When I was young, my grandparents had a house in Oxnard Shores, and my folks would take me there on the weekends. I was enamored with watching people surf, and convinced my mom to buy me a surfboard. I ended up with a used 6’6″ semi gun thruster. I taught myself how to surf on that board, in steep waves at Oxnard Shores, by the basketball court. It was tough to learn, especially on that board, but I stuck with it, and learned to surf. The first time I rode the face of a wave, I was hooked for life. I would surf in the morning with friends, and come late to school all the time. I fooled my parents by telling them I was going to walk to school, but a buddy would pick me up around the corner, and off we went to the beach. In hindsight, my folks were probably in the know.
I surfed all my late teen years, until I joined the army at 18. When I got out of the army at 25, one of the first things I did was surf again. I tried to surf that old thruster, but I realized I couldn’t anymore. I gained a lot of mass in the army, and that old board did not float me as well, and I felt like I had to re-learn surfing all over again. I bought a nice, new, 9’6″ noserider, and started there. After a few months, I began to take an interest in different board shapes and sizes, and basically spent all my money on used boards, trying everything I could find, then selling them back to the shops and buying new ones. I tried everything, from longboards, mini-mals, eggs, cruisers, fishes, and good old shortboard thrusters. I began buying new boards, custom boards, etc, and built a serious quiver. I realized, through surfing every board imaginable, that there wasn’t one, single, perfect board for all conditions. I had a different board for different waves, different board for different conditions and sizes. I had a board that suited my needs for any wave I wanted to surf.
Years later, after having moved away from California for work, I finally returned to my home away from home, Oxnard. I settled here and began to build my quiver again. What I realized was, most of the boards on the market were machine made models, and there was a lack of good diversity of boards on the racks. I couldn’t find boards that I wanted to surf. I decided to start making my own boards. I taught myself how to shape boards by hand, in my garage, and glass them as well. Needless to say, it was an experience of trial and a bunch of error, but I learned. I tested my own boards, and started to make changes. I started to learn the science behind surfboards and their hydrodynamic properties. I fell in love with the craft of building surfboards. There was no feeling like starting a board from scratch, shaping it by hand, glassing it, hot coating and sanding it, polishing it, then surfing it. I felt like it was the completion of my surf journey, but it ended up opening a whole new world of stoke for me, and the journey had no end in sight, and I was completely satisfied with that. After shaping many boards for customers and shops all up and down the California coast, I realized that making a custom board for someone, who was in need of something different and special, was in a way, an extension of satisfying my search for my custom board, and I got even more joy when I made a custom board for someone. Their stoke became mine, as well. I love building surfboards, and I love building custom boards. I truly hope that I will one day, help you find out which kind of board you want and need, and build it custom. Just for you.