Well, I’m not a full time shaper…
I mean, I am all the time a shaper but not jobwise.
I keep thinking about new boards and so on.
My real job is to be an architect.
In fact I work sometimes on architecture stuffs, sometimes on 3d modeling and also as an architecture teacher.
Shaping has become a N°2 business for me and I shape more boards than I did before but do not intend to become a full time shaper.
The side of shaping I love is to share the stoke with customers.
Fine tune any project so thaht each board is really unique. I take a lot of time for each one, talking about the board and all the rest.
If I had to shape more, I should stop creating unique shapes for each one.
Many shapers offer production performance shortboards… I let them go on with that.
Surftech and other pop-out builders sell more and more… That’s none of my business.
I try to go higher on each board, shape and glass improving as time goes by.
Yes, I put the prices up.
The main reason is that higher prices keep away those who only come to get a fair price board.
It gives me the opportunity to keep only customers that really want a board from me, nevermind the price and time it takes.
To be true, the price on the website is just a “theoretical” price… Most of time, we go on tints, sglass, lokbox fins, leash loops, sprays… at last, it’s never that expensive.
For instance, in France, you can buy a classic twin fin fish with a tint and glass on fins for as much as 800€ (about 1000 US$ or 1300AU$) and I believe it’s far too much money.
The most expensive fish I dared to sell was less than 650€ with tints, Sglass, leash loop and wood keels from lokbox.
I also made a fish for a 16 years old grom who kept dreaming for it and payed 450€ with his own summer wages…
Having a “real job” besides shaping allows me to choose the customers and the project I work on… I do not have to be selling or starving.
Very much a good thing to keep the stoke alive 
