You think you’re pretty good at DIY? Well, meet Fred Coblyn, the 66-year-old man who is single-handedly taking on the big guns by creating his very own rideable wavepool.
After seeing the video of a fully functional pool in what looks like a backyard, I contacted Fred to get some insight into what he is doing out in Java. His humble answers to my questions raised another: Why aren’t there more people like Fred?
When Fred was young, he and his family moved between Indonesia, Holland and Australia. Fred began to feel like somewhat of an outsider, until he found surfing.
“Surfing changed all that,” he said. “I was lucky enough to live and go to school near the ocean, south of Sydney.”
At the age of 13, he was given an opportunity to build a surfboard as part of a school project. His admiration of other students, who displayed healthy surf lifestyles, spurred him into completing the board, which was also the very first board that he rode.
When Fred started working, it proved difficult to pull himself away from the ocean. “I started working in the construction industry, but there was a lack of commitment and I think it was due to my preference in engineering,” said Fred. “My commitment to surfing slowed my potential at whatever I was doing work-wise.”
He ended up living on a property away from the hustle and bustle where he nurtured his passion for creating, making everything from furniture to musical instruments. “I made a lathe to carve out these djembe shells,” he remembered. “This machine was so awesome that the metal workers from my area were complimenting me on its ability and the speed it could carve out the shell of a drum.”
From those compliments grew the confidence to make other, larger projects, like wave pools and wave machines. After an illness forced him to take a long break from surfing, the crowds started to get to him. “I found it difficult to enjoy surfing with so many surfers out during good surf, so I splashed out on a surf trip to the Mentawais.”
But things were changing and surfing was reaching further than it had before. “Wherever the good waves were, the crowds were there also,” he said. “On the last day of the trip [to the Mentawais], we passed a left-hand reef that was unrideable because of the dead coral from the bomb fishing that was being done there. I thought that, with some work, this could become a rideable reef.”
Fred Coblyn, sitting atop his homemade wave machine.
From that thought came the passion to build his first wavepool.
“The beginner’s wavepool took three years to complete because I had to return to Australia several times and work for the money to complete it,” remembered Coblyn. Of course, a wave pool isn’t exactly a cheap thing to construct. Otherwise, everyone would have one in their backyard. “The total cost was $95k Australian. This pool was the last stepping stone to going commercial. With all the inventions I had created and a lot of luck and coincidence, the finished design will deliver what I value most, which is affordable surfing for most people.” Although the Holy Grail of wave pools still isn’t within reach, it’s getting closer. “The next pool will still not have barrels, but most of the money I make will go into funding and getting barrels that surfers, myself included, want.”
Who’d a thunk it? Old truck + ingenuity = perfect wave
