For the Goldy (and oldie) brigade:

Anyone wonder what ever happened to Lawrie Hohensee? The shaper who led so many of us Miami High students astray by putting his factory right across the road from school ......

Ran into him when I was up the coast for work last week. Spent an hour together honking on about the old days. Nowadays he lives on a property down a gravel track south of Yeppoon and he is still shaping for a living and surfing.

His shaping shed is an aladdin’s cave of boards including classic single fins and new mad ideas, including an ultra-deep channel bottom balsa board with a high central ridge running down the stringer to the tail instead of fins (he wouldn’t let me photograph that one in case the world got hold of the secret). No SUPs yet - although I did my best to get him on the programme. It looks like prime downwinder country up there. Still has all his old decals and templates from the 70s, and still totally stoked on surfing. Believe it or not, he reckons there are good waves up there and no crowds.