Gold Coast surfboard shapers say cheap imports and the high cost of local manufacturing are forcing them to breaking point.

Alan Colk has been making custom surfboards on the Gold Coast for more than 50 years, but his business is no longer profitable and he is preparing to walk away.

He has already been forced to supplement his income with fly-in-fly out mining work.

The cost of staff wages and raw materials made it impossible for him to compete with overseas surfboard production.

"The whole paddleboard industry seems to be coming from overseas (as well as) the minimal, fun board, shortboard markets," he said.

"We've lost the beginner market.

"That's understandable because if there is a father with three kids who want to surf - he's not going to go out and spend $800 a board, as opposed to spending $400 a board or less.

"There are discerning surfers who will pay good money from top shapers to have one of their boards but it's a smaller market and there's a lot more people vying for it."

Mr Colk said while business boomed in the 1970s, now he was lucky to sell one surfboard a month.

Other local shapers are already dropping out to get their boards made offshore.

"I get an email at least every week asking me to make my boards in China," Mr Colk said.

World longboard champion Harley Ingleby said the trend was the harsh reality of globalisation.

"A lot of the technologies being built in Asia are a result of the fine craftsman from Australia, or America going over there just seeking probably cheaper materials," he said.

"We've had some boards built over there before and as a pro surfer travelling it's pretty awesome to be able to turn up somewhere, and have your board built in a construction you really like somewhere else in the world.

"It's been a big help to me for travel because it's quite hard to travel with longboards."

Gold Coast surfboard shaper Alan Colk working on a new board. ( ABC News: Alyse Edwards )

Mongolian surfer Tie Zhuang travelled to Kingscliff on the Tweed Coast to compete in the Australian Longboard Surfing Open last week.

He said China had become a world leader in surfboard exports.

"There are many factories in China but they're only for the other countries - America, Australia, South Africa - not for Chinese, because we don't have big surf group, not yet," he said.

Event organisers said local board shapers could no longer afford to sponsor surfing events and festivals or to donate boards as prizes.

Parliamentary Secretary to the Industry Minister, Karen Andrews, said the surfboard shaping industry had to look at innovative solutions.

"Australia's surfboard shaping industry makes top quality products and it is this top quality product we should be looking to export to the very markets trying to sell us their cheaper versions," she said.

Federal assistance was available for local manufacturers, including the $484 million entrepreneurs infrastructure program which aimed at helping local industry to better tap export supply chains and new markets.

"Hand-shaped boards made in Australia are individually crafted and of such high quality they can not even be compared to the mass produced products coming in from overseas," she said.

"I would urge every Australian to buy a locally made hand-shaped surfboard over a cheap import as it supports the local Gold Coast industry as well as the Australian economy."