Surfboard making as an art and craft

“The Shapemakers” is a new documentary film that focuses on the craft of surfboard shaping.

Surfboard shaping is a precise art, and one that takes years to master. The raw stuff of surfboards, prior to being coated with fiberglass and resin, is a high density foam core, and sometimes planks of balsa and other woods.

Those who can use an electric planner and other tools to sculpt a “blank” into a high performance surfboard are legendary figures in the global world of surfing.

Filmmaker Paul Kraus of North Pacific Productions traveled up and down the coast of California, to Australia and Hawai‘i to film interviews with some of the world’s leading surfboard shapers.

Kraus is a veteran surfboard shaper himself, and a movie special effects expert who has worked with George Lucas’ famed Industrial Light & Magic studio in Northern California.

Featured in the film are three surfboard shapers from the North Shore of Kaua‘i: Dick Brewer, Bill Hamilton and Terry Chung.

“The Shapemakers” is scheduled to play tonight at the Kilauea Theatre, at 5 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.

Kaua‘i musician Cindy Combs is featured on the soundtrack.

Following is a look at the shaping careers of Brewer, Hamilton and Chung on Kaua‘i.

Dick Brewer

Dick Brewer’s surfboards are the Ferraris of the surfing world, and like master car builder Enzo Ferrari, Brewer is renowned as a major innovator in his area of expertise. His career runs from the dawn of fiberglassed surfboards in the 1950s up to today’s latest designs.

Brewer’s lei-circled surfboard label is known at a glance by surfers across the world, and a board that he has personally shaped is prized by surfers everywhere.

Brewer Surfboards are exported to Japan, Australia and other surfing nations, and ridden by competition champions including winners of major contests held in the large waves of the North Shore of O‘ahu.

The Princeville-based shaper’s tow-in board was ridden by Garrett McNamara to victory in huge surf at the tow-in contest held on Maui at Peahi, or “Jaws.”

Brewer came to Hawai‘i from California over 40 years ago, and in 1968 moved over to Kaua‘i during the era when surfers were moving into the shortboard era, a time when surfboard innovations and design evolved at a rapid pace.

“I moved to Hanapepe with Gerry Lopez and Skip Harmon,” Brewer said, to a shop in the old part of Hanapepe town, to work on what he calls his “mini-gun” designs, or boards shaped for speed and riding large waves.

“I wanted to get away from the crowds (on the North Shore of O‘ahu and Maui) and design in secrecy,” Brewer said of his Kaua‘i shaping sojourn.

During this era he worked on two shapes that would go on to revolutionize surfing in two different eras, in addition to his other contributions to the surfboard shaping world. With Waikiki-born surfer David Nuuhiwa, he designed early twin-fin designs, and on Kaua‘i, with Harmon, made a limited number of tri-fin surfboards. “Those are called one plus two fin boards now,” said Brewer. In the early 1980s the Australian three-fin “thruster” design brought the surfing world out of the single fin era. Brewer said of the early Kaua‘i work on his three-fin boards was limited at the time due to the lack of resources needed to fully develop the three-fin board. He is credited with being the innovator behind the concept.

In 1970 Brewer moved back to O‘ahu, returning to Kaua‘i in 1985.

“The place grows on you, after a while you want to be here,” Brewer said of his desire to return to Kaua‘i, where he’s lived ever since.

Today he is designing and shaping “guns” for large waves, longboards, tow-in boards and shortboards.

He has made big wave boards for current world professional surfing champion Andy Irons of Hanalei, and shapes boards for renowned Native Hawaiian surfer Titus Kinimaka of Kaua‘i.

His boards are much sought after, and probably the most expensive shape in the world.

Brewer is now shaping wooden balsa boards, as well as foam surfboards, making about 30 chambered (hollowed out) balsa boards a year. The handsome light wood grained boards are exceptional in their shape and finish.

“They are completely chambered, state of the art, and light as foam,” Brewer said.

Looking ahead, Brewer said he foresees a constant refinement “of what we’re already doing,” along with thinner tow-in boards made out of light woods like balsa and albezia.

Bill Hamilton

Bill Hamilton of Hanalei is a master shaper with over 35 years of shaping experience to draw on.

Best known for his classic smooth style of surfing that influenced a generation of surfers from the mid-1960s through the mid-1970s, Hamilton started shaping in 1967 on the North Shore of O‘ahu. His first label was Hamilton Handcraft. During this era, which took place during the transition from longboards to shortboards, he shaped for Lighting Bolt Surfboards, County Surfboards and Chuck Dent.

Hamilton moved between Hanalei and the North Shore of O‘ahu beginning in 1970.

“In 1970 there wasn’t a big market for surfboards on Kaua‘i, like today,” Hamilton said in an interview with The Garden Island. “I’d fly to Honolulu and shape, work construction in Princeville.”

His original glasser was Bobby Allen, now the maker of BASA surfboards on the North Shore. He said other Kaua‘i shapers in the early 1970s included Larry Strada, the late Mike Diffenderfer, along with Dick Brewer and Skip Harmon on the Westside. In Koloa, Progressive Expressions’ Joe Kitchens was making boards, as well as a shaper in Kapa‘a.

He made boards under the Komo Mai label from 1975-1977, shaping in Kilauea, in the old plantation building that became Jacques Bakery, working with Jeff Coleman.

Hamilton next started the Bear Surfboards label, using a logo created for the Hollywood surfing film “Big Wednesday.” Hamilton served as surfing double in the film, and did stunt work, driving a small fishing boat into the impact zone at Sunset Beach for a spectacular wipeout scene. He lost the Bear label due to legal problems over its ownership, which fell to the director of the film.

Next came Hamilton’s Ace in the Hole Surfboards. He currently is using the name Bill Hamilton Custom Designs and Hamilton Hawaiian Longboards.

Looking back, Hamilton said when he first moved to Kaua‘i there was “not a population base of surfers like there is now, wasn’t as wide spread interest then.” In those days he had to be a waiter, work construction, work as a commercial fisherman, and also compete as a pro surfer in some of the first professional surf contests ever held.

Now there are “quite a few good shapers on Kaua‘i, and all are really busy,” Hamilton said.

Shaping trips to Japan were common in the 1980s and 1990s for a number of shapers from Hawai‘i, but that market is now soft, Hamilton said. His boards built on Kaua‘i have gone to the East Coast and West Coast, to Canada, Australia and Europe. Hamilton said he’s made some memorable surfboards over the years.

“I made Bruce and Andy Irons first boards; and (his sons) Laird and Lyon Hamilton first boards; Ricky Gregg’s Waimea gun; Laird’s tow-in board in Tahiti,” he said.

Currently he is making a reproduction of the small, narrow board his son Laird rode tow-in surfing on an oversized day at Teaopohuu in Tahiti exactly three years ago today. The photo of the ride is now considered an all-time classic surf photo. The reproduced boards come with a 3 by 5 foot painting by Kaua‘i artist Lee Clark, and a handmade carving in koa of a Hawaiian tattoo motif by Tom Braverman of Anahola. Details on the collector’s board include foot straps made out of intricately woven lauhala woven by Ian Ham Young of Ha‘ena. The wood being used in the board is from a tree grown from seed planted in 1990, redwood from a tree cutdown in 1906 and albezia wood from a tree felled by Hurricane ‘Iniki in 1992, plus wood from a 30-foot mahogany drift log that washed ashore at Pila‘a in 1984. The numbered, limited-edition package is going for $10,000, with only 50 being made.

One is being donated to help raise money at the SIMA awards on August 24 where many major surfing companies donated items to help raise money to protect the ocean environment. At the event Hamilton’s son Laird is being honored as waterman of the year.

Hamilton said the art of surfboard shaping has its roots in the Polynesians who shaped sailing canoes, call the tradition a “a great lineage of artisans passed on through time.”

“It’s a craft that you continue to learn something about over time, it’s always changing,” he said. “A form of work that reveals itself the more you do it, an infinite kind of mode of work that reveals itself.”

Hamilton said though he’s been shaping surfboards for more than 35 years, “I feel I’m just coming into being a master at what I do, I’m just entering that door.”

The Hanalei shaper said he’s working more and more shaping wooden surfboards. “It’s more exacting and has an interesting history; the wood starts from a seed and comes from nature, and wood is very satisfying to work with when you’re finished.”

Hamilton said you need to be versatile today to be a successful shaper. “You have to do it alln tow-in boards, tandem boards, paddleboards, longboards and shortboards, knee boards.”

A blank of one of Hamilton’s longboards is being used to manufacture epoxy surfboards under the Surftech label that are made at a factory in Thailand run by Randy French, a surfer from Santa Cruz, Calif. The factory is also placing aloha print fabric on the rails of the surfboards, a process Hamilton patented five years ago and uses on many of the longboards he manufactures on Kaua‘i.

As for the future, Hamilton said his sons Laird and his tow-in crew have “opened up a whole new area for shaping boards.” Hamilton’s son Lyon also rides the huge tow-in waves.

“It’s still fairly new in the design window, just starting to open up,” he said of the short, heavy and narrow surfboards used to ride waves with 60-100-foot-plus faces at the big wave break “Jaws” on Maui and elsewhere.

“The designs have changed since 1992, from regular 10-foot boards to 6 foot-2 inch mini-guns,” Hamilton said. “There’s still a lot of research and development in that area n (with research being done on) flex in the rocker like sailboarding, wood, fiberglass, epoxy.”

Terry Chung

Terry Chung’s surfboard shaping and manufacturing business took off following Hurricane ‘Iniki in 1992. Chung is known on Kaua‘i as a well respected big wave, and small wave, surfer, as well as for his skills as a surfboard shaper.

His surfboard label features a pen and ink drawing of taro plants.

“I actually started shaping at 12 years old when I stripped an old board and reshaped it,” Chung said in an interview with The Garden Island. “It all started when I wanted some good boards for the winter season coming up. This was the early 70’s in Hanalei. Bob “Wolfman” Stay taught me how to shape bigger, gunnier boards for bigger surf. He gave me good basic info on how to shape. I’d borrow his room for a day or two to do some of my own shaping, or for shaping a friend’s board. He was a really cool guy and helped me out big time.”

The immediate post-‘Iniki disaster recovery era proved to be a boost to Chung’s shaping output.

“Up until Hurricane ‘Iniki I would just shape for me and some friends off and on,” he said. “Then a month after ‘Iniki I started shaping for Bingo’s surf shop in Lihu‘e, commercial style, but the shop only stayed open for a few months. Now I just shape and manufacture my own boards at home here in Kilauea. I used to commercial fish full time before the hurricane, but making surfboards is easier for me to do now-a-days. I also ghost shaped a few boards for Dick Brewer, too.”

Chung shapes a wide range of surfboard shapes and sizes.

“There are certain shapes that are more special than others to me because I surf them, and get to R and D that particular design I’m riding,” he said. “Guns for Hanalei, tow-in boards for huge swells that change into giant breakers. (They tend to be extremely fast for big waves).”

One of Chung’s specialties that’s catching on with Kaua‘i surfers is fondly called a “fat girl.”

“Then there’s the thick fat foamy short boards, fat girls, which are actually very functional in small waves,” he said. “And I’ve been working on some divinsel foam and epoxy kite boards, which are probably some of the lightest boards on the market.”

Chung’s wife Maureen, who is a school teacher, is also an accomplished surfer, and a native of Santa Cruz, Calif. Their children are also at home in the waves of the North Shore.

“My whole family surfs,” he said. “I make all their boards which are all different designs. That’s what makes my shapes special to me n my family and friends and anyone else in the kalo patch.”

His quiver of shapes includes longboards from nine to twelve feet in length, shortboards from about five feet to about seven feet, both for waves up to 10 foot. Some of his specialties are tow-in boards from five-feet, ten-inches to six-feet, ten-inches for waves up to 60 feet high, and long, narrow big wave paddle-in boards known as “guns” that run from 7 feet to 12 feet.

Chung is also one of the pioneer kite boarders on Kaua‘i, and he makes custom kite boards from four to five feet long for “getting air” up to 30 feet.

Most of Chung’s custom boards are sold on Kaua‘i, at Kai Kane in Hanalei and other shops, as well as through direct custom orders. Chung also exports his Kaua‘i-made product, with boards going to O‘ahu, the Big Island and Maui, and internationally to Japan, Tahiti, Australia, South Africa, and Indonesia.

“There’s enough board building work for a life time,” Chung said of his future as a shaper living on Kaua‘i.