OUR STORY
HANDY BODYSURFING: HANDPLANES FOR CHASING STOKE.
OUR Journey to The Hippy Trippy
For as long as I can remember, I’ve always loved the ocean. Growing up in Queensland, surfing wasn’t just a hobby – it was a part of my life. Although I first learned to surf when I was 7, from what I remember, I was about 4 years old when I first learned to bodysurf, taught by my father, who was a keen bodysurfer from his years in Papua New Guinea. But, to his dismay, surfing took over. Even so, I’ve always bodysurfed. When the waves weren’t quite right for surfing, I’d ditch my board in the sand dunes and hit the shore breaks. My first 40 years of bodysurfing were with no flippers or handplane – I honestly didn’t know any better, I just thought that’s what bodysurfing was.
Then one day, while going to check the surf at Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast, the tide was high and the outer banks weren’t breaking because it was too full. Meanwhile, the shorebreak was pumping! Leaving my board in the car, I went for a bodysurf. Pulling into a few barrels, but not making them, for the first time I thought, “If I had a handplane, maybe I’d make some of these?”
This was just before Christmas, so I asked my wife for a handplane. I was psyched to get it, and when Santa finally came, I took it for a surf… and it sucked. I didn’t like how it surfed and swam, and I was bummed. At the same time, I was doing some repairs on a surfboard and had a lot of leftover resin from that, and the idea came to me to try and make a handplane.
That’s how it all started back in 2020. The first handplane I made took me nearly 3 months. I had no idea what I was doing… When I was young, my dad had brought home a heap of styrofoam one day, and we built boats to play in the dam. So, working and shaping with foam felt familiar, but this was a new challenge altogether.
It was the glassing part that got me. Although I had always repaired my own surfboards, I struggled to get the glassing right because I kept over-sanding and wearing the fibreglass layer back to the foam. I soon learned that sanding is an art form, and it takes a lot of practice.
The First Handy and Meeting The Goldie Sliders
Photo: The First Handy – The Yew! – 2020
Three months later, I had finally finished that first handplane and took it for a test run. I went to Narrowneck on the Gold Coast, and there was a fun shorebreak with no one out. Catching my first few waves, I knew straight away I was on the right track. It felt right for me.
But then, before I knew it, I was surrounded by bodysurfers! I hadn’t seen that many bodysurfers in one place at a time. I was baffled, thinking, “Here I am testing my handplane for the first time, and all of a sudden I’m surrounded by like-minded surfers.” This is when I first met the Goldie Sliders.
One of them asked me, “Hey, what handplane is that?” I said, “I made it.” He replied, “Good on ya!” Then I caught a few more waves, and another said to me, “Don’t you use flippers?” At that moment, I realised what the full package for surfing with a bodysurfing handplane really was.
After the surf, I tagged the Goldie Sliders in an Instagram story, and that’s when I first got interest in Handy’s handplanes. Since then, I’ve surfed with the Goldie Sliders, sharing stories, sharing laughs, and chasing stoke.
The Handy Evolution: From Garage to Production
Photo: Shaping in my garage in 2022
For more than four years, I was flat out shaping, testing, and just trying all sorts of wild ideas. Every board was a lesson – take it for a surf, see how it goes, then back to the garage for tweaks. It was all about seeing what worked, and what would genuinely make a difference out in the surf.
These were the 4 shapes I liked the most:
The Wish Me Luck
Photo: The Wish Me Luck
This was a smaller shape with 4 channels. Growing up surfing in the 80s and 90s, channels were always ‘a beautiful thing’, so I started to experiment with them in the handplanes. I felt it gave that little bit of extra bite, especially in dredging waves, keeping the handplane tight in the pocket.
The Bazza
Photo: The Bazza
This was a handgun of sorts, designed for bigger days when you needed that extra volume and rail length — just like a surfboard. Like the Wish Me Luck, The Bazza also had 4 channels, and surfed really fast. But it was also very directional and needed to be surfed differently to the other handplanes.
The Hippy Trippy
Photo: The Hippy Trippy
I wanted to create a handplane similar to a fish surfboard. Something that goes well when the surf isn’t that great – with extra volume but with a fun, fluid feel. Fish surfboards do have a connection with Hipster surfers, and that’s how the name came about. A friend I grew up surfing with used to always say, ‘Hippy Trippy Casual Flower Power Mellow Man’ as a running joke, and this is how the name came about. Actually, the full name of The Hippy Trippy is that… ‘Hippy Trippy’ for short.
Of all the shapes, The Hippy Trippy soon became my favourite. Although it was first intended for average surf, I found it went well in small punchy beach breaks to 6ft+ surf. It performs well in all conditions, and swimming with it was always easy due to its lightweight design.
Model H
Photo: Model H
One day after coming home from a surf (I still stand-up surf from time to time), I was looking at my surfboard and had an idea. I love my surfboard; it’s super reactive and fast. I looked at the tail and thought, maybe I should give that a go?
I drew up the design and added that tail to the nose of The Hippy Trippy. This was by far my most challenging board to shape and glass. It took a few tries to get right, but when I finally finished it, it looked great. The day I got to test it out, it was a solid 4ft+ swell with heaps of energy. The handplane loved it! The next week the surf continued to pump, and every surf it just performed. I knew I had found a handplane for when the waves were on.
I posted it on social media, and it went viral. Never had I thought I would get a reaction like this for a handplane. It was a journey to go through something like that with so many people reacting to something you created.
Just when everything was looking like it was going to take off, it was all cut off really quickly…
Next Steps: Handy Production
I started all this to create a handplane for myself. But as I continued to post the shapes I was making on social media, my garage hobby grew faster than I had ever imagined, and people from all over the world were keen to get one.
Never did I think that what I was doing was wrong… until the council knocked on my door and I had to shut it down in July 2024.
It was shattering to say the least, but I vowed to make this setback into a comeback.
Photo: Hippy Trippy Production Model
So, for the past year, I’ve been researching, designing, and planning a production model.
I decided to go with The Hippy Trippy first, then if successful, move onto the next shapes like the Model H.
I’ve spent countless hours going back and forth with the manufacturer to get it right.
The final result? A bodysurfing handboard I would’ve dreamed of having way back at the beginning. For me, it’s perfect – and I’m sure anyone that gets one will love it just as much as I do.
Check out The Hippy Trippy production model below:
