this one goes for the weekend surfer and the garage surfboard builder:
what do you do for living?
and how do you combine it with your surfing/shaping activities?
Jack.
I’m a IT Manager for a Biotech company in La Jolla, and I incorporate my shaping/glassing hobby by spending all my free time at work designing new boards and resin tints/artwork/shapes on the clock 
I´m a student at The Medical University of Innsbruck. But I plan to immigrate to New Zealand as soon as I finish university. As a student i´ve got plenty of time to shape and glass by myself. And trips to france or any other country with good surf are also a common occurrence cheers clemens
i have a crew of 6 men who maintain and repair five of the attractions in the tragic kingdom at disney (night shift. why i’m still doing that after 15 yrs. i have no idea…it didn’t begin with that plan. at least i’m able to get off at 7 am, and head for the beach or clark foam in melbourne.(i hope they didn’t get blown away, does any one know?)
Greg I tried to call Clark foam and didn’t get an answer. I did see them on Friday and picked up a 9’1" super blue. Oh yeah I am a bean counter by profession.
Talked to clark foam florida on Mon. They will be up and running by Tues. Lost their awning, but still in business.
i tried calling clark yesterday and got no answer, too. maybe they got blown away? UH OH!!!
anyhow, i recently finished college with a degree that they say should take 4 years, and most people take 5 years to complete. the catch is that i did it in 3 years, so i figure that i owe myself AT LEAST a year of vacation before furthering my education (law school). while on sabbatical from academia, i take advantage of every random money-making opportunity that happens to come my way, but the only thing i’m truly committed to is NOT WORKING…i’ve got enough to scrape by with a few surf trips – California, Hawaii, Costa Rica – if i’m careful (unless some unknown jerk decides to smash out all the windows on my car AGAIN). when there’s surf, i’m generally perched firmly on the tip at my local break, and when it’s flat i hang out in the backyard mowing foam. lemme tell ya…it’s a rough life i lead, but someone’s gotta live it.
Like Tenover I am also an IT Manager. Most of my designing (Website, Shapes Logos and printing of Logos is on the clock). I even sell a few boards to the guys at work.
I have a set time that I shape and glass every night from 5-6. My wife knows this and for her tollerence I give her a share in any profits made.
More shopping time is more shaping time.
I am a mortgage broker and have a very flexible schedule so I am able to surf/shape when ever I need to. My wife thinks I am obsessed since surfing consumes every aspect of my life now that I am shaping my own boards. However, she knew this before she married me. I now find myself having to schedule time out of the water in order to get into the shaping shed. That is my biggest problem.
Basically, outside sales. I drive around. I always have a board in the car, and plan appointments for favorable nearby tides, traffic, etc. I surf 2-3 times a week during the week that way. Mixed in with 10-hr days, there’s plenty of time to get my work done and surf a variety of different spots. I usually dp one weekend day as well and my wife takes her weekly long bike ride the other morning.
Right now I am a student an NC State University. On the weekends I go back home to Wilmington so I can surf and shape. My roommate has turned down the idea of turning the living room into a shaping and glassing room so I still need to make that trip. He says I will get dust everywhere and the whole place will reek of resin but I don’t think so.
U.S. Air Force engineer… currently in construction mgt. It is time for a change though. If allowed, I may leave the service this early next year whereas I’ll be looking for a new country to live in/immigate to… sorry Uncle Sam. Bert, is Roy’s place still available, that was a while ago but I can’t forget it. I died laughing when I saw that bus - before I saw the pic I was thinkin ‘oh now thats what I need!’
Seriously though, a lot of my pocket change garnered from a recent trip to the desert just went towards Greg’s resin. Thanks Greg. I love it. I sleep with a 12 oz bottle of additive F on my pillow.
Working on an adult psych floor of the local county hospital currently, and going to school full time for my RN. I fit surfing in WHENEVER there are waves, often to the detriment of my studies or paycheck. I fit shaping in whenever I have time.
The good news:
In about 9 months, when I pass my board exams and get my RN license I will have a job that allows me to pick any place I want to live at will, work a full schedule in only three days a week, and pay me un chingo de dinero. Oh, and with that spare time, extra money, ability to live wherever, etc… I will be doing RIDICULOUS amounts of surfing.
science teacher and biol book writer. job= long hols, early finishes 
wife hates me shaping - in fact she’s threatening to change my shaping bay into an extension!
One time general contractor and cabinetmaker. Changed careers at 48 and am now an estimator for an asphalt paving company. A steady paycheck is a beautiful thing. I make my own appointments with customers which allows me to schedule anything on the coast at the end of the day when there’s a swell. Nice.
I shape at night in my converted horse stable, which is now a woodworking / shaping/ glassing shop.
The wife is finally getting used to it. It’s gone from, " Are you making another surfboard?" to “Hmmm, nice surfboard, but don’t forget my house projects.”
No complaints. Doug
Work in textbook publishing in NY city. Shape/glass at night in my workshop/shed (out buildings - even real close to the house - are beautiful things… 'Honey, I’m going out to the shed - be back in ‘a while’…three hours later covered with dust he returns).
Surf on weekends or holidays & sometimes evenings in the summer.
Eric J
I run a CNC milling machine and make molds. I have to program it and get it set up, but then it runs on its own for a while, sometimes days. So I shape and surf while the machine runs. Charge $50/hour, and that is machine time so I get paid while I surf. I figure why work when a machine can work for you. Also when the machine has some extra time I machine my surfboards.
Sucks though because it is very hard to go on trips for longer than a weekend because I loose customers. Selling business soon because of this.
Last eleven years I’ve been a stay at home Dad. Wife’s a doctor. Was a middle school science teacher before the kids. Kids are getting older so might go back to teaching this way the wife does not have to work as hard. Kids go to school, Dad goes surfin. Surf no good, Dad goos a shapin! Pretty good deal. Don’t ever let a women tell you how tough it is to stay home and take care of the kids. It’s a great gig and I recommend it to any that can pull it off. Mike
got rid of mine…she didn’t bring home the bacon and cook it too.if i hadn’t i’d never gone back to shaping in my own livin room. plus my daughter(who i have custody of)shaped most of her own board by around age 13.life is the best thing happening,don’t miss a lick of it!
I am a junior in highschool so i can surf or shape whenever i want as long as i keep the grades up. I like it.