The Raglan Museum was a popular place on Saturday 23rd March for the opening of the Raglan Surfing exhibition. About 100 guests attended the opening by Cr Clint Baddeley after a welcome from Kaumatua Russell Riki.
Museum President, Pat Day outlined the development of the idea for the exhibition and the history of surfing in Raglan as well as its importance to the local economy. He specially acknowledged Bob Comer for providing many of the heritage boards and other items that made the exhibition possible. Due to illness Bob was unable to attend the opening. Bob’s son Matt Comer attended representing the Comer family. The exhibition was made possible with a sponsorship by the Gallagher Group and Dr Day thanked them for their generous sponsorship. It’s taken many months’ work by Raglan & District Museum Society to get the exhibition’s displays and touch-screens on the first floor up and going.
Some of the guests at the opening were original surfers who had surfed at Manu Bay in the 1960s. One of the early surfers present was Chas Lake who first surfed in the 1950s in Wellington and then along with Peter Miller was one of first New Zealanders to surf on a Californian Malibu board in 1959 and then build his own. In the 1960s Chas surfed at Manu Bay after Peter let him know about the discovery.
After the speeches the guests enjoyed an afternoon tea featuring special surfboard cupcakes prepared by Lynley Rogerson.
The exhibition features some classic New Zealand boards from the 1960s such as Roger Land, Atlas Woods, Dunlop and Quane as well as a Skellerup foamy. The oldest board is a 193os wooden board used at Manu Bay by the late Jack Poole. It was donated to the museum by his son. The boards are installed on a custom-made display unit designed by Jamie Bruce of Envision Architecture. It was built by Stu McDonald of Rosetree Enterprises and has horizontal rails of macrocarpa, matching the rest of the museum, mounted on stainless steel posts made by Raglan Engineering.
Bob Comer was also a surfing photographer and along with other photographers they have donated a collection of photos to the exhibition. Bob’s collection features Raglan surfers and their wheels. There is also the first known photo of a surfboard in New Zealand taken at Mount Maunganui in 1927 with a wooden body board in front of a vintage car.