Ellington Surfboards

Shaper: Jim Ellington

Location: San Diego, CA

About: Surfer/Shaper Jim Ellington of San Diego has been designing and shaping surfboards since 1976.

[Excerpt from an interview in Revolt in Style Magazine, Aug 2011]

“It began for me in 1975 on the North Shore. The only work that a haole like myself could land was at the rock bottom of the industry, hand sanding blanks, cutting out skateboard decks and fins for Dick Brewer. I survived off the fruit hanging in the trees, a half pound of hamburger, and a little bag of rice each week. Tom Parish gave me a job when I really needed one and that kicked it into gear. He supplied me with some templates and gave me encouragement. I always loved checking out his boards and thought they were the cleanest around.

In ‘78 I met Shaun Tomson, when he won the World Championship. I was doing all his ding repairs, in fact I did all the ding repairs for Rabbit Bartholomew, Peter Townend, Ian Cairns, and Mark Richards. But I have a spot in my heart for Shaun ‘cause he would talk to me and treated me like an individual even though I was just a grom.

I came back from Hawai’i in 1980. Got married and started making surfboards for Jeff Kinney at the Surf Club. I shaped out of my garage on Grand Ave. for 15 years. Made a lot of boards out of that garage… 5,000 boards. Later I moved to South Bay and worked with Jeff Alexander, ghost shaping a bit for him. He taught me a lot about concaves and things of that nature. Getting the boards cleaner, crisper. I wasn’t that great of a finisher up ‘till then, he taught me a lot about that. Since then I’ve gone on top shape 15,284 boards. I’m really proud of those numbers and I keep track of them. All hand shaped. There’s a lot of learning and a lot of disappointments along the way. I think I’m on track to my best times ever…”