A SYMPHONY IN WOOD

THE ANCIENT SHAPER HAD SOMEHOW MADE PERFECT CURVES RIGHT THROUGH THESE VERY HARD KNOTS. IT WAS LIKE DISCOVERING ALIEN TECHNOLOGY.

The sound of wood being shaped is like a symphony. When you peel the wood off with your hand tools, you can hear a good cut, you can feel its character. As you slowly peel down the board, each millimetre changes and with it, the board changes a little bit, taking shape to the music. This symphony has guided my journey as a board builder for the past 20 years.

I was born in Redondo Beach, where George Freeth brought Hawaiian surfing to California around 1912. While still a toddler, my parents made the short move to Palos Verdes Estates where Paddle Board Cove was the Californian version of Waikiki. Tom Blake surfed there for years and I once met him. There was so much surfing history where I grew up, but it had been forgotten by my generation. Truth be told, I was hardly aware of it at the time. I surfed every day in the mid, and . Surfing was accelerating into the future. The past was primitive.