Surfing magazine is having month of the shaper at the moment, with a different shaper been mentioned each day. Maybe Sways could have a month of the glasser?
OK - I have three nominees.
Darth Vader for his insane color work, Huie for his spic and span polished glosses, and Cleanlines for putting it all to video in the Master Glassing Series even if it was a couple years back.
In the last ten years I have spoken to a lot of guys who want to explode into the surfboard construction industrie. the advice I give them is you must be able to offer at least 3 things to the establishment. eg, shape, foil fins and sand. or glass, sand and set fins and fin systems. As the companies aren’t overly huge or weren’t then it was sound advice. I believe the mags should honor the glasser and most of all the sander. Give these grotty animals the acilades they diserve.
As I skip through the er & ing magazines, I often CANNOT see who the Mfg. of the board is, sure the Hoven, Gravis, Kwik, Bong, Krusty Burger logos are all very visible, but the shaper and crew do not play a role in how the rider got to where he/she is today.
Walter Pinto of Walter’s ding repair, a Brazilian, was doing some nice shaping in Encinitas, he showed me a pic of one of his riders ripping the top off a wave.
The guy was up on an edge with the deck of his board very visible and the “Wild Coast” logo completely visible.
The shot somehow got published in SURFER, but his logo was cleanly and completly removed form the shot.
I am struck with shock and awe at how hard Al, Rusty and Matt must work to shape 150,000 boards a year, cuz no one else seems to be a shaper, glasser or grunt worker to put out any other boards
I’m going to add BammBamm808 for his clear work. Even though I’ve only seen his work on video, his advice has always been really good as well.