Women in business photo series
My most recent ‘Women in Business’ portrait features Kirsty Furbank from Camel Rock Surf School in Bermagui on the Far South Coast.
Kirsty is warm, light and full of joy… as you’d expect from someone who spends most of her life on or near the ocean. I asked Kirsty a bunch of questions about her career and business on the Sapphire Coast.
What 'spark' led you to your current business and how long have you been operating?
My dad taught me to surf at the age of 12 and it was the spark that changed my life!
My love of surfing and being active caused me to become a qualified surf instructor. I was moving to Byron Bay for a Summer and thought it would be the perfect Summer job.
I met Nolan surf instructing up there. Years later, after a lot more experience surfing around the world and surf instructing, we realised we would be the perfect team to start our own surf school!
Did you need to study/train/up-skill to help you get there?
Yes, to be a surf instructor you need to undergo a Level one surf instructing course which involves training and an intermediate level of surfing skill. I also need to keep up a current Working with children, First aid course and ocean surf rescue.
In terms of training, most of my experience surf instructing was at Josh Palmateer's Surf Academy. Josh Palmateer and his wife Sarah were awesome bosses and taught me so much about surf instructing.
We also have worked with Kate Watts from Middle Child Marketing and learnt a lot about social media and marketing. She also helped us a lot with goal setting.
You look like you have a 'dream job', is it like this or do you face challenges in your business like the rest of us? And if so, what are some of the challenges of running a surf school?
In many ways, it is my dream job! But we definitely face similar challenges to all lines of work, along with some unique to surfing.
The biggest difference with owning our own business is the sense of accomplishment after every lesson. That all the hard work is working toward our own dream!
A challenge with owning your own business is the obvious, no steady pay check. I feel like I have worked towards this my whole life as I have never had a full time or part time job. I never knew how much I was going to have from one week to the next so I had to figure out how to work with that.
A unique thing about owning a surf school is that our business revolves around the ocean. Which means before every surf lesson, we need to take into account the weather, wind, tides and swell! It definitely keeps us on our toes. But we continue to learn more and more about the area and that's a really special thing.
Although, we do spend plenty of time on the admin side of things. We have learnt so much about websites, social media and marketing in general!
At the end of the day, our main office is the ocean and putting smiles on people's faces. So it is definitely my dream job!
Describe a moment that you felt most inspired in your life?
When I met Nolan. Nolan is from inland California. He was only able to surf once a year! By the time I met him, he had made his dream a reality and lived in the surf rich area of Byron Bay. He reminded me of how lucky I was to grow up by the ocean and reignited my love for surfing! He also showed me the importance of following your dreams.
Three people we checkout/follow, in your field?
There are so many good surf schools in Australia, a couple of inspirational ones to us are Soul Surf school and Pines surfing Academy.
Softlite surf are our favourite foam board company and they are legends.
Is there anything that has surprised you about running a surf school?
Plenty. I think mostly, I was surprised how much support we have received in such a small community. We figured that Bermagui has such a small population that we would have mainly tourists as clients. After school surfing and weekly Women's lessons have been our most consistent lessons and they are mainly locals involved! The word spread so quickly and we are so grateful to have that support outside of typically busy times.
What have you got coming up that you’re excited about?
Our fourth Summer! We can't believe we made it! Our first Summer we had only just opened, so word hadn't spread yet, the next Summer was the devastating bushfires, and last Summer Victoria was sent home at one point due to Covid.
So every year we get to stay open is a huge win!
