Bywater Designs, Boondall: Stuart Bywater on creating classic surfboards

Surf’s up at Boondall where Stuart Bywater is crafting classic timber surfboards and sharing his passion for design.

Stuart Bywater lives for Fridays when he can pull on a wetsuit before his work boots.

“I’m up at 4am, pick up a few mates, in the surf by 6am, and at work by 10am,” he says, during a well-earned break at his Boondall furniture design and restoration workshop.

It is here at Bywater Design — with sawdust underfoot and the fresh aroma

of timber in the air — that he makes the lightweight, wooden surfboards that float his Friday bliss.

His mates all ride his handiwork too, but the gently spoken and modest master craftsman likely wouldn’t have told me if I hadn’t asked.

“I absolutely get a kick out of that,” he grins.

Bywater Design surfboard making workshops fill quickly. Photo: Rachael Honner

“I always drop into work and fill up the van with a bunch of boards I’ve made before we head out.”

They’re usually headed for the breaks at Alexandra Headland or Burleigh, both an hour’s drive north or south of his workshop.

The handmade surfboards (and surfing) are the 52-year-old’s passion project, which follows a lifetime of house building, furniture making and heritage restorations.

Stuart and his wife Daniele, 50, launched Bywater Design 25 years ago but Stuart has been working with wood since graduating in 1986 from the Australian National University with a degree in furniture design. He and Daniele moved to Brisbane and married in 1992.

Stuart Bywater has been making and restoring furniture for 25 years with wife Daniele. Photography: Russell Shakespeare

They now live at Nundah. Somewhat surprisingly, Stuart did not initially plan on being a carpenter. He had a different creative pursuit in mind.

“My father is a carpenter, so maybe that’s where I get my love of hands-on from, but I had a stronger love for art than woodwork early on,” he says of growing up in Canberra.

It was in his younger days, about the age of 13, that he discovered surfing.

“But I very much wanted to be a famous artist and it was Mum who was always interested in art and art history.”

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It figures then that much of his woodwork can easily be described as art.

Stuart spends most of his time in the Bywater Design workshop designing and making beautiful, handcrafted timber pieces or teaching small groups how to make their own.

His surfboard-making classes launched in 2011 and have been making waves ever since. They’re often booked out months in advance, filled by retirees, surgeons, carpenters, nurses and, of course, surfers.

A Bywater Design surfboard making workshop. Photo: Rachael Honner

“People come because they either want the board as art, or to surf it,” Stuart says.

“They’re aged anywhere from 30 to 72. The 72 year-old, he surfs his board. He hadn’t surfed since the late ’60s, but since making his own board he’s started driving up and down the coast, surfing again.”

Teaching has become another of Stuart’s passions.

“I love it. Being able to pass on skills and knowledge is important,” he says. “Otherwise those skills are lost. It’s the same with my furniture making classes. I’m teaching people how to make coffee tables, chairs, boxes with their hands. They’re creating heirlooms.

“It’s about creating something that will last a lifetime, not two seasons.”

Daniele manages the office and the on-site showroom, which opened earlier this year.

“We always had a vision to have something to display — you can only say so much in words and photos — so we moved here so we could have a space where people could look at and smell the timbers,” she says.

Stuart Bywater. Photo: Russell Shakespeare

She took a step back from the business when their daughters Maddison, 25, and Eden, 22, arrived, but made her comeback when Bywater Design won one of its biggest tenders — restoring Brisbane City Hall’s heritage furniture.

City Hall was closed at the end of 2009 so it could undergo critical restoration work before reopening in 2013. Bywater Design won the tender to restore more than 250 pieces of furniture in a time frame of six months, so it was all hands on deck.

“We did every chair, desk, even the Lord Mayor’s desk,” Stuart says.

“It was a mammoth job doing everything from replacing leather on tables and upholstery on chairs.”

It was a job that perfectly aligned with Stuart’s values.

He says he is often frustrated by today’s “throwaway” culture and mass produced furniture lacking in quality and craftsmanship.

Stuart helps a budding maker hone his design. Photo: Rachael Honner

“We create timeless pieces for our clients,” he says.

“No two pieces that come out of our workshop are the same. Every piece is made in our workshop here in Brisbane.

“We don’t mass produce anything and we use solid timber and recycled or upcycled pieces wherever we can. We’re not about making fashion furniture; we’re making classics.”

It is this commitment to sustainability that ultimately led him to craft his first wooden surfboard, too.

“They’re extremely environmentally sound,” he says. “We don’t use any foam, they’re hollow, and I spent about eight years doing research and development to create a light board.”

He says the surfing world sees wooden boards as “a bit of a gimmick”, but he won’t ride anything else.

“The timber boards are a little stiffer, stronger, more beautiful,” he says.

“They’re works of art.”

Classic Wooden Surfboard classes, Nov 14-17, from $1700 depending on board size, Bywater Design, Boondall