VC Reporter Interview with Todd

Are you from Ventura County originally? If not, where did you grow up? 

I was born into a non-surfing family deep in the heart of Los Angeles far from the beach. My dad was a cop and my mom was a teacher. I  didn’t have the privilege of experiencing surfing until I was 12 years old. When I did, It changed my life forever, radically. And became all I could think about as a boy.

When did you arrive in the area, and what brought you here?

My next door neighbor was older than me by a few years and drove me to the beach with him and his friends during the 1980s, during a time when the tri-fin had recently been invented. Surfing was huge and everyone was wearing bright-colored wetsuits. You never saw anybody wearing black wetsuits back then except for small groups of wealthy thug locals at a a few random beaches . . . very different from today in that aspect. It was a super-happy era full of positive energy and a changing of the guard from the longboard and single-fin designs to that of the shortboards. It was new and everybody from everywhere wanted to be part of it.

 My neighbor told me about this place called Ventura one day and said he was gonna drive up there, and if I wanted to hop in. It was winter time and he said that was when Ventura got good. So, off we went, and I’ll never forget that day. It was like driving into heaven for a kid. Everywhere I looked there were the most perfect waves I’d ever seen, and the open spaces and green cliffy mountains and long pointbreaks had me in disbelief. We surfed Little Rincon and then Rincon. It was an off-day for the locals, so it was really uncrowded, everyone was surfed out from the previous days, but it was the best waves I’d ever surfed. …On the drive home in my friends rusty, rattly VW bus that smelled like gasoline, I remember thinking this has to be the most amazing place in the whole wide world. When I got my driver license, I drove up to Ventura as much as I could. 

When I turned 18 I began a solitary odyssey of surfing the places I had seen in the magazines of the day. I moved to Australia  and lived out of an old ’69 beat-up $500 car. Somehow that tin can made it halfway around Australia’s coastline, surfing from the Great Barrier Reef on the northeast coast through southern Australia. Working odd jobs, sleeping on the beach, meeting new people, surfing every spot. I relocated to South Africa for a winter where I ended up seeing Tom Curren surf J-Bay for the first time, which was unreal. Then bounced from Hawaii, to Mexico, to San Clemente where I landed a full-time shaping job. Even after trips to Indonesia, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Peru, Fiji . . . my heart always loved the early memories of Ventura the best.    

When did you transition from a passionate surfer to a board shaper?

I used to watch guys shape boards for me as a boy, since that was kinda the only way it was done. You would cruise over to the shaper’s spot and talk with them about where you surfed and stuff and they would build you a custom, shape it right there on the spot, and if you wanted to watch you could. I always liked that even after the board industry kinda got more corporate and less personal; I just always liked that one-off custom approach. When I was 19, I shaped four boards in my grandpa’s backyard in a woodshed. 

When did you open your business? How did it develop?

I handshaped for other labels before starting my own thing in my late 20s. It took a long time, like a decade, to build up enough momentum exponentially by word of mouth, and just doing something long enough, I guess, to need to open your own factory. When that time came, I knew of all the places in the world where I wanted it to be. The same place that 12-year-old kid came to visit that changed his life forever: Ventura.

Is there a particular aspect to your work that you especially like, or some memorable projects you have worked on?

I love all the different, unique and special everyday people that I get to meet and interact with; making all kinds of different custom boards for surfers all over the world that need a one-of-a-kind board that suits their level of surfing, the waves they surf, and the direction they want to take their surfing. Surfing to me is not a one-size-fits-all, mass-production operation where you put out the same units and spread them out as much as you can. We actually have a motto at the factory: “One day at a time, one board at a time, one surfer at a time.” Less corporate, more personal; fewer units, higher quality is how we like to roll. Our other motto is: “Work Hard, Stay Humble, Be Grateful, Bless Others.”

I’ve heard that surfing has grown in popularity the past year. Have you seen that as well?

I’ve seen a lot of hurting people this year. With what’s going on globally, people are feeling the strain of pressures being placed on them that they’ve never experienced before. Many people are needing hope. And of all the groups all over the planet, I’ve seen surfers being the ones to consider the risks, and deciding not agree with the lies being perpetrated toward them. Surfers have continued to go surfing, to remain outdoors, to breathe the free air of creation, and have remained healthy and are riding waves, sharing hoots and slapping high fives like they always have. This to me is very encouraging; to see a subculture not live in fear and to continue living life. I think this is why surfing is thriving during a time when much of the world has gone into hiding. 

Are you seeing experienced surfers surfing more, or is it more people taking up surfing? 

Personally I’m seeing experienced surfers surfing more. Many people are out of work, out of school and needing hope. Anyone who has been surfing their whole life will tell you that surfing is a huge part of life itself. When the world seems to have gone crazy and it feels like all is crumbling around you, that is a time to go surfing. 

What do you think draws people to surfing? 

Being free to go and move in nature, and be healthy and feel all the energy that the ocean offers being harnessed under your feet. You become part of the energy of the big picture. You commune with the source of it all. And it makes you a better person. 

What are some of your favorite surf spots, in the county or otherwise? 

I love them all on their given day. We live in an area of such broad wave variety that it really depends on the swell direction, the wind, the sandbars, the tide . . .  All these factors determine where you’ll choose to surf on any given day. Plus, I like to keep my faves my faves; those are sacred times for me. 

Anything else you might like to share with our readers?

The real reason Gavin Newsom opened the beaches is because when the first good swell hit on July 4 of last year, surfers went en masse and surfed like they always have. Because we knew the truth, we all went surfing. And there was nothing anyone could do to stop it. ‘The man’ had to open the beaches. And no surfers got sick. No surfers died. Surfers have thrived over the last year. And we did what we’ve done best for a very long time. And that is to not let ‘the man’ push us around. The rest of the world could take notes from the surfers.