Jye history in surfboards stems back a long way and as the heading states “ Our roots run deep’ 

Jye comes from a family which has been involved in the  surf craft manufacturing industry for over 50 yrs.

Experience and knowledge which you just cant buy.

Jyes father, Mick Byrnes grew up the second eldest of a big family of 5 brothers and one sister. 

Saltwater flowed through their veins. Mick’s Great grandfather was a light house keeper at Nobbys, palm beach, Nelson bay, and Byron Bay.( He introduced the goats to Byron’s lighthouse) so this family has always had close ties to the ocean.

In his youth, Mick grew up surfing Nobbys beach, usually  on borrowed boards as they could not afford to buy one.

When Mick was 12 years old, he came across his first surfboard at Nobby’s Beach, damaged and left to rot in the rocks. A quick call to his father and before you knew it they were back at home in the shed repairing the 9ft balsa pig longboard.

Mick’s first true shaping experience was only a few years later aged 16, he brought some material and was back in his dads shed trying his hand in shaping a S deck surfboard. The board actually came out pretty good and after a few surfs, he was able to sell it to cover the costs. From then on Mick made surfboards for himself and local surfers while juggling his apprenticeship.

As the era changed to Peace, Love and Happiness, Mick & his wife Chris traveled around enjoying the hippy era. In 1973 they crossed the Pacific for New Zealand to surf the North & South Islands and ended putting down roots at the famous point breaks of Raglan. After settling in Mick hired a small boat shed and began manufacturing surfboards for the locals and traveling surfers. After awhile the travel bug hit him again, word was spreading about the island of Bali and the temperature of tropical weather and awesome surf was to hard to resist. They packed their bags and headed over.

Life was good in the tropics. But after a while it was time to leave Bali and resettle back in Australia, but this time on the west coast in a town called Margaret River. Mick and Chris settled in quite well in the small town and with abundance of quality surf breaks Mick began shaping again out of a small farm house, producing boards for himself and various locals. With a 2 year stint in the west coming to a close they decided that it was time to get serious about settling down to start a family and to open a surfboards manufacturing company in their hometown of Newcastle. 

In 1980 Jye was born. He spent his pre-school years being raised in the surfboard showroom and the factory, along with his sister Breanna. Developing a love of the water at an early age, it seemed only a matter of time his love of surfboard manufacturing would also develop. When Jye was 10 years old for pocket money he would clean the shaping bays, progressing through the years to repairing and sanding boards after school. Mick believes to become a good surfboards maker you need to start at the bottom and learn the basics first. After Jye mastered sanding of surfboards he progressed to glassing. Also learning along the way to spray surfboards and do what he throughly enjoys the classic glassing technique of resin tints and pigments.

Jye soon mastered all the techniques passed on to him by his father and was straight into the shaping bay where he hand crafted surfboards under Mick Byrnes labels.

While competeing professionally, Jye was also quietly honing his skills in surfboard design when on home turf. Always experimenting with shaping different boards and using the vast knowledge gained from Mick who surfed and made surfboards through several different era’s. - from the 60’s onwards.

Jye has learnt the fundamentals of the design of each era and has incorporated this into his own designs, here the Jye Byrnes Surfboard label was born.

 With a diverse range of templates, and an emphasis on custom made boards Jye shapes a wide variety of models. Jye now has 18yrs experience in shaping/manufacturing surfboards and has worked for some industry leaders such as Channel Island, Gordon & Smith, and Bennett surfboards.

Jye takes each board from start to finish. He has a true grasp of all generations of surfboard design and has a strong concept and ethos in boards design which he follows daily 

From a distance  Jye's board are based on curves, funionality and quality. His concepts and theories relate to the wave and how it s shape. Designing surfboards for a vast range of ages and abilities is a challenge, but with jye's experience in all styles of board design,  Jye applies his ethos to the custom design process in producing a surfboard that works for you!

No pop outs just quality

Jye' "My aim from the outset was to prooduce quality surfboards for my customers. I believe my boards are extremely functional and customer satifaction is my highest priority."

In the earlier years, every surf contest Mick traveled to Jye went along also. Jye was about 10 years old when he entered his first surf contest. Shortboard or longboard it didn’t matter he just loved being able to compete and surf at the same time.   

Its very rare to see Mick compete today. He’d rather free surf, but in his prime he held his own with the best of them in the era.

At 15 Jye was lucky enough to receive a sponsorship from Quiksilver to help him travel around to shortboard and longboard competitions. One year later Jye looked at competing seriously as professional longboarder and that’s where his success began.

Winning various competitions in Australia and consistently posting some of the best results seen by an Australian on the international circuit. Highlighted by being in the top 10 in the world for 8 consecutive years.

Jye’s main focus in surfing now is a commitment to designing and producing top quality surfboards and longboards that have been thoroughly researched and developed while freesurfing around the world. Jye also is a highly respceted Surfing Coach and also owns iSurf Newcastle Surf School. Through coaching Jye is able to impart his knowledge of all things surfing to the next generation.

The history of the Surf Factory surfboard company runs deep. Mick and Jye truly believe that they have the knowledge and with a combined experience of 65yrs, can handcraft any surfboard design possible to suit your needs in the ocean.