Head Shaper:

Fletcher Chouinard

Behind the Brand:Fletcher Chouinard started building boards after getting frustrated with what else was out there. New boards coming on the market in the late-‘80s and early-’90s were higher in performance, but never lasted long. “We’d get bummed out when we had our favorite board just snap under our feet,” says Chouinard. So he followed the advice of his dad, Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard (who used to say if you don’t like the rules, make up a new game), and set out to make high-performance boards that were more durable and more environmentally-friendly than anything made before. “It was pretty cool because it was like us against the industry. Everyone was using the same industry-standard materials, and we were setting ourselves apart.”

Fletcher started shaping by helping Steve Walden around his shop for a high school project. He then worked with Dave Parmenter when he moved north for college, and eventually got tips from shapers like Stan Fujii, Michel Junod, and Gerry Lopez. “Just whoever I could, really. You go stale in a bubble, so it’s good to hear what other shapers think.”

As a part of Patagonia, a worldwide leader in sustainable business, Fletcher Chouinard Designs has stayed true to the company’s sensitivity to environmentally responsible manufacturing, doing what it can to shrink the footprint of a notoriously pollutant industry. “We only use 100 percent epoxy resins when building our boards,” Fletcher says. “Nothing is really ‘green.’ Everything in life is a compromise. But we use the best materials we can find to make the longest lasting, lightest weight, non-toxic boards possible.”

About Patagonia's Most Popular Models: “The DM3 has been getting a lot of props from the Malloy brothers and everyone else who rides them,” says Chouinard. “The initial reports about our new P.E.K.E. have been really positive as well. It’s a trickier board for some people, but the guys who figure it out seem to love it.”

Shop Talk: “Negative feedback about your work is really important. As a shaper, you can’t just build off of compliments—although they’re nice to hear.”

What’s the most important quality to look for in a surfboard? “Correct float and volume distribution are the most important qualities to have in your board. If you can’t catch the wave, you can’t ride it.”

Tell us about the changes you’ve seen in recent years in the shaping realm. “Overseas manufacturing has undercut the U.S.A.’s handcrafted market and tricked a whole new generation of surfers into thinking that pop-outs are the norm.”

How do you think surfboards will change in the next decade? “Hopefully, composite technology will become available to smaller operations so the little guy can keep evolving. Rather than becoming so complex that you need a factory and an engineering degree to have the ability to work with this stuff, I’d like to see these materials available to everyone, so real shapers can apply their skills to them.”

What project are you and your customers having the most fun with at the moment? “We’ve been making some really small, curvy, round-nosed quads for quite a while. Those are great. They’re an offshoot of our Quark Model, which we developed circa ’94. They’re not as small as the boards that Kelly started doing, but they’re about 6-7 inches shorter and at least half an inch wider than your average shortboard. The quad really keeps it feeling drivey and positive, but loose, with zero swing weight.”