Story Behind the Board

Surf legends collaborate in the shaping room for a good cause

Long time charger, first time shaper. Shane Dorian gets a new perspective with John Carper. Photo: Pat Notaro/Arico Productions

Last year, filmmaker Mark Arico attended a Cystic Fibrosis Foundation benefit gala where he purchased a package for a trip to Hawaii and the opportunity to shape a board with Rob Machado. Arico started thinking about how he could further help the foundation, and Story Behind the Board was born. “I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool to get Machado and Gerry Lopez to go to Hawaii to build the board and then just give that board back to the foundation to auction off?’” Arico explains. Machado was a no-show, but Shane Dorian was happy to fill in and try his hand behind the planer as Arico documented the board’s journey from the shaping bay to the lineup.

“My surfboard shaper, John Carper, was contacted to get involved and when he approached me about it I thought it was a great idea,” says Dorian. “That was the first board I have ever shaped. Brewer cut the outline and handed it off to us, and with JC barking orders at me, I grabbed the planer and went to work.” By the time the board was finished, it had been touched by some of our sport’s greatest craftsmen, including Dick Brewer, Gerry Lopez, Rory Russell, and Randy Rarick. “I am happy with the finished board,” says Dorian. “It is meant to be a vintage design—one of Brewer’s old templates.”

Upon completion, Shane took the freshly glassed craft out at Pipeline for a test run (you can watch the results below), before it would make its way back to the Mainland. The board will be up for bid at this year’s Pipeline to a Cure on August 6 at the Hyatt Regency in Huntington Beach with the proceeds going toward the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. “It’s cool creating something that’s different that I could document and give back for a good cause,” says Arico. “To get Brewer and Lopez and all those guys to collaborate and shape something alongside Dorian is probably a once in a lifetime thing.”