Early Raglan surfers’ longboards help make new exhibition unique

Most are Bob Comer boards on loan from his family trust, boasting classic New Zealand makes from the 1960s such as Roger Land, Atlas Woods, Dunlop and Quane.

The boards are installed on a custom-made display unit built of horizontal beams of macrocarpa, in keeping with the rest of the museum, mounted on stainless steel posts made by Raglan Engineering.

Still to arrive when the Chronicle visited last week were a 1938 wooden board used by the late Jack Poole – gifted by his son – and a fibreglass one used by Don Wilson in the 1970s.

Bob, an early Raglan surfer and a surfing photographer from way back, has also – along with local Jwan Milek – donated a collection of photos to the exhibition. Bob’s collection includes the first known photo of a surfer in New Zealand: it was taken at Mount Maunganui in 1927 and the surfer is standing with a huge wooden board in front of a vintage car.

It’s taken six months’ work by Raglan & District Museum Society to get the displays and touch-screens on the museum’s mezzanine floor up and running, says society president Patrick Day. Not that the sponsored exhibition – to the tune of $20,000 from Gallagher Group – is finished yet.

“It’s going to be added to and changed over time,” says Pat who’s keen to broaden the museum’s appeal by making the permanent exhibition its point of difference.

Surfing is important to Raglan financially and culturally, he points out, and the museum should reflect that. To this end, Pat’s worked closely with local Gregor Divett who’s liaised with early Raglan surfers to get a clear picture of how the town’s surfing culture developed.

A framed collection of t-shirts – donated by Gregor and Bob – from the early ‘60s through to the ‘90s helps capture the evolution of Raglan Point Board Riders Club which began in ’62 at Manu Bay, widely known as The Point.

Point Board Riders still run surfing competitions today.

Glass cabinets showcasing a vintage wax collection and other surfing memorabilia complete the picture, along with posters of the early surf movie ‘Endless Summer’ – which put Raglan on the map internationally – and the more recent ‘Last Paradise’ with historic footage of Raglan by Kiwi Clive Neeson.

And no surfing exhibition would be complete without the strains of the Beach Boys’ hits in the background – set off by a digital sensor screen mounted on the wall of the exhibition floor.