[Sprintey]

Recently in the last couple of years I noted that my trade skill, surfboard manufacture, has become a teachable certificate. After years and years of it being handed down the traditional way, it will now be taught to a curriculum. At first that sounded pretty good - it would be nice to have all the work/time made official. There are very basic, fundamental foundations in this industry that have been taught/handed down via master to apprentice. And masters there have been, guys with national and world renown (some fantastic athletes too) with quality products that work, and last. I was lucky to know and learn from 3 of them.

The industry was damaged by cheap imports in the 2000s onward, and some of the older names retired, such as one of my mentors. Lifetime skill sets and excellent products. It was hard to watch as the consumer seemed to turn their back on a fantastic craftsman, then have the gall to bring the cheap board replacement to him when it broke. Some manufacturers got with the times, and had boards made offshore.

There's been a recent flourishing in craftsmanship, (last 10+ years) as longboards have come fully back and a new young generation went out and learned the old time techniques of the 1960s, all those lovely deep gloss shines and heavy glass cloths. Most older firms could do this stuff but there just wasn't the market demand before this. It's an industry where a young surfer can say "stuff it" and go out and make their own with no experience, but the initial results are not going to be all that flash! This is why I have spent time mentoring younger surfers to methods I use - are they the best or only way? No. Do they work? Yes. On the other end of the industry, CNC machining and quick/volume production also exist, with some factories going big here in Australia. And imports still compete. It's a pretty toxic industry, so knowledge of OH&S and in particular VOCs is beneficial if workers want to be healthy long term.

My own interests led me to jig making, pattern making and building my own machines. This is a very cool skillset, but I've built it on top of the old school fundamentals. I did enquire with the local TAFE if they ran pure CNC courses, for example, but had no luck. So just went out and learned myself of yt and forums and suppliers - and most importantly friends and contacts who know their stuff! The other interest is trying to do this without all the toxicity - working in OHS over the years also helped with this.

If there's a form of handing down the skillset to be good at it, it would be nice to have nationally standardised and recognised certificates, but the accountability to high standards and real gems of knowledge are found with a real master.