Boogaloo is a beautiful campground in Augusta, featuring glamping tents, a Mongolian yurt for yoga classes, and a funky, hand-built amenity block.

After living on a boat, Paul and Toni bought the property on the outskirts of Augusta seven years ago when they discovered they had a child on the way.

“We couldn’t think of a place more beautiful and relaxed for raising a family” says Toni.

It was time to head for solid ground to begin the journey of child-rearing.  The vision for their property was a campsite, surfboard making school, and yoga retreat.  And all these years later the vision has come to fruition!

After building a surfboard each from cedar in Maine USA, Paul and Toni were hooked on the idea of making their own surfboards.  Instead of cedar they use a different wood – Paulownia – and are growing the trees on their property.  Paulownia, also known as the Empress Tree, is a native of China and one of the fastest growing trees in the world.  Paul speaks enthusiastically about the journey of discovery:

“We’ve trialled different approaches to building boards: hollow bodied (they’re fragile if they get a ding and can suck water in), hemp hurd (super strong but makes the boards heavy and can have problems with mould).  We’ve now moved to using recycled Styrofoam leftovers for the blanks, with a wood layer on outside – grown right here on the block!”

The timber is milled and joined into sheets in Nannup, then brought back to Paul’s factory for the next step.  The timber sheets are then put on a flatbed router (hand-built by Paul and controlled with an X-box controller) to cut the shape of the board out.