hey this is a cool thread
,
Steve got me thinking about Hutchie.All you older Northern beaches blokes could verify this but i think Wayne got his start with KC surfboards?
The reason i know this is because after all these years one of my good mates still froths at the mouth about Wayne smashing his planer to bits as an apprentice after one to many cuts with the planer
I went to school across the road from the Sundancer factory. So after one year of good results on the Aussie kneeboard curcuit, cocky as anything i'm marching into Waynes factory offering him the golden opportunity for him to sponsor me
(i think i tried to start a bidding war between Wayne and Albert Whiteman , but Albert was more excited that i had the same colour hair as his Cattle dogs, grey,black and brown. Damn skin pigment
)
As time went by, i was spending enough time in the factory i ended up with a broom in my hand, sanding legrope plugs, cutting out fins and preparing the glass/rovings for boards before school most mornings.
for about 3 years i would have seen every kneeboard that went through that factory (88'-91) . i would say there were always 2 or three boards in stock and a couple "going through the system" in the factory. At that time i would say no more than30 kneeboards a year were coming out of that factory. This was in the time of heavy gloss coated boards with set fins and people still thought one board suited every condition.I will say that most of Wayne work came from surfboards, particularly contract glassing.
When i was 16 Wayne even let me do "work experience" through school in the factory! So while all my mates were doing building site chores or sitting in stuffy office buildings.i was in the Sundancer factory,hanging with Mitchell Rae, Steve Artis (which he wont remember, i was an insignificant little pleb of a child) etc learning about all manner of things.
i think i lasted till 11am Monday morning, became physically ill form the idea of working a whole week, so my mum came and got me
. i turned up on Thursday in time to go do a photo shoot with Brett Eagles , Luke and Adam Faunce. Got to the factory about on the Friday and tried to out drink the staff with my" two beer wonder" skills and then Wayno pays me a hundered bucks for the week! Thank god mum came and picked me up.
All the dickheads at school worked their arses off all week
, they were horrified when i told em what i'd been doing.
All these goings on were pre Kneeon era. A label that Wayne bought from Dale Ponsford. So i can't give you any stories from that time, but definately, as a kneeboard shaper the kneeon days were his busiest.
)
Is Stewie in indo? still got a couple of photos from that era of you carving serious off the top coming around.
