2015 - present

Local street and gallery artist Cam Scott had been restoring foam surfboards since he was a ‘grommet’. In 2015, he encountered a discarded surfboard and saw an opportunity to provide a board for community members to ride for free. He decided to write ‘North Bondi Share Board’ on it and strap it to a fence in North Bondi. It disappeared six months later, after hundreds of community members had enjoyed riding and sharing it. 

Cam is known for the silkscreen-inspired street artworks he creates throughout the Bondi area and the unconventional printmaking practice he follows for his gallery exhibitions. He says his “faith in humanity” regularly restored with the success of the original ‘North Bondi Share Board’. Ever since that happy day in 2015, he’s been fixing foam surfboards up and gifting them back to the community. He’s restored more than 40.

The project took on a life of its own so that many other community members are now donating boards to the North Bondi fence. The project has become known as North Bondi Board Share, and Cam’s philosophy of community custodianship, shared experiences and commonality between people remains the driving force behind the acts of kindness.

One day, one of the boards ‘escaped’ on a train from Bondi, and when one of Cam’s friends noticed it and phoned him to tell him, Cam went on speaker phone to berate the ‘borrower’. Demonstrating true community spirit, the guy returned the board the next day.