Shaping Surfboards

June 1979

Being interested in everything about surfing, I wanted to shape my own surfboard. It's easy to make a surfboard but it's difficult to make a surfboard that works. I knew good surfboard shapers and picked up the basics. All the shaping was done by hand. A slow process, but harder to make a big mistake.
In the background is the organic garden and greenhouse of flowering plants. A simple life, long gone.

Some time later, the board is shaped and ready to go to the fiberglass shop.

The finished board turned out to be a couple inches shorter than I wanted, but not a major issue because the board was a little thicker than was fashionable at the time. I like short boards, but being 6'2" tall, I need a little volume for steeper waves.
I rode the board a lot and learned a lot about shaping surfboards.

The board worked well enough to be my daily driver for North County waves. The real stoker for me was that the board worked on a big day and I got one of the best waves of my life with it. And got great photos of it from my friends Jerry Calkins and Randy Jourdan.

Twenty five years later, the beat goes on.

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