I was born and raised in San Diego, and surfing since I was about 9 years old. My interest in shaping sparked about 6 years ago and I finally had the opportunity to learn how to shape with a friend of mine who had some shaping/board building experience under his belt. The first board I shaped was a 9’6 nose rider and I got super stoked on the whole process of building that surfboard. From that point on, I couldn’t take my mind off of it and ended up building a Macgyver-esque makeshift shaping bay in my garage, which I proceeded to make myself a few terrible surfboards and realized this was a lot more difficult without someone telling you what to do! At this same time, I was trying to find a glassing factory that would take my boards in for all the fiberglass work, once I found that I was able to really start picking other shaper’s brains and dive deeper into the craft.
Fast forward later that year, I was in Birds Surf Shed checking out different long boards and came across a beautiful 10′ Marshall longboard that I absolutely had to buy and couldn’t pass it up. There was something very special about it. About a week later I went back in to Bird’s to get a different fin for it and he started telling me how the wife of Mike Marshall (who had shaped the board I bought and passed away a few years prior) had come in because she had heard there were a batch of Marshall boards that were being sold there. She had asked Bird to give me her information because Marshall boards were never really shaped for any one except for friends and family, and when they heard about the shape I purchased, they really wanted to see it.
I ended up setting up a time to meet with Sharon Marshall and their good family friend Mark to show them the board. I really didn’t know what to expect, if they wanted the board back, wanted to buy it from me, etc. But what happened after a little small talk and seeing the board is Sharon and Mark started sharing stories with me about Mike, his history etc. From that point on Sharon and I just really became close, and she took me under her wing and started introducing me to some of my favorite shapers like Roger Hinds, Donald Brink, Carl Ekstrom and a few others along the way that so graciously let me into their factories and work spaces to soak in as much knowledge as I could.
From that point I bounced around from building myself a better shaping bay to shaping out of Bird’s Surf Shed, to where I am now, shaping out of the Gordon & Smith factory. Gordon & Smith started glassing my boards a few years ago and welcomed me in to share a shaping bay with a few amazing shapers: Kevin Connelly and Chris Darby. I have been able to learn so much from these guys and everyone passing through this factory, and it’s quite the honor to be in a factory with such history.
My company is called [formerly known as] Affinità Surfcraft and I hand shape surfboards here in San Diego. I would say I am becoming more known for shaping more “classic” style surfboards such as gliders, nose riders, fishes, etc. But I do love stepping outside that realm from time to time when I get asked to by a customer.
