Ellis in his element. Photo: RVCA
When was the last time you saw a golfer forge his or her own clubs? Or a tennis player who cut and weaved their own racket? Or a skateboarder who pressed and shaped their own deck? Probably never, right? Surfing, on the other hand, is different than most pasttimes. There’s perhaps no other activity whose athletes are more attuned to their equipment than surfing. More and more surfers these days are discovering the benefits associated with shaping boards by hand and learning each and every component’s utility in the process.
Several years ago, the industry changed forever when the Diamond Cutter arrived on the scene. The technology enabled shapers to punch in a few numbers into a computer and… voilá! a blank was more or less ready to be glassed. This was great for productivity and all that jazz, but what’s the fun in that?
Today we are seeing a reemergence of surfers who are returning to the traditional ways of shaping crafts by hand, creating some of the most unique and often most bizarre-looking apparatuses you’ve ever seen. In fact, computers are incapable of recreating some of the work that is being done by rebel shapers like Donald Brink, Bryce Young, and Ryan Burch, to name a few.
Little R&D.
Among the traditional shaping folk is an Australian man by the name of Ellis Ericson, whose only skill more beautiful than his shaping is his surfing. Ellis was heavily influenced by his father’s values of hand-shaping boards and “flipping the bird to computers.” Today, Ellis travels all over the world with his shaping gear, developing and fine-tuning his equipment in order to extract the most fun from his surfing. Grab and pen and paper and soak in the knowledge as Ellis imparts a few tips on his handmade designs.
