Shapers - a family tree

General Discussion
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Anyone checked this out in the January issue of Surfing Mag yet? George Orbelian and I have been working on it for the last couple years. We’ll have an online version up in the next few days. It will be dynamic and interactive - and I hope one of the coolest things you’ve ever seen.

Even though we’ve talked to tons of shapers and industry types, we know the list isn’t complete. As they say in the mag, we’ve got another 400+ names that don’t have all info attached yet. It’s a living thing… once it’s live we’ll have a way for people to interact with the list and help us make it a comprehensive as possible.

Guys who helped with the list include Dick Brewer, Rusty, Terry Fitzgerald, Bob McTavish, George Downing, Karl Eckstrom, Woody Ekstrom, Charles Quinn, Mark Angell, Michel Junod, Tom Eberly, Reno Abellira, Mike Eaton, Jim Phillips, Bill Schrosbee, Bill Stewart, Eddie Talbot, Fred Van Dyke, Bill Bahne, Rick Hammond, Al Merrick, Nev, Bert Berger, John Carper, Randy French, Mark Richards, Hoy Runnels, Bob Bolen (The Greek), Pedro Vasquez, Will Jobson, Steve Rex, Flippy Hoffman, Dick Metz, Spencer Croul, Tom Pezman, Steve Pezman, Pat Rawson, Reynolds Yater, Mike Eaton, David Puu, Nick Carrol, Rabbit Kekai, Greg Noll, and MANY others…

Stay tuned for to links to the site

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I thought there was only ONE Mike EATON?

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Quote:
I thought there was only ONE Mike EATON?

Not when George Orbelian is involved!

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oops… we like Mike so much, we mention him twice.

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is what you are talking about different than the one that’s been on the internet for a long time? see eg the calif. page:

http://www.theshaperstree.com/shapers/calif.asp

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one would sure HOPE so . You see , NEWSFLASH !!! california is not the beginning , the centre , and the end of surfboard shaping as we know it . Sorry to tell you , but there is actually a whole WORLD beyond that tiny , self-obsessed stretch of coastline’s inhabitants.

peta

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NEWSFLASH…if you’d bother to LOOK instead of KNEE JERK you’d see the web site I posted has entries for AUSTRALIA, NEW ZEALAND, UK, FRANCE, PERU, and many other places. Even URUGUAY. I just posted the California page because that’s where Kendall and I both are…

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Quote:

one would sure HOPE so . You see , NEWSFLASH !!! california is not the beginning , the centre , and the end of surfboard shaping as we know it . Sorry to tell you , but there is actually a whole WORLD beyond that tiny , self-obsessed stretch of coastline’s inhabitants.

peta</blockquote></div>

Lighten up, Francis. Only Chipfish rivals that kind of anticalifornianism.

Quote:
My name's Francis, see, but everyone calls me Psycho. Any you homos call me Francis, I'll kill you. And any you homos touch my stuff, I'll kill you
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Lighten up, Francis.
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(not how they mated and produced baby shapers)…LOL…instead of placenta…a mix of resin and foam dust…ok, i’ll stop right there.

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Lighten up, Francis. I love it!!! Great movie.

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Who on Swaylock’s should be our “Big Toe” (Sargeant Hulka)?

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Sargeant Hicksy?

:slight_smile:

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Sgt. Spitzer!

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wasn’t francis the one who stole pee wee’s bike?

in pee wee’s big adventuree?

that francis was a cur.is it the same guy?

aaaaahhhhhhh when is a shaper,…a shaper on the tree…

if’n nope body traint ya are you a runner?

or a wind fall?

or a aerial reseeding?

when is a shaping person a weed?

the tree is nice but there are other roots

and cross polinations…

…ambrose…

see the book

“A TREE GROWS IN BURLINGAME”"

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Quote:

oops… we like Mike so much, we mention him twice.

Oh I see, t’s just about who you like !

very cool ?

:slight_smile:

Partly… by the way I forgot to mention how helpful Bill Thailkill was in my first post. Sorry Bill, I thought I mentioned you.

No Roy… The list was made from info gathered from many - many shapers, surfers, and industry types. In order to qualify for the list, a shaper must have made a significant design contribution, have produced a lot of boards, or been recommended by other shapers. It’s just a list… it’s organic, and as I said earlier, it’s not complete. There are a couple things that need to be fixed, but for the most part, the names on the list have all been validated by multiple sources.

What is it exactly you have a problem with? If you can get CarveNalu and Thrailkill to recommend you, you may make the list too.

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Hi Keith… We looked at that site while putting together our list. He’s been at it a long time and has a ton of names up on the site. Unfortunately, a lot of the info is incorrect. I don’t want to take anything away from what he’s doing… in fact we’d love to include him in our deal.

The impetus for our project was the original version of “Shapers - a Family Tree” that Surfing Magazine did in 1989. As far as we know they were the first to put a comprehensive list together. We got that version from Matt Warshaw and took it from there. This has been almost two years of gathering and verifying information. We wanted to get it as close as possible, then put it out for others to add to and make corrections. Once it’s online - in a few days - there will be a simple mechanism to do that.

We’re not looking for glory here. We were seeing how “lifestyle” companies were trivializing shapers, and figured something had to be done to preserve their contribution. Shapers are the core of surfing. Without them we wouldn’t need boardshorts or teeshirts with surf company logos on them.

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Hello Kendall ,

I saw the tree today , Great job…

I’m just a tumble weed blowing past the tree in the middle of a giant dust storm !!!

Ray

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Look at the list… we’ve got guys from everywhere. The early guys are from Hawaii and California, cause that’s where it started. Australia’s not far behind. I’ve even got guys from Argentina and Peru.

If you’ve got someone you want to add, and we can validate them, they can be on the list too. The idea was to get this out there and get input to make it grow. It’s a never ending list.