Prominent surfboard shapers and designers narrate over a slide show of their products and materials, offices and factories, shaping rooms (the "bays") and glassing rooms, etc, in Surfline's "Shaper's Bay" series, as they discuss their history, technique, clientele, and future plans. Shaper's Bay has galvanized a new audience for legendary shapers who have been around for years, like Al Merrick, Dick Brewer, and Rusty Preisendorfer.
Bill Johnson, founder of Teqoph (phonetically: take-off) Surfboards, has had his work showcased by Surfline. Johnson's two most popular riders are brothers C.J. and Damien Hobgood. The 'Goods are two of the best surfers on the competitive scene today: C.J. was 2001 WCT champ, and Damo's won his share of events, including the 2008 Billabong Pro Tahiti at Teahupoo. (Dane beat Jordy there, see earlier "Fishcuits and Gravy" post). Together, these three dudes possess an impressive background and reputation in the surf world.
Today, after scrolling through February's older posts over at the Hobgoods' blog, I found this short video of Johnson in his bay shaping a full board (fin placement and glass job not included). It's unclear to whom this particular board now belongs (likely one of the surfing siblings). The high-speed playback demonstrates each step these master craftsmen take in the shaping room, a process lengthened by a thousand details. Needless to say, there's a lot more work that goes on before and after. But for pure, unadulterated shaping porn, Bill Johnson's segment is worth the three-minutes.
**Be sure to fully consume the music. The artist is Josh Garrels, a singer/songwriter who extracts complex sounds from simple instruments. Thanks, again, to Surfline for this guy; it was in another clip in 2006 that I first learned about Josh Garrels...been listening ever since.
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