With a young, confident multi-lingual work force, many of whom surf, Seabase has personified all that is good about the sport of surfing – its vibrant, decent, ethical nature and its proud multi-directional approach to product manufacture, selection and placement based on one company-wide directive – quality. Based in Newquay, Cornwall in the UK, and Hossegor in France, Seabase distributes throughout the world.
“As a kid, in New Zealand we lived by the sea. Getting beaten up by the surf while riding my rubber mat – big in the early 60’s – was the single most exciting feeling I remember. At school, we had surfing introduced into the sports programme. I signed in to school at 8:30am then bunked off to be in the water 30 minutes later on my 9’06” Gordon Woods funded by my grand-mother.
My friend and I would drive to the surf in my ’39 Ford (you could drive at 15 those days). At university, every spare moment was spent at Raglan – just a few of is in the early 60’s. They kicked me out of Uni once, then twice. I finally became a teacher. I lived by the sea, in the sea and taught at schools next the sea, beating the kids from school into the waves at the school bell. My friend and his wife went to South Africa. He called me one day in ‘73 to tell me about Jeffrey’s Bay and Cape St Francis. Sick of going left at Raglan, I left everything. Working for Ford Motor Co near Jeffries was a total blessing – deserted waves in those days, perfect Cape St Francis (even better than Endless Summer) and Seal Point, my favourite right hander. Ford SA finally gave me the boot after I wrecked one of their pre-production cars. A ticket to the UK meant months surfing France, Spain, Portugal and Morocco. Near death in Morocco from severe hepatitis, I was in the back of a van with two books to read; the Collected Works of Bob Dylan – no truth there – and a small New Testament my grandmother had tucked in my bag. That saved me, physically and spiritually. I moved back to England, met Barbara hitch-hiking near Newquay in Cornwall and the rest is history – well, my history.
My background in Chemistry lead to a new resin – clearer and whiter than before – that kick-started Seabase. A few blanks from Clark Foam grew into container loads, and here we are Barbara and I, forty years later, enjoying the company and still returning to my beloved New Zealand every English winter to catch up with my daughter there, and my son in Oregon, USA.”
New Zealand and Australia.
