If there’s one thing you want out of a shaper, it’s the knowledge that they can actually surf. Oh sure, there are the ones who talk the talk really well, but the ones who walk the walk are the ones you want carving your foam. Otherwise, it’s all just noise—they can say the words that make it sound as though they’re walking that walk, but they’re really just crawling along with a big mouth. Ben Webb is a shaper who walks the walk.
He comes from solid surfing stock. His father, Greg Webb, has been shaping boards in Australia for three decades. For most of that time, Greg has run the simply named Shaping Co. Ben, of course, has been hanging around the shop since he was crawling on the floor. When he was very little, he began copying his father’s work, picking up foam scraps and shaping mini-surfboards out of them. In his early teen years, he began competing around Australia and in Snapper Rocks Boardriders Club, riding his own shapes and learning as he went. In 2008, he started full time at his dad’s shop, which not only puts food on the table but allows him the time to drop everything when the conditions line up and get a little bit of much-needed product testing. “The conditions at home have been perfect,” he wrote. I had shaped a killer twin fin and legend @Jesselittlephoto was keen to film a couple days. This is what we got.”
Ben Webb surfing at home, 5’5 Flatfish twin fin from Ben Webb | Surfboards on Vimeo.
