Driving around the Byron Bay industrial estate, looking for the Sea Surfboards headquarters, I was expecting to find some grubby little ramshackle shaping bay with a hippie out the front, smoking a twisty. Instead I found The Sea Cell; a brilliant white showroom, which kind of looks like an art gallery that you’d find on Brunswick St in Melbourne.

I was greeted by Dain Thomas, the craftsman behind the retro shapes that Sea have become renowned for. He has shoulder length hair and a semi-hipster stubble beard; the kind I wish I could grow. Smiling he shows me around his domain. I love it. There’s art on shelves to the right and boards that you could drool over lining the walls. The thing that initially drew me to wanting to connect with Sea Surfboards were these craft. They’re incredible, unique resin tints that would make Jackson Pollock drop a load, and shapes that would make the most conformed short-boarder want to trade his 6’2’’ thruster for a twin fin. The Sea Cell is the alternative surfer’s Nirvana.

Sea began from humble beginnings in 1999 after Dain and his mate Matt Yeates dreamt up the idea for a surfboard label. Dain (who was already a noted longboarder), was shaping Sea Surfboards at night, out of the McTavish factory, where he was working as a production shaper during the day. A few years later Dain met Paul McNeil, an accomplished artist who provided the catalyst which evolved Sea, from a twilight operation into a fully fledged art versus surfing collective.

I sat down with Dain and Paul on a comfortable coach in the Sea Cell, and they explained how it all came about. Paul began, “I’d been doing graphic design all my life and Bob (McTavish) asked me to do a bunch of designs for him, when I met Dain who was working there. We kind of clicked; more about what we were into and what was going on. We sort of worked out that something was going to happen. I pretty much talked him into leaving his job. We were just into it. It was as simple as that. There wasn’t any real big plan. I’d always wanted to try and get art on boards and bring that back, like the great Martin Worthington days. Just colourful boards, and it all seemed to be all right here with Dain; doing the same aesthetic. We were on the same page, you know, musically and artistically and could drink as much as each other (laughs). So we were just like: ‘Let’s do something, let’s get it happening!’”

“Sea had been bubbling away as a small surfboard label, and a clothing label.” Dain explained further. “It was really cottage, very much a side project for everyone involved. But still it was taken seriously. It was about 6 years old at that stage, you know, it was just me shaping boards at night out of McTavish. Then it started to kick along, Six Ounce Boardstore in Bondi was really supportive and moving plenty of boards. It was just good word of mouth at that point; with the surf industry and the general punter becoming aware of these boards. Thomas Campbell’s films and Kidman’s films had a lot to do with that. So we were like; we need a home for this thing, we need a little showroom and shaping bay, gallery and clubhouse.”

“We took a drive one afternoon from McTavish and it was just like: ‘Where can we set up? Here?’ It was so sort of stupidly spontaneous, it was almost unbelievable. We were driving around and Paul was going: ‘You should really open a shop you know’, and I was like: ‘Ah a shop? How does that work?’ Sort of thing; not really believing in it. We got about twenty meters down the road and Paul was like: ‘What about that place? That place would be perfect.’ He pointed to here and I thought, fuck yeah, that’s a great spot, and it was empty. So we pulled up to have a look and peered through the window. At that point the walls were brick, the floor was concrete, there was an engineer in here last; it was filthy really. The owners have got the shop next door, so we said to them ‘what’s going on with this building? Is it for rent?’ And they were like: ‘Oh, so sorry, we just leased it yesterday, bummer.’ We told them if it comes up here’s my number. Two days later she called and said, ‘the people who we were leasing it to fell through, would you like it?’ So we put our heads together with Matt and figured out a half baked plan to make it happen”. 

Even though the space had been offered to them, the owner had her reservations about letting Sea Surfboards move in. “She was terrified it was going to be a surfboard factory and was thinking stinky fibreglass.” Paul said.

“And you know, no-one wants that anywhere.” Dain chimes in, like an extension of Paul. “She said, ‘sorry we can’t do resin, we’ve just gotten rid of an engineer!’ We had to convince her that it was just a shaping bay, so Paul mocked up this 3D picture of a space that was pretty much like this, like it is now.”

“But with a shaping bay with a window.” Dain continues. “I think Paul put a desk there or whatever with boards up here and that was it. He printed it up and gave it to her and she went: ‘Oh that looks nice!’ We were like: ‘Ok, we’re in business!’ 

For the next three months it was all hands on deck. With the help of Dain’s father Lee, Matt and Dain built the shaping bay and fitted the place out.

With a new epicentre of production, Sea Surfboards had hit its straps. Things progressed organically from there. Not only were Dain and Paul churning out these unique boards, but the clothing was ticking along and they began to branch out into art shows. This is where Paul’s influence flowed into ‘The Sea.’

“I moved to Byron five years ago and the only thing I wanted to do in Byron was introduce new art. At that point it was all dolphins and rainbows up here; I was like, my god, there’s some young people up here and they need to see some new art! Dain and I had endless conversations about that. I mean surfboards are the main thing, but we’re just as passionate about the art and music as anything.”

The Sea Cell has hosted many art shows since then. They have slowly grown from small gatherings to major happenings in Byron; to the point where even art dealers around Australia are taking notice.

“It got to a good point now,” Paul smiles. “The first shows we had here, people didn’t quite get what we were doing. It was like this strange thing. They’d rocked up and go: ‘What are you showing this for?’ It’s not like the city where people go to art shows. Up here it’s like; ‘is this a shop? Is it a surfboard shop? Why is all the art on the walls? You’ve got free beer? What’s going on?’ You know, it was quite strange, but over the last couple of years it’s built up. The last big show we had it all clicked and they’re real happenings. Girls dress up, guys are on their best behaviour, and everyone’s digging the art on some level. It’s a great thing I think, a very giving thing to do to just put some culture out there for no reason. We don’t expect to make big sales or anything. It’s passion. We’re very passionate about it straight up. 

Dain’s eyes light up with the mention of the art shows. “Yeah! The response it getting bigger and bigger every show! More people are showing up, people are making the journey from Noosa, The Gold Coast, Melbourne; everyone, from straight up surfers, to art buyers and lovers. It’s always a nice cross section of people and it’s such a wonderful process; germinating the idea and then working with the artists. The artists come up the week before, we hang the show and hang out, we go surfing and get the booze organised. It’s just the simple stuff that’s quite menial. We normally repaint the walls, and all the team riders and friends and hangers on kind of chip in and help out. We give the shaping bay a spit polish and show films against the wall, put a few boards in there that people can look at, so they can see some boards as well as some art.” 

The Sea Men have come up with some great concepts when it comes to art shows; such as making art accessible for everyone.

“The last show we had which was a huge group show, with like 40 artists. Everything was a hundred dollars; it was great. We got a lot of pieces and a lot of big names. We wanted to do it on a level that suits the Sea Cell and suits the artists, and give the people something they can afford to buy. It’s a town full of young people that don’t earn a lot of money; they can’t be buying $5000 paintings or even $1000 paintings in just unreachable for most people here. So we just try to make it affordable and fun.” Paul says.  

“Part of our ethos behind that show was to give or provide affordable art for the locals, people who have come to our shows and drooled over a $5000 Jeff Reglus piece or Alex Kopps and then all of a sudden everything’s a hundred bucks! I think it’s a really good kick of point for people to start collecting art. Someone can go ‘I want to buy a piece of art’ and then it’s on their wall. It’s very accessible. We tried to do all things right so we gave some of the profit to charity and the gallery got enough to run the place. We have a great new beer sponsor, Stone and Wood, who are across the road. We dragged them onboard. We said we have big events and we’re looking for someone to pay for the beer, and they went fantastic! We’ll do that!”

Dain laughs “It’s been a huge draw card for every show. It’s good when someone else is paying for the beer!”

While the shows are a major driving passion for Dain and Paul, most of their time is still taken up producing their amazing surf-craft.

“We can talk about a board for weeks before it even gets shaped,” Paul says candidly. “I’m sure the design process in Dain’s head is endlessly going on and moving forward. They’re all very much one offs, so there’s no mass production of boards. I notice Dain’s boards are never standing still, you know, the models that you have Dain’s always changing them and moving forward with them. It’s a very thought out process of complete boards. There are over eight stages when shaping each board; it’s a very laborious process. Unfortunately they only come back here for a couple of hours once they’ve been finished and they’re gone, people are so desperate to get them. We don’t get to look at them very long, which is a bit sad, well it’s very sad. But it’s very exciting.  I would hope that these are very collectable boards in the future just for the sake that the amount of effort that Dain and I and everyone involved puts into them. We hope that people go: ‘Well this is a board that would be worth collecting in 30 or 40 years time from this era of Sea Surfboards’, perhaps that sounds big headed, but a lot of love goes into them. It’s time versus output really. It’s a big job, because Dain and I don’t really profit on these boards but we’re passionate about it enough to spend hours on a single board. Any one else in the surf industry would say I’m not going to spend two hours extra on a board, because I’m just going to lose money, it’s a waste of time. I’m just into how good they look, just like as long as it looks insane I don’t care how long it takes or how long it costs.”  

“As much as we whinge about it, we don’t mind because it’s such a tired old complaint,” Dain adds. “We don’t have to make boards, no-one’s putting a gun to our head; we just love the results. It’s worth it and it provides a great backbone to everything else that we do, like the clothing, the art shows, this space. So it’s worth the hassle.”

“We don’t care if you’re not into them, that’s totally cool.” Paul says seriously. “But the people who are into them just love them and want to hang them on their walls and don’t want to ride them. Then when they do ride them, they’re like: ‘that’s the best board I’ve ever ridden, Dain’s crazy!’ It’s such a great feeling.”

I asked Dain if Sea Surfboards have to go well in the surf as well as look good. His response was an impassioned one.

“Without a doubt! Straight up! No ifs or buts about that. It’s kind of pointless otherwise. I try to make every board with performance on some level, it’s paramount. Otherwise it wouldn’t be worth it. It might look good, but the point is boards are made to be ridden.”

While Paul and Dain are the voices of the company today, there are many other contributors to the success of Sea.  

“What we should also make clear is the Sea thing, it’s very much a family affair,” Dain tells me. “Our buddy Brent Wayling does an incredible job of designing and producing the clothing, as well as helping out with art shows and everything else. Of course there’s also Matty, who runs the shop and is the unofficial team manager slash photographer. It’s not so planned out, but there are the boards and the art and the clothes and all the people involved in each part of that.”

“It totally revolves around Dain and his boards and his vision.” Paul continues. “But also anyone that comes into it, riders like Johnny Abegg, Mick Hughes, Jimmy Newitt a great artist from England. We’ve just noticed that, even our friend Aaron that has a record company, that somehow by ozmosis becomes a ‘Sea Person’ because of the connections. And artists who have shown here like Robert Moore and Jeff Raglus, all the Americans, Kopps, Alex Knost and so forth, everyone feels quite comfortable here. It’s kind of a natural home for them because they are sort of outsiders in the art and surf and stuff that they are into. It’s like a collective group of Harley Davidson riders or bikies or something. They’ve just become Sea People. It’s a great thing, like punk rock used to be or Indy music. You’re not joined to a record company, you don’t have backing or support, so everyone helps each other out. It’s amazing how many people want to spread the word about Sea because they love the boards and culture and have an affinity with what we’re doing. It’s the same with music I think, that idea where you can turn up in another country and sleep on peoples couches. I think we have that. People believe in it and it’s a great thing, it’s like; she’s one of us, or he’s our people. It’s great to have good people involved, because we don’t want to work with people we don’t like, just people we do like. Luckily there are plenty of people that get it.”

Well I get it. I guess now I’m a Sea Person as well, because I would cut off my left nut to get one of Dain shapes under my feet or on my wall. They’ve sucked me in; with the lure of their chilled out, who gives a fuck life-style. Both Paul and Dain insist it’s not something they calculated.

“We didn’t plan anything really, we still don’t. It’s not creating a lifestyle. We just throw it out there, you know what I mean? We don’t even think too much about it. It’s just a cool thing to do, it comes our way and we’d do more if we could. It would be great if we had the funds to just do rad shit all the time. We pretty much create the clothes that we want to wear, make the surfboards that we want to ride, share the art we want to see and play good music to people that we think they should listen to. It outside the mundane side of life, we’re not snobby enough to know better and push a lifestyle on people.”

Luckily I am snobby enough to push this life on people. Like some kind of demented Mormon, I’m going to go from door to door with my Sea Bible in hand and quad fin in tow. So hook into it now, order a Sea Board, buy some Sea art and don your Sea threads.

In the end all Paul, Dain, Brent and Matt want to do is have fun and help others join in. Paul said it best when he tells me anyone can do whatever they want.

“I’m a great believer in do it yourself, which came out of the punk era. Have an art show in your bedroom if you want to, just draw some pictures and stick them up and invite some people; that’s an art show! It doesn’t have to make the Sydney Morning Herald art guide or anything like that. You can you anything you want. I think people are getting more involved in art, it’s got to happen.”

So that’s it! Go and do it: Live the dream. Not their dream or my dream; live yours. Do you know what it is yet?