REPORTER: Mark Davis
Lido village, Vanimo, north coast PNG. School is out and the kids are heading for their favourite break. They are members of one of the world's most unique surf clubs, with unquestionably some of the most unique boards. The only place on earth to surf with boards that have come straight out of the jungle.
REPORTER: Where did you get this fellow?
BOY, (Translation): I got it from the bush, the big bush.
REPORTER: Yeah? You cut him? Yourself or your brother or what?
BOY: Myself.
REPORTER: Yourself? You made all this one?
BOY: Yes.
Stephen Tekwei, a PNG surf champ and head of the Sunset Surf Club, is boss of this brood.
REPORTER: They look pretty comfortable. You've got some champs in there, you think?
STEPHEN TEKWEI: Yeah, I think so. Maybe in a few years time these young kids will be champions.
REPORTER: PNG champions?
STEPHEN TEKWEI:Yes.
It is no surprise to Stephen that surfing comes naturally to these kids. He believes that this village is where surfing began, on the sides of broken canoes.
STEPHEN TEKWEI: I can tell you that surfing was here hundreds of years ago. When old canoes, dugout canoes, when they break up, these old people get these half of the canoes and then they start using them as bodyboards and they start surfing.
They surfed their planks but never stood up until an intrepid Australian surfer discovered this break in the 1990s.
STEPHEN TEKWEI: He brought his surfboard out and he introduced this to the young boys. And so the boys started learning. There were a few boys tried it out first, and then the other ones, and then there were plenty of boys, even girls are here too.
Standing up was a pretty cool idea but with just one board to share, the kids soon tired of watching from the beach.
STEPHEN TEKWEI: We don't have enough boards, surfboards to supply to the kids. As a result, you see them on the beach all the time. They don't have a chance so they start cutting up the trees to make surfboards for themselves.
With only two fibreglass boards to the club's name, which are kept for competitions, Stephen treks into the jungle in search of another board. The hunt is on for the right tree, known locally as a tapa. Its bark used traditionally to make a type of clothing.
REPORTER: Is this it?
STEPHEN TEKWEI: This is the tree.
REPORTER: Yeah?
STEPHEN TEKWEI: Our old people used to cut the skin to make a type of cloth for sing-sings and traditional art rituals.
It is the right type of tree but not good enough for the perfect board.
STEPHEN TEKWEI: This one is young. The big one - the bigger the tree, the thinner it is.
There is the one.
REPORTER: This is the one? Hey - look at that.
STEPHEN TEKWEI: This, this is the one. This is the one, this is the right one that I described. This is the one that the boys, the kids, cut out and they use as a surfboard.
REPORTER: Fantastic.
STEPHEN TEKWEI: They make a surfboard out of this one.
The kids invented this, you know. Somehow some of the kids went into the jungle and they said, "This could do a good surfboard," so they cut it out and they tried it. They got it, surfed out, and they tried it and it worked. And here we are - we have got a factory of natural surfboard.
REPORTER: No resin.
STEPHEN TEKWEI: It's all natural. No resin, no fibreglass, no foam, no whatever. It's straight out from the jungle.
Eskelly is the rising star of the Vanimo surf scene. He has recently upgraded to a glass board to compete in the national championships, but he cut his teeth on bush boards like this one.
ESKELLY, (Translation): I saw the boys surfing. I like that and want to surf with that type of board too. So I cut it in the bush. My cousin brother shaped it. Then I took it to surf. I didn't have money to buy one so I surfed on this board.
REPORTER: And now you're a champion, hey?
ESKELLY, (Translation): Yeah.
REPORTER: Vanimo champion?
ESKELLY, (Translation): Yeah, I think Vanimo champion.
REPORTER: You are the best? Yeah. What about Stephen? You are better than Stephen?
ESKELLY, (Translation): Yeah, I am better than him.
REPORTER: You are better than Stephen? Yeah. OK. I like the curve.
STEPHEN TEKWEI: There is the curve there, there is the board I was talking about.
BOYS: Yeah, yeah, yeah. You see, it is almost a Malibu. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
REPORTER: Do you like it, Eskelly? What do you think? Let's go surfing.
STEPHEN TEKWEI: We'll turn it around and we'll get the bottom skin out and then we'll start shaping it properly.
It has been really quite amazing watching this board emerge in just a few hours with some pretty simple tools, mostly bush knives. But perhaps I should not be surprised - these boys' fathers and their grandfathers and for hundreds of years before them were renowned as some of the best boat-builders along this coast.
Steven Lina is one of the last canoe builders in the village. Fibreglass boats have dented his market but his canoes are still in demand, exported to clan members all along the coast.
STEVEN LINA: Canoe, it's a part of our life here. It's like people from the inland, they need dogs to hunt, and get food, well, we coastal people, we need canoe to go out fishing. People here, we love sea and we use all this. You see these kids, they play in the sea all the time and it's part of their life, I think.
REPORTER: So whether it's canoes or surfboards?
STEVEN LINA: So canoe or surfboard, it's part of the life here in the village. Yeah, it's good, looking good.
REPORTER: What do you think of the work? Are they doing a good job?
STEVEN LINA: Well, they're doing a good job, pretty good. It is not yet finished but I think it's going to turn out to be OK.
REPORTER:
It's much harder to make a canoe, you reckon?
STEVEN LINA: This is simple. Canoe, making a canoe you have to master certain arts - how to dig and how to shape it, and that is it. It needs qualified, skilled people to do it.
REPORTER: But these boys are pretty good, they are doing good shaping. Well, that's, It's alright? So-so? Just alright?
STEVEN LINA: Yeah.
The surfboard from Lido village is nearing completion, not finished until the traditional village markings are applied - a centuries old trademark for paddles and canoes. Something old, something new.
STEPHEN TEKWEI: This is a traditional design for the village. This is a lizard head and these two markings here represent the nostrils of the lizard. This one represents the eye, and these are the ears of the lizard. And this is the tail.
REPORTER: I think it looks fantastic. What you think? You are the maker.
STEPHEN TEKWEI: I think it is nice. I like it because it has to do Its nose is good. It's really thin and it has a fin. And it also represents the old era and the new.
REPORTER: Can I surf him?
STEPHEN TEKWEI: Not at this moment because it is still new and it is still wet and heavy.
REPORTER: Too heavy to surf, huh?
STEPHEN TEKWEI: Yeah.
REPORTER: Well, that's a shame because I think people would have really liked to have seen me surf this one today.
STEPHEN TEKWEI: Well, I would like to surf too, but I'm sorry, it's still heavy and you can't surf today.
Another week for the sap to completely dry out the board and the Sunset Surf Club will welcome its latest edition.
Feature Report: Wild Boards
Reporter/Camera
MARK DAVIS
Editor
ROWAN TUCKER-EVANS
Subtitling
KIRK HUFFMAN
Thank you to Air Nuiguini for carrying the surf boards
Lido village, Vanimo, north coast PNG. School is out and the kids are heading for their favourite break. They are members of one of the world's most unique surf clubs, with unquestionably some of the most unique boards. The only place on earth to surf with boards that have come straight out of the jungle.
REPORTER: Where did you get this fellow?
BOY, (Translation): I got it from the bush, the big bush.
REPORTER: Yeah? You cut him? Yourself or your brother or what?
BOY: Myself.
REPORTER: Yourself? You made all this one?
BOY: Yes.
Stephen Tekwei, a PNG surf champ and head of the Sunset Surf Club, is boss of this brood.
REPORTER: They look pretty comfortable. You've got some champs in there, you think?
STEPHEN TEKWEI: Yeah, I think so. Maybe in a few years time these young kids will be champions.
REPORTER: PNG champions?
STEPHEN TEKWEI:Yes.
It is no surprise to Stephen that surfing comes naturally to these kids. He believes that this village is where surfing began, on the sides of broken canoes.
STEPHEN TEKWEI: I can tell you that surfing was here hundreds of years ago. When old canoes, dugout canoes, when they break up, these old people get these half of the canoes and then they start using them as bodyboards and they start surfing.
They surfed their planks but never stood up until an intrepid Australian surfer discovered this break in the 1990s.
STEPHEN TEKWEI: He brought his surfboard out and he introduced this to the young boys. And so the boys started learning. There were a few boys tried it out first, and then the other ones, and then there were plenty of boys, even girls are here too.
Standing up was a pretty cool idea but with just one board to share, the kids soon tired of watching from the beach.
STEPHEN TEKWEI: We don't have enough boards, surfboards to supply to the kids. As a result, you see them on the beach all the time. They don't have a chance so they start cutting up the trees to make surfboards for themselves.
With only two fibreglass boards to the club's name, which are kept for competitions, Stephen treks into the jungle in search of another board. The hunt is on for the right tree, known locally as a tapa. Its bark used traditionally to make a type of clothing.
REPORTER: Is this it?
STEPHEN TEKWEI: This is the tree.
REPORTER: Yeah?
STEPHEN TEKWEI: Our old people used to cut the skin to make a type of cloth for sing-sings and traditional art rituals.
It is the right type of tree but not good enough for the perfect board.
STEPHEN TEKWEI: This one is young. The big one - the bigger the tree, the thinner it is.
There is the one.
REPORTER: This is the one? Hey - look at that.
STEPHEN TEKWEI: This, this is the one. This is the one, this is the right one that I described. This is the one that the boys, the kids, cut out and they use as a surfboard.
REPORTER: Fantastic.
STEPHEN TEKWEI: They make a surfboard out of this one.
The kids invented this, you know. Somehow some of the kids went into the jungle and they said, "This could do a good surfboard," so they cut it out and they tried it. They got it, surfed out, and they tried it and it worked. And here we are - we have got a factory of natural surfboard.
REPORTER: No resin.
STEPHEN TEKWEI: It's all natural. No resin, no fibreglass, no foam, no whatever. It's straight out from the jungle.
Eskelly is the rising star of the Vanimo surf scene. He has recently upgraded to a glass board to compete in the national championships, but he cut his teeth on bush boards like this one.
ESKELLY, (Translation): I saw the boys surfing. I like that and want to surf with that type of board too. So I cut it in the bush. My cousin brother shaped it. Then I took it to surf. I didn't have money to buy one so I surfed on this board.
REPORTER: And now you're a champion, hey?
ESKELLY, (Translation): Yeah.
REPORTER: Vanimo champion?
ESKELLY, (Translation): Yeah, I think Vanimo champion.
REPORTER: You are the best? Yeah. What about Stephen? You are better than Stephen?
ESKELLY, (Translation): Yeah, I am better than him.
REPORTER: You are better than Stephen? Yeah. OK. I like the curve.
STEPHEN TEKWEI: There is the curve there, there is the board I was talking about.
BOYS: Yeah, yeah, yeah. You see, it is almost a Malibu. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
REPORTER: Do you like it, Eskelly? What do you think? Let's go surfing.
STEPHEN TEKWEI: We'll turn it around and we'll get the bottom skin out and then we'll start shaping it properly.
It has been really quite amazing watching this board emerge in just a few hours with some pretty simple tools, mostly bush knives. But perhaps I should not be surprised - these boys' fathers and their grandfathers and for hundreds of years before them were renowned as some of the best boat-builders along this coast.
Steven Lina is one of the last canoe builders in the village. Fibreglass boats have dented his market but his canoes are still in demand, exported to clan members all along the coast.
STEVEN LINA: Canoe, it's a part of our life here. It's like people from the inland, they need dogs to hunt, and get food, well, we coastal people, we need canoe to go out fishing. People here, we love sea and we use all this. You see these kids, they play in the sea all the time and it's part of their life, I think.
REPORTER: So whether it's canoes or surfboards?
STEVEN LINA: So canoe or surfboard, it's part of the life here in the village. Yeah, it's good, looking good.
REPORTER: What do you think of the work? Are they doing a good job?
STEVEN LINA: Well, they're doing a good job, pretty good. It is not yet finished but I think it's going to turn out to be OK.
REPORTER:
It's much harder to make a canoe, you reckon?
STEVEN LINA: This is simple. Canoe, making a canoe you have to master certain arts - how to dig and how to shape it, and that is it. It needs qualified, skilled people to do it.
REPORTER: But these boys are pretty good, they are doing good shaping. Well, that's, It's alright? So-so? Just alright?
STEVEN LINA: Yeah.
The surfboard from Lido village is nearing completion, not finished until the traditional village markings are applied - a centuries old trademark for paddles and canoes. Something old, something new.
STEPHEN TEKWEI: This is a traditional design for the village. This is a lizard head and these two markings here represent the nostrils of the lizard. This one represents the eye, and these are the ears of the lizard. And this is the tail.
REPORTER: I think it looks fantastic. What you think? You are the maker.
STEPHEN TEKWEI: I think it is nice. I like it because it has to do Its nose is good. It's really thin and it has a fin. And it also represents the old era and the new.
REPORTER: Can I surf him?
STEPHEN TEKWEI: Not at this moment because it is still new and it is still wet and heavy.
REPORTER: Too heavy to surf, huh?
STEPHEN TEKWEI: Yeah.
REPORTER: Well, that's a shame because I think people would have really liked to have seen me surf this one today.
STEPHEN TEKWEI: Well, I would like to surf too, but I'm sorry, it's still heavy and you can't surf today.
Another week for the sap to completely dry out the board and the Sunset Surf Club will welcome its latest edition.
Feature Report: Wild Boards
Reporter/Camera
MARK DAVIS
Editor
ROWAN TUCKER-EVANS
Subtitling
KIRK HUFFMAN
Thank you to Air Nuiguini for carrying the surf boards