I built my first skateboard when I was ten, using a leftover piece of plywood from a construction site my father worked on. Since then, I have been shaping boards to ride street and surf. Growing up in Alaska, shipping was always too expensive for large items like surfboards, so I learned to shape my own. Camping out on the beaches of the Alaskan coastline, I needed a board that would not let me down, so I use a thicker fiberglass coating for durability and carbon fiber inlays for longevity. An additional constraint for accessing the waves in Alaska is that the surfboards needed to be compact enough to fit inside a bush plane or helicopter, since that is the sometimes the only way to access remote areas.
Thanks to the Cal Poly Craft Center, I am now a surfboard shaping instructor and am working on mastering my skills while teaching the next generation of shapers. I love teaching fellow students and watching them learn and appreciate the craftsmanship of forming something by hand; surfboard shaping is an incredibly engaging hands-on design and engineering process.
If you are looking for a Swiss Quality, Alaska Tough board, contact me!