Tide turns for UK surf industry

By Alex Bushill
BBC News, Newquay

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A surfboard manufacturer describes what caused his business to go under

Cornwall's surfing manufacturers have been in business since the 1960s but now bespoke board makers fear for their livelihoods in the face of lower-cost imports.

The industry employs hundreds if not thousands and is known for its cutting-edge design.

The Rip Curl boardmasters contest is being held in the UK's surf capital Newquay this week and 100,000 people are expected to turn out to watch the leading event in the country.

With the best surfers from around the world competing, it is a chance to showcase the industry in Cornwall.

But a cottage industry is under threat from cheaper mass-produced imported boards - and with it years of skilled craftsmen and Cornish heritage.

Way I see it, you can keep working here and break even but I don't see the point Matthew Barrow

Matthew Barrow, 32, lives in Newquay.

A surfer at eight years old, he made his first surfboard at the age of 16.

His factory in Bodmin used to produce 1,800 bespoke handmade boards every year.

He employed eight skilled craftsmen and shapers to carry out the painstaking work of sanding, shaping and spraying the fibreglass boards.

But they are all out of work now and the factory has been mothballed.

He says why struggle on when there's no money in it anymore?

"Way I see it, you can keep working here and break even but I don't see the point," he says.

"It's quite hard work from start to finish."

Surfing sixties

His face hidden by a mask, Matthew is known as one of the best surfboard shapers in the country.

He is now working for one of the few remaining manufacturers still afloat - Seabase boards in Newquay.

But the firm's owner, Murray Steward, who himself has been making boards for 25 years, says the entire industry is under threat.

For him the reason is simple.

"The main cause has been the influx of Asian made or Chinese boards into the UK," he says.

Murray Steward harks back to the start of the UK surf industry

"The danger is if this continues at the current rate, the industry is going to die".

Murray harks back to a time when the first surfers hit Cornwall's coast.

Newquay in the 1960s was where it all started.

Many of those first pioneers of surfing never left the resort, setting up shop, and have been hand-shaping bespoke top-of-the-range boards ever since.

For Murray, it is an industry that has developed into a market leader.

He exports his surfboards across Europe, employs 20 people and has a turnover of about £2m a year.

But he now understands he is among the last of a dying breed.

The Asian boards are mass produced and made of lower-cost materials - but are far cheaper.

And they sell well, so well, in fact, that Murray has resorted to importing them himself to sell through his retail arm.

But should anyone care?

Surfing's popularity has been riding high over recent years, with more and more people able - thanks in part to the cheaper kit - to buy boards and try it out for themselves.

Murray and and the other manufacturers in Cornwall are simply asking what is the true price for those cheaper boards?

For those in his industry, it is costing them jobs.