Micheal Holden’s Plywood Ockanui c1960s, photo Michael Holden
Northern beaches surfer Michael Holden built this ‘finned’ hollow surfboard, known locally as an ockanui, in the early 1960s. What’s interesting is that styrene foam had pretty much made balsa and hollow boards antique by then, with local board makers churning out smart new fibreglass ‘pigs’ and hot-doggers in their thousands as each summer rolled around. It suggests that thrifty kids, armed with cheap plywood and their dad’s shed tools, persisted with home-made hollow boards for several years after Gidget and the foam explosion of 1959. According to Michael… 3 of us made 3 boards end 1961. We went to Bilgola with pen, tape measure and paper and drew up the dimensions of a board on the beach. The old fasioned plywood board with stringers etc. I understand the others no longer exist. The first try was in the surf at Whale Beach with no wax, so a real problem…