Deborah
worked throughout the late seventies in Sydney
Ad Agencies. The surfing culture on weekends led
to meeting Mike Doyle selling one of the first
ten Morey Boogie Boards from the boot of his car
in Sydney. The Tinker twins having to put the
outer skins together themselves as it came
separately to the main core, along with the
recommended glue, the wrist rope plug was the
hardest part to put together- they recall.
Content with their accomplishment they happily
surfed anywhere between Palm Beach and Manly
sometimes Bondi, Coogee and Cronulla. Other
interests included designing and sewing hand
painted beach pants for surf shops. A holiday in
Bali in 1978 and watching Jerry Lopez surfing
solo at Uluwatu was when a cultural realisation
took place and led Deborah to a move out of the
city and up the coast to Boomerang Beach near
Forster. Asked to design surfboard shaper Bob
Brown's logo (still in use today) upon arrival
at a local printery led to a second job spraying
surfboards for Bob around 1979 or 1980. In 1981
Deborah's yearning for travelling took over and
a 3 year trip to Europe Israel, Egypt and South
Africa took place. Along the way there was lots
of work including slaving in a fish factory in
Norway kibbutz work in Israel during the 1982
Israeli /Lebanese war. Deborah says "The fear
factor creates adrenalin just like in surfing,
it causes one to vent creativity and activate
all the necessary survival techniques". After
returning to Sydney to work at Macquarie Uni,
Deborah had the taste for sailing, learning
coastal navigation & sailing in Sydney and
spent a three years stint crewing on yachts in
the Great Barrier Reef…. missing the surf
Deborah moved to Byron Bay in 1988, working at
the local Echo newspaper, designing ads along
with starting the long love affair of Longboard
surfing. Needing more Deborah took on BA
(majoring in sculpture) at Southern Cross
University and completed it in 2000. This helped
Deborah to win two design awards.
Three
children amongst this (whom she absolutely
adores) and with part time work airbrushing
surfboards, not viable enough to survive,
Deborah thought to design a unique style of
surfboard table. Designing the stainless steel
legs and the engineering feat of joining a hard
metal to a soft foam core took eighteen months
of trial and error. Success eventually came
after talking with engineers. Then came asking
Bob McTavish to shaped the Bluebird model for
her table, he was excited with the venture and
Deborah's first order came from a large
Corporate company in Sydney. Austrade invited
Deborah to exhibit in Japan in a few trade shows
and the Australian Embassy which led to a few
sales. Constantly trying to refine the product
led Deborah to resume her studies in 2005 to do
a Grad Dip Ed to become Visual Arts High School
Teacher- part time to support the finances
needed to export this product
worldwide.
Deborah
continues to work and surf happily. Lessons from
Rusty Miller years ago proving well, Deborah is
currently ranked 5th in Australia in the Over 35
Women and 13th in the Open Women's and is the
Treasurer of the NSW Longboarding Association.
Deborah would like to thank all those in the
surfboard industry who have supported her. Most
of all to her family for the creative and the
energetic Tinker spirit and the influence of all
that shiny metal on their 57 Chevrolet family
car as her life may have taken a different
path.
Deborah
is a member of the All Girls Surf Riders Club
Lennox Head and Byron Bay Malibu Club
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