Hand Shaping The Extra Shot
When world longboard champ Rachael Tilley decided to create a new mid-length model, she found the perfect collaborator in fellow longboard champ Beau Young
By Rachael Tilly
I have always admired hand-shaped boards from start to finish. The human touch throughout the process helps me feel more connected to my equipment. I’ve spent a lot of time in the shaping room with my shaper Josh Martin (Martin Shapes) and before him, his father Terry Martin, one of surfing’s most legendary and experienced shapers. Extensive time spent studying the small details of my boards has made a huge impact on the voice I now have in outlining what I’m looking for from a board and has enhanced my ability to pinpoint exactly what parts of my boards need changing.
But, I am no shaper myself. I have been around shaping bays long enough to have a deep understanding of it and perhaps I could shape a decent board from start to finish all by myself, however I am under no illusion that I am on par with those who have spent countless hours actually shaping boards. This type of dependency on experience from another has only strengthened my relationship and mutual trust with my shaper, Josh. The biggest asset a shaper can give to a surfer is their ear in listening to what the surfer is looking for in a board. Too often a shaper shapes what they want and not what the surfer asks for. The biggest asset a surfer can give a shaper is trust in the shaper’s experience and to take on the advice they may offer in a type of board design.
After all, it is a mutual creation.
When it came to designing my own mid-length model joining the range at The Surfboard Warehouse, I knew it was a task I couldn’t do on my own. I was invited to do it myself on the computer programs that are so popular now, but I knew I would make something more authentic if it started from complete scratch. With my home now based in Australia (I’m originally from California) and knowing Beau Young lives just down the road, he was the best man for the job to help me bring to life this new mid-length.
Days like these are my absolute favourite in the shaping room. Going in with a very vague and loose idea of what the end result will look like while staying very open and curious to how that might change throughout the process. Drawing the outline is hands down my favourite part and really the reason I love hand shaping. Beau and I took about four different templates and started drawing them out to see what types of shapes were made from it. We would then stand back, stare at the outline, imagine surfing a wave on it, and decide if that’s the outline to cut out and move forward with. We spent more than half our day on this, and repeated the process more than 10 times.
One surfboard template can open a world to so many different boards depending on the width and the length you choose. I love playing around with the unimagined, like taking the tail side of a template and seeing how it works as the nose of a board or vice versa. There is so much creativity and surprise that can come with this type of freeform designing. We did this kind of adjusting, drawing, and playing around with four templates and came out with countless different outlines, many that surely would have turned into a fun board, but alas, the task was to just create one.
The lines were drawn and re-drawn only centimetres apart until we finally felt satisfied. It’s the type of satisfaction that sits deep in your stomach with the knowledge that no more changes could make it better. The outline that was finally chosen had a nose made from a tail template, the tail was made from a different board’s tail template, and the middle line that connects the two and completes the synergy all around the board was yet another template.
I’ve always been a big advocate that a board needs to connect seamlessly, not just be a tail and a nose stuck together. That’s why it was vital we used the right templates in the right places. If not, you have a board that has three different parts when that real goal is to have one board where each aspect of the shape complements the other parts. That’s exactly what we were able to make here.
The rest of the day’s work brought the rails to life until it looked like a real surfboard. In the end, we were left with something we both could not wait to have glassed and see what it felt like in the water. That’s the exciting part about being so involved in the shaping side of things – you can spend all this time perfecting something but after one surf you already know ways you can improve it. This experience was no different, after one more sample with some minor adjustments made, we finally found the desired end result.
My first surf was magical. This board was designed to surf a long point break, ideally holding about a four to eight foot of swell. These were the exact conditions I was gifted for the board’s first surf. Jumping off the rocks at the point of Currumbin Alley and immediately paddling against a sweep, I was lucky enough to fall right into position for a wide set that everyone else was out of position for. The wave went for about 500 metres and consisted of many high line moments followed by round houses repeated again and again. Landing on the beach I was elated with happiness and did the full run around back up the point to find my next wave and do it all over again.
I hope others who ride this board find as much joy as I do out of it. The process of bringing it to life was so enjoyable and working with Beau throughout it was a special touch on top of it all. Now every time I look at the board, two moments stand out to me: the moments of debating and conversing about the most minuscule details in the shape that now make all the difference and the first sunset session at Currumbin. Every board carries a story and this here is my story. I hope other people can find their own stories and memorable moments through this board as well.
