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Jeff Bushman - >
Dick Brewer - >
Mike Casey - >
Keoki - >
Tommy Tanaka - >
Glenn Minami - >
Jon Pyzel - >
CINO - >
Mitsu Matsushita - >
Kekoa Uemura - >
Chronic - >
Dennis Pang - >
Jay Hodge - >
Danny Villasenor - >
Ben Aipa - >
Makani McDonald - >
Mike Tuten - >
Slick - >
BAT SURFBOARDS - >
Makamae - >
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Jeff Bushman is a long time North Shore resident and works closely with Pancho Sullivan and many other top pros.
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Dick Brewer's surfing and shaping career has spanned the last 50 years and he is still going strong. He is one of the finest craftsmen in the business and has always been a leader in innovation. Dick Brewer is also one of the hardest working shapers in the industry creating foam and balsa surfboards full time.
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I was born on February 4, 1949 in Ocean Beach, California and graduated in 1967 from Kearny High. I was a member of the Blacks Surfing Association surf club. At that time, Channin/Diffenderfer Surfboards was a premier surfboard company with a global reputation. Their factory employed many incredible craftsmen and in the fall of '67 I was hired full-time. I consider myself very fortunate to have learned all phases of surfboard construction from some of the greats.
In the fall of 1977, I arrived on Oahu. I’ve had the good fortune of living at Sunset Point for the past 24 years where I’ve worked, surfed, sailed, dove, and fished. I've been shaping on a daily basis since 1967. You could say I've built surfboards my entire adult life. My job description is a "production shaper", however, my attitude towards my work is that every board I make is the most important of my career, regardless of where it goes.
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"I'm a surfboard nerd," admits Keoki. Rightfully so-he has a degree in molecular biology, and a scientific background that has made his approach to surfboard building very analytical. As a former consultant to the Bishop museum in Honolulu Hawaii, Keoki has had privileged access to analyze boards that have spanned surfing's history, and it shows. One look at his shaping portfolio and one can ascertain that he has invested tremendous amounts of research and refinement into his designs. He shaped his first board 12 years ago, and has since developed a unique style which reflects a background that combines scientific inquiry, historical understanding, artistic innovation, and a love for surfing.
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Tommy Tanaka has moved on and is now working for Town & Country, we wish him the best of luck.
We can no longer take custom orders for Tommy.
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Glenn has been surfing for 38 years and shaping for 35. In that time he has shaped for Town and Country, Blue Hawaii and Infamy. Some of the pro surfers he has shaped for include: Dane Kealoha, Shaun Tomson, Cheyne Horan, Martin Potter, Mark Foo, Johnny Boy Gomes, Sunny Garcia, Ross Williams, Pancho Sullivan, Carlos Cabrero, Mikala Jones, Fred Patacchia, Brendan Dias, Randall Paulson and Ola Eleogram. After all those years and so many pros his objective remains the same, precision in design and workmanship and to shape every board as if it's his own..
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Jon Pyzel has been surfing for almost 25 years but only started shaping in 1996. Although his shaping career is relatively short his resume reads like a thirty year veteran. Jon has shaped boards for the best in the business: Timmy Reyes Shane Beschen, Noah Johnson, James Labrador, Perry Dane, Ammion Goodwin, Mark Healy, Dave Wassel, Davey Miller, Noah Snyder, Dan Malloy, Chris Malloy, Keith Malloy, Chas Chidester and Jack Johnson. His main team rider is four time national champion John John Florence. Jon’s resume will only get more impressive as he continues to push board design to allow surfers to surpass their imagination.
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Cino has been shaping forever and most of that time was at Town & Country for some of the world's top pro surfers.
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Mitsu Matsushita has been shaping 15 years. He started at Town & Country with Glenn Pang and then struck out on his own. Mitsu has done very well with some of the best surfers in the world riding his boards.
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I am a professional longboard surfer who currently took up the art of designing surfboards as a hobby over the last 2 years. My passion for surfing has lead me to try many different types of boards all over the world and in various surf conditions. With my knowledge of how a surfboard rides on water, i apply these details in every board design i create. I am 26 years old and have been surfing since the age of 5. Since the first day i stood up on a surfboard, my whole life has revolved around surfing, whether as a business, or a recreational sport, its everything i know. My main focus is to provide my customer with the most all around surfboard possible. Something they can catch waves easily with, yet maneuver whenever they want to. Whether you like to noseride, or do big turns, my experience with competitive surfing over the last 21 years has taught me the crucial details that go into creating that magic board. I hope someday i can make you one.
Aloha
A few contest results....
World Rank #2 ASP. 2004
JPSA (Japan Pro Surfing Association) Grand Champ. 2006, 2007, 2008
LQS Fukushima, Japan 2-star 1st place 2007
LQS Miyazaki, Japan 1-star 1st place 2008
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CHRONICLES OF CHRONIC - OTIS SCHAPER
1958-Born. 1960-Swam on the first day of swimming lessons. 1966-, Began bodysurfing. 1969- Bought my first surfboard. 1972-Convicted of interstate transport of a stolen auto and various other offenses, left home to go surf and never went back....CHRONIC. 1975-Began learning to play guitar. 1977-Arrested for surfing, cited for disorderly conduct...CHRONIC. 1979-Received eleven stitches in the arm from a shark bite while surfing. 1980-Began working on surfboards. 1981-Added two fins to a 5'7 twin, rode it all winter in Puerto Rico...CHRONIC. 1982-First band "Mango Jam" opened for top rock group at Aguadilla in Puerto Rico. The crowd of 650 incited a riot...CHRONIC. 1983-Flew to Spain with $650 and a Black and Decker 5000 to make surfboards on a handshake and three days notice...CHRONIC. Nearly succumbed to excessive night activities in the Basque country. Wintered in the Canary Islands on $5 a day...CHRONIC. 1983-Dirt road trip thru West African desert to find mysto point break, arrested and barely avoided incarceration in one of the worst jails in the world...CHRONIC. 1985-Made a five fin board with a proprietary removable fins system for versatility while traveling and tested it extensively in Mexico and El Salvador. 1986-Shaped first board. 1987-Moved to Oahu. 1990-Married, first day of honeymoon surfed Uluwatu for five hours...CHRONIC. 1992-"Otis & The Abusers", notorious for climaxing shows with a surfboard sacrifice get extensive radio play with "I Feel The Need" (To smoke some weed.) 1994-Third Band, "The Strangers". 2003-Started the CHRONIC label and never looked back...CHRONIC...you decide.
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Dennis Pang is a North Shore surfer and waterman, with a lifetime of experience in 2 to 20 foot surf. He has combined this knowledge of surfing with over 30 years of hand shaping quality, high-performance surfboards. The expertise that comes with years of design and shaping experience keeps him on the cutting edge of creative and innovative surfboard design. Over the course of a career that has spanned the longboard, single-fin, mini-gun revolution, the twin-fin and thruster eras, Dennis has shaped over 27,000 surfboards. He has devoted his life to surfing and to building surfboards. He has shaped for many well known labels like Surfline Hawaii, Lightning Bolt, Local Motion and Town & Country. His shaping career has taken him to foreign destinations including Japan, Brazil and Peru.
Utilizing feedback from a team of dedicated surfers from around the globe, he strives to produce the most advanced, high performance surfboards available.
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It is my dedication to the trade, or the art of shaping with my hands, that has prevented me from being able to take part in the mass produced “pop-out” rage that is currently the trend. I refuse to place my name on a product that is sub-standard, in my opinion, just to make money.
I am also hesitant to utilize computer technology. I find it a useful tool to enhance production and improve inferior designs, but I don’t believe it should be, as it is in many cases, a replacement to hand shaping. There is a lot to be said for “craftsmanship”.I am far more interested in creating a thing of beauty that is also great to ride, than to have thousands of the same thing all around me that came from a single source. We must remember what Surfing is about, and that it has a Soul.
Shaped for: Jesse James of West Coast Choppers, Shannon Doherty, Tyson Beckford, Sheryl Crow, Mike Piaza, Billy Lane of Choppers Inc. and John Aden President of MAC Tools, Inc.
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Makani has been shaping for about 6 years for himself and his bro-riders and is now taking his shaping to the next level with standout groms and local pros riding his boards. His wave riding skills and surf competition knowledge put him at the forefront of what surfers are looking for in high performance surfboards. Makani has a couple of state and other prestigious Hawaii surfing titles in both long and short boarding under his belt. He grew up on Kauai riding some of the best waves in the world. The surfboard building craft is in his blood; his “pops” is shaping legend Kenny Tilton who has been shaping for over 50 years. Makani is stoked to offer his shapes through Hawaiisurfactory.com.
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Mike Tuten has been shaping surfboards for 28 years
and to date has done around 17,000 surfboards. Pro surfers
who have enjoyed Mike's shapes have ranged from old schoolers
like Tom Curren to Gen-X Pipe charger Mark Healey. "Doing pro
boards is cool, but what I really am excited about is shaping a
magic board for a regular guy. I love getting calls like I did today
from my new friend Kapena in town, who says his new Fish is the best
board he's ever ridden". One of the most professional shapers
in the world, Mike's detailed follow-through and attention to personal service
have earned loyal confidence from his customers. "I got started
because I couldn't get ego-shapers to show up or do the board I ordered.
You can learn new things from everybody, even beginners. It keeps your
blades sharp and your eyes open."
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Chris "Slick" Schlickenmeyer, born in southern California in the mid 1950’s, was hooked on surfing at an early age. His first board? A 1960 Dewey Weber. Over the next ten years, Chris watched the sport’s pioneers of style—surfers like Drew Harrison, Dewey Weber, and of course his older brother, Steve—and, not content with simply watching, emulated them. Chris credits Steve with being his biggest influence on his surfing career.
Just a few years later, Chris won the 1969 United States Surfing Association surfing championships in Huntington Beach, California at the age of sixteen. When he went up for his trophy, he received it from the hands of Duke Kahanamoku himself. This moment has remained one of most surreal in Chris’s life.
Chris started learning how to shape boards in 1968, a year before he won the Nationals, as a sort of rite of passage. However, though shaping might have started as a mere rite, Chris had discovered the other part of his life’s work. Now he could not only ride the wave; he could also sculpt the way in which he touched the water.
In 1987, Chris started entering longboard contests as a professional and surfed all over the world. Moving his competitions to the area of surfing he finds to be the most compelling. When asked about surfing, he says, "When I ride a wave, I’m always trying to find a way to get to the nose of the board—to me, being able to noseride is the ultimate."
After years of competing as a professional longboarder, Chris was hailed as one of the best noseriders ever. Now, in 2010, after surfing, winning, and shaping for the bulk of his lifetime, it’s no wonder that he is still one of the best noseriders and shapers to date. Since 1987, Chris has not only made the finals in the bulk of the competitions he has entered but has also won a majority of the time.
Chris has lived through most of surfing’s renaissance. Having surfed and shaped through the golden age of longboarding and rebellious adolescence of shortboarding, he has the perfect combination of the best of both the old school and the new school in his style and shapes. When Chris shapes, he invites the customer in to see the evolution from blank to board. Surfing and shaping is Chris’s passion, and to ride his board is to share in that passion.
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Brian Tudor has that special gift for design and craftsmanship that puts his boards over the top. They combine an awesome balance of speed, function and simplicity. This is what makes his hand-crafted Bats so unique. They have a natural feel that cannot be duplicated in plastic or pop-out style boards. Brian first started shaping in 1988 at the age of 16. Since then he has shaped thousands of boards. These include high-performance shortboards, fishes of all kinds and semi and full guns for real waves around the world. Brian has shaped for pros like Shea and Corey Lopez, Tommy O'brien, Justin Brown, Sean Tubbs, Ben Bougois, C.T. Taylor and Todd Morcom to name just a few.
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The Factory design team and our Factory riders have developed the most refined longboard and retro shapes and combined them with the highest quality glass work to create Makamae surfboards.
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