The surfer boy shredding a wave on the shores of a small Southland coastal town is one hurdle away from getting a much needed makeover.
Colac Bay’s surfer statue, located at the entrance of the town, has been a main fixture of the town for over 25 years, however, it is showing obvious signs of wear and tear.
Faced with the prospect of a tear-down, the community rallied together and decided to raise the money for a new one.
Colac Bay and Districts Progress League committee member Lana Winders said they were $27,000 away from reaching their fundraising goal.
Their target was $140,000.
They had their eyes on three different funders to help get over the last hurdle, and had plans to raffle off a whole cattle beast for meat to contribute to the last of the fundraising efforts.
The goal was so close the community had already put out the call for submissions from artists.
Seven artists submitted works, and three had been short-listed.
‘‘So it was really important that the statue have a wave, a board and a surfer — I know it sounds obvious, but initially when we got the registrations of interest from the seven artists ... there were some variations and not all of those elements were included.’’
She said they wanted to select an artist who could be creative with the materials they used, and who would be able to create a statue that would have a 30-year-plus lifespan.
The current statue, built in 1999, initially only had a 10-year lifespan, but thanks to careful maintenance from the Southland District Council and with local support, the current statue has remained for over 25 years.
‘‘However, the repairs, the costs and the frequency of repairs were getting just too high — we had to face the music and realise that if we wanted to continue to have a surfer statue, we would need to replace the one we’ve got.’’
About 20 months ago, the Southland District Council wanted to demolish the statue, but the Colac Bay community did not want that to happen, so they all rolled up their sleeves, and said ‘‘let’s see what we can do’’.
‘‘The local saying goes that 20 to 30 years ago you could take a wave and have it all to yourself, but now you’ve got to do a lot more sharing of the wave.’’
Now that they were $27,000 from the finish line, everyone was feeling really good seeing their hard work pay off.
‘‘It’s brought us closer together ... it’s been great connecting with people that we don’t normally spend time with.
‘‘This whole campaign to raise this fund has been awesome for lighting up our community.’’
