Surfing the Business Wave

A feature on Portland-born artist and designer Phil Hayes, tracing his journey from a Heywood High schoolboy to head designer at Rip Curl and Quiksilver, and his life between Hong Kong and Australia. Published in the Portland Observer's People of Portland and District series.

Written by Chalpat Sonti for the Portland Observer, "Surfing the Business Wave" tells the full story of Phil Hayes, born and raised in Portland, Victoria, whose love of surfing and art took him far from the family farm and all the way to the top of the global surf industry.

Phil attended Bolwarrah Primary School and Portland Technical School before studying Fine Art at Ballarat University, majoring in sculpture. He landed a job at Ballarat Grammar School and was one of 12 art teachers in a very large art department. From 1995 to 1997, he served as Rip Curl's head designer before being poached by Quiksilver, where he spent a decade in Torquay before relocating to Hong Kong as part of Quiksilver's global sourcing office.

Throughout it all, Hayes kept making and showing art. He has held 13 solo exhibitions and participated in more than 200 national and international group exhibitions.

Now based in Fitzroy with his wife, he still gets back to Portland about monthly, with his father, Graeme, still living there.