Hi, I'm Tom Wegener

I would like to introduce myself, this is my story.

I grew up in Los Angeles and graduated from the University of California San Diego in 1987 with a BA in Philosophy and a minor in Anthropology. I graduated from the University of San Diego School of Law with a Jurist Doctorate in 1989 and went on to practice environmental, real estate and contract law until 1995. I then turned to my passion of producing surf movies and TV shows which landed me in Australia four years later.

In March 1998, I arrived in Noosa while touring a surf film and was immediately taken with many aspects; the environment, the surf and my soon to be wife, Margie. Within three years we had settled into a wonderful family hinterland life with our young son and a baby daughter on our Cooroy property. For Margie and I, Noosa has provided a nurturing and inspiring environment to raise our family, live our dreams as entrepreneurs and enjoy life to the fullest. Those same unique qualities of Noosa that initially attracted me have sustained me for over twenty years.

 

Having arrived in Noosa as a surfer, I was quickly introduced to the community through working for Peter White at the iconic and local surfboard manufacturing institution, Classic Malibu. I later went on to produce boards under my own name.

 

With my family home and surfboard factory sharing the Cooroy property, I soon began a search for greener, non-toxic approaches to making surfboards. I experimented with paulownia and found it to be an amazing manufacturing timber. My hollow, wood boards spearheaded a global green surfboard movement and I was rewarded with a boom in publicity and orders and opportunities to travel the world. Paulownia is now the most desired wood for alternative surfboard construction and this market buoyed Australia’s failing paulownia plantation industry. In 2019 Sean Murphy and the ABC Landline team visited my factory to cover this story which aired in February, 2020.

 

In 2004 during a family surf trip to Hawaii, I had the privilege of being exposed to truly ancient surfboards at the Bishop Museum in Waikiki. The perfection of these boards was astonishing, and upon returning to Noosa, I began creating replicas with Paulownia. Excitement soon grew around the Hawaiian-replica boards and local surfing prodigies such as Jacob Stuth and Jacob Pedrana were surfing these boards amazingly well and connecting with a forgotten history of surfing. The enthusiasm snowballed and soon surfing’s elite, such as world champions Tom Carroll and Tom Curren were riding my custom surfboards. In 2009 a leading international industry magazine named me Surfboard Shaper of the Year for my work with ancient Hawaiian surfing. I am grateful to have been recognised by the Bishop Museum and Hawaii’s most popular magazine, Hana Hou, for reinvigorating the ancient style.

 

My wife and I attribute our successes to the fertile culture within Noosa that actively supports innovation, environmental values and entrepreneurs. I know that our success would not have come to fruition in many other places, such as where I grew up in Southern California. The Noosa community is supportive and generous in ways that often require an outsider’s perspective to recognize. It’s these unique qualities that should be encouraged and protected. In 2012 we were awarded a Sunshine Coast Living Smart ‘Glossy Award’ in recognition of our innovations, a success for which Noosa is overwhelmingly responsible

Unfortunately, the success of my bespoke business was short lived. By 2010 the Global Financial Crisis combined with a high Australian dollar caused my international orders to dwindle and domestically, cheap international surfboards began to flood the Australian market. In this new economic environment, I chose to license a design to Global Surf Industries (GSI), copies of which were mass produced in Thailand and Taiwan to be sold around the world. The learning curve in the licensing business model was steep, as I was exposed to the complexities of international supply chains, distribution and marketing. What stood out to me were the extreme differences between a locally made product and an imported product, particularly in broader economic terms. When I make surfboards in my shed, I purchase wood from local millers and suppliers, buy materials from the local hardware shop and use local freight companies. My income is circulated through the community in which I live and work as opposed to being derived from imported goods which do not directly support the local economy. ​

After a mutually beneficial nine-year relationship with GSI, where I was paid royalties and saw my designs enjoyed around the world, we parted ways and this chapter has ended. Luckily for me, the reliable local Noosa industry never left my side and I’m still in my shed innovating a new line of green surfboards, now using wood, cork and XPS foam materials. Sustainable industry comes from working within the community and contributing to an economic web; this is the Noosa way.

 

My experiences with GSI and the behemoth of international industry left me with more questions than answers. Why had the challenges of globalisation killed so many Australian manufacturing industries, such as sporting equipment and cars? Why had the handmade surfboard industry not only persevered throughout the GFC, but thrived in ways? These questions and many other curiosities led me to the next chapter of my life. I enrolled in a PhD program at the University of the Sunshine Coast to find answers, all of which resulted in my book, Surfboard Artisans - For The Love, which is now in its fourth printing and can be found in Noosa libraries, Noosa Longboards, Berkelouw Books, Annie’s Books and on my website. In 2019 I was awarded my PhD.

After three years of interviews and research, I found the resilience of the surfboard industry was due to three contributing factors;

  1. Surf culture supports innovation in design and development

  2. There is a low barrier of entry into the industry

  3. Newcomers to the industry believe they can be great surfboard artisans

The industry depends on these cultural qualities to be passed down from generation to generation - which they have

My findings mirror the culture of Noosa and shape my core values for leading Noosa:

1. The Noosa Plan

The utmost respect must be maintained for Noosa’s cultural values as encoded within the Noosa Plan. They protect the culture and physical environment that fosters our Noosa lifestyle. The price for Noosa is eternal vigilance, which was dramatically exemplified by the fight for de-amalgamation.

2. Support for local business

The culture of Noosa supports and fosters local business. I will work with Council to ensure Noosa’s small businesses and entrepreneurs will continue to thrive despite threats from globalised industry. My policy is to amplify tourism dollars by selling locally made products to visitors. When Noosa Longboards sells one of my surfboards, they make a profit, then pay me and I in turn, pay my suppliers. The money circulates in Noosa. When we sell local products, we sell Noosa every day. If we sell a piece of Noosa to foreign interests, we sell it once.

We are entrepreneurs and we support our local entrepreneurs. We lead the world in many ways.

This is Noosa in action. We are leaders.

3. Spreading the Tourism dollar throughout Noosa Shire

Tourism is vital to our economy. However, in peak season, it often leads to irritations to the local community including increased traffic congestion at the beach. I will support attractions throughout the hinterland that don’t lead to gridlock traffic at the beaches, such as the wondrous everglades, open the farm gate days, advancing bike trails, and attractions to the hinterland towns.

 

My policy in a nut shell

My philosophy and experiences dovetail neatly into the Noosa Plan and the Noosa lifestyle. I will lead the community forward with decisions founded on principles of law, academic investigation, public consultation and personal experience.