About
I started making surfboards to be different. Coming from a small island (Key West) with no real surf culture and only 5 surfers, that wasn't really difficult and at the age of 16 this was nothing unusual.
Now more than 30 years later I still have that same need to be different, carve my own path, and standout amongst others. Feeling fortunate to have learned the art of surfboard making in the traditional sense, something that feels lost nowadays, I have come up through the ranks, starting with ding repair at the age of 19 in my first real factory setting. Within a years time I found myself as a shaper in the same factory, with my own room, orders pinned to the wall.
I have been able to work with a lot of great shapers. It felt like each one of them saw something in me that wanted them to pass down their knowledge, and help guide me into what I am today. I have done the production shaper thing, shaping for Town & Country, Blue Hawaii, to name a few. I have been lucky enough to travel to Japan, shaping 60 to 80 boards in two to three weeks time. But something was lacking in shaping numbers, and while the shape itself is the biggest, most important part of any board, there was more I wanted to do to express my ideas and style as a shaper.
So in the last 10+ years I was able to have my own place, where I can have complete and utter control of the quality. Show my style in more than just the shape, but in the art of glassing as well. People always ask me what's the next thing, my reply to this is "I don't know, I'm going backwards".
I was taught at the very beginning that there is no such thing as the perfect board, but that doesn’t mean I can’t try. It’s like playing the guitar, easy to learn hard to master. That's what keeps me interested and challenged by this craft.
Todd Pinder
