The Key, According to the Shapers

Pat Rawson: “The best advice: Avoid any confusion of specifics, and avoid having unrealistic expectations from the shaper are most important. If the shaper mainly has shaped small wave boards and lives in a small-wave environment, it may be unrealistic for you to order a Waimea or Hanalei Bay large-wave board from him.”

Matt Calvani: “Information is key, the more insight you share with the shaper, the better he/she will understand your ability level, your goals, and the best shape for you. A common mistake is to communicate the kind of board you want, but not explain in enough detail what you want this board to do.”

Tim Stamps: “The most important thing is to be honest. Surfers tend to think they’re the greatest, but you really have to be honest with your ability to get the most out of it.”

Essentially, we are all searching for that “magic board.” And so we go to our shaper, and in a sputtering clichéd attempt at explanation, we reference “the perfect board” we broke last winter, and how well So-and-so Pro rides his new stick, and how we want it to be “kind of like this board, but different.” But none of that translates to executable instructions for a shaper. As a result, he’s left to decipher our ineffective jumble of ideas, making it difficult to get exactly what we want. We asked shapers Tim Stamps, Matt Calvani, and veteran crafter Pat Rawson to share some tips on how to ultimately get the board we’re searching for.

Focus on Your Surfing, Not Your Surfboard
“Keeping instructions simple goes a long way,” explains Rawson. “How you surf—your style of surfing, off your front foot instead of your back foot, etc.—as well as where you surf really helps us to understand the design dynamics needed to make your new board a success.” Stamps agrees: “You can’t really tell a shaper how to shape, because we all have our own styles and methods and what works for us. The more information we know about you and your surfing, and what you want to do, the better.”

Don’t Order a Board Over the Phone
It’s important for a shaper to not only know your height and weight, but to see your frame and built a personal rapport. “Boards need to fit your body type,” explains Stamps. “I’m not going to make a super-thin, trippy board for a really stalky fellow. And, when I talk to people, I can kind of get a read on what’s going on—not only judging his weight and ability, but just getting a feel for it all.” If a shaper can build an understanding of who you are as a surfer, it will substantially help him to make a board that fits both your size and your ability.

Bring in Your Current Board
“The best way is to leave a board you’re happy with or you have ridden before and liked, and have small adjustments made,” says Rawson. “Someone may say they have a 6’4”, but there are a million different 6’4”s,” adds Stamps. “If they bring it in, then you have a tangible item to actually look at and measure. You can look at what they like about the board and address that.”

There’s a Reason You’re Not a Shaper
“Unless a surfer is very experienced at ordering custom shapes, it’s best to leave the detailed design and dimensions to the shaper,” advises Calvani. “Oftentimes, surfers will heavily research many different types of boards and try to combine different aspects of each type of board to create a ‘magic’ shape, but some of these aspects can conflict with one another causing the board to be difficult to ride, slow, or problematic.”