @southcoast_surfboardsbychiz