An Introduction to Billy Tolhurst
A Central NSW Shaping Staple for 50 years
Billy Tolhurst epitomizes Australia’s blue-collar ethos. A surfboard shaper from Coffs Harbour in New South Wales, Tolhurst shaped his first board in 1964 when he was 12, and by the time he was 15 he had his own surfboard label. His board design eventually took a backseat to jobs in surveying and civil earthworks, but throughout the 1970s and ’80s, he continued to refine boards at night and on the weekend. By the time he went back into production mode in the 1990s, Tolhurst was a master craftsman, with Tolhurst Surfboards quickly becoming a respected name on the Central Coast.
Tolhurst has been collaborating with multiple world champion Harley Ingleby since Ingleby was a child, building him boards to support his varied approach to both long and shortboarding. As Ingleby’s reputation grew, he knew he needed to get Tolhurst’s shapes out to the public, so they eventually started a line of performance longboards designed by both men, refined by decades of experience and competitive success, and shaped by Tolhurst.
Today, the Harley Ingleby series by Billy Tolhurst is one of the most cutting-edge collections of modern longboards on the market, further bolstered by the adoption of the space-age Thunderbolt Technology innovated by Japan’s Yu Sumitomo.
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