Hey i have been trying to find a possible apprenticeship or even just a place were i can go and stand around and watch someone w/ some years under their belts in the virginia beach area for a while. some friends and i have recently began shaping and i watched some videos read some books and shaped a few of our first boards. i figured the best way to advance my skills and learns some tricks of the trade is an apprenticeship or even just helping out sweeping and doing whatever small jobs someone of my current skill level is capable of doing. i figured now is the best time to do so considering how busy everyone gets during the warmer months. i tried seasoned and have asked around some but if anyone in the area can point me in a direction or help me out it would be greatly appreciated.
go buy a new broom and show up with a dust mask on and a clean t-shirt and say “ambrose sent me to sweep”.Even if they dont know me or have even heard of me the name is unusual enough they might let you dump the trash or maybe sweep but anyone with a new broom in their hand is hard to resist… remember you can even screw up sweeping if you do it wrong … dont bang the shaped blanks with the handle ,dont knock the laminated boards off the racks…when some one doesn’t show up they might train you for somthing…dont go to just one shop become the broom guy for everybody in the county and you will become the broom guy…HEY BROOM GUY YOUR WAVE… dont leave your broom behind or let anyone else use it…be THE BROOM GUY…ambrose…sound ok?
sounds like a good sugestion free labor is always the best kind, i did an internship/ project thing back in high and had a hard time finding some one willing to help me out. but the moment i went and talked to someone and said hey i will do your grunt work for free it beacme a whole hell of a lot easier to get my foot in the door. just dont give up be persistent becasue it will pay off
Howzit!!! Va. beach… I used to live there,and even started trying to surf there, way back, in the late 60’s. I used to hang at all the shops, just going ‘wow!’. I was super stoked, and I got into the whole surfing and board building scene there. I was also a grade A kook. I moved down to Fla. and continued my craze. I teamed up with some interesting characters like G. Loehr. The next summer, I went back to Va. beach, determined to get into the board building business. I showed up at W.R.V. every day for like 2 weeks, just going “I’m the guy, me! me! me!” Finally, after my incessant pestering, the top guy handed me a sledgehammer, and said “report to the laminating room and break up the floor”. Super stoked! I attacked. That’s how I got in the door, and I spent all that summer being educated in all phases of shop life. Just a couple of years ago, I happened to remember that phase, and I thought “what if I’d said ‘no way!’”. Guaranteed, I would have been out the door and down the road, quick! So, Ambrose is right about the broom. Making surfboards requires a lot of tools and skills, including brooms and sledgehammers. Aloha…RH
definatley i have no skills i expect 2 be payd for apprenticeship may be the wrong word all i wanna do is hang around and soak up the knowledge and have no prob sweeping and mixing resin ill do ne thing im no stranger to hard labor i prefer it. actually i recently talked to a local guy who told me i can came by some time and check out his scene so im pretty stoked.
definatley i have no skills i expect 2 be payd for apprenticeship may be the wrong word all i wanna do is hang around and soak up the knowledge and have no prob sweeping and mixing resin ill do ne thing im no stranger to hard labor i prefer it.
pay the owner 2 months of workmans comp. payments in advance
Hey Rick I shaped a few at WRV.Back then it was Bob White.Very progressive for it’s time.We were making little short single fin platters around 4 inches thick.I can remember when Greg started,he used to deliver me blanks when he worked for Catri.At that time he was like a God on the East Coast.I like Ambrose’s idea about the shirt.If they say no, go get a bucket and start washing vehicles in the parking lot.By that time they will see that you are insane enough to fit in to the board building fraternity.
i am restoring a 71’ bob white presently. were you there in those days? Its a pretty neat board. A lifeguard found it in the basement of the guard station.
It was more like 1969.I had just spent the summer with Jim Phillips learning how to shape.I was passing through and only stayed for a couple of days.Bob White (WRV) is quite an amazing success story.When I was there the shop was an old laundromat.Now WRV is a huge outfit.I am not sure what happened to Bob White? RB
man its funny the other day a guy came in to my senior government class and gave us a whole lesson on std’s and aids, a sex ed teach. he saw a watercolor painting on my binder of a wave and told me he’d show me how he drew a wave later,(kinda random it seemed) he then proceeded 2 ask me if i knew anything about surfing culture and that his father bob white started wrv and i couldnt believe it made sense though there is a wrv @ va beach but i would figure hed be chillin near the wrv on the north shore. i wanted to ask how the son of bob white became a sex ed teacher. i see the guy almost every day. if someone 3 years ago this guy would be teaching me why i should wrap my tool, as apposed to something even remotley surfing related, i’d never believe it lol