Hey all,
Its been about 8 years since I bought a log. With longboard magazine being dead the past few years and myself not really paying attention I have no idea who’s shaping good logs these days. There are a ton of new labels since the last time I bought a board and a lot of them seem to have pretty young shapers. Any thoughts on whose puttin out the best longboards these days?
Thanks!
ps I’m new to the forum so feel free to let me know if this is in the wrong forum etc.
Tyler hatzikien, Adam davenport, Scott Anderson, John westly, josh Oldenburg, Jeff mccallum, Ryan Lovelace, micheal miller…there is so much more talet around too.
Black Apache!!!
Or… Imperial surfboards in ocean grove. Best logs ever!
hey guys thanks for the tips. any thoughts on matt calvani or thomas bexton?
…Bing: machined, the other I think its a newbie, and I do not know if are machined or do not.
There are lots of really good longboard shapers out there. Where do you live? How much do you want to spend?
I was just about to check kevin connelly’s stuff out. I’m from SD but recently moved to NYC. I don’t exaclty have a budget since I’m not really in the market, I was basically just curious about all these new names. No one has mentioned Shrosbree is he still shaping logs for tudor?
Thanks!
Welcome to the East Coast.
I find it hard to believe that no one has mentioned Almond, who, in my honest opinion, makes the finest longboards (and other boards, for that matter) that money could buy right now. Griffin Neumann Kyle is a master at his craft, and the whole feel of Almond feels like the late 60s. Lots of clean lines and nice colors.
As someone mentioned before, McCallum is also an amazing shaper, but he’s more into hulls, I beleive. Best abstracts in the damn business. He turns glass into marble.
Lovelace? He’s the reason I started getting into this whole ‘shaping’ thing.
Anyway, that’s my contribution.
If you’re looking for something local, take the Babylon line out of Penn to Babylon, and check out Bunger, They make some beautiful customs, and have been since the 60s.
The Last I heard was that Shrosbree id semi retired just doing his Fresh pineapple boards. Hank Byzak might be working for Tuder’s kookbox boards ? Of course if you want a true work of shaping art you can’t go wrong with Jim Phillips board.
There seem to be some hot young shapers out there that seem to have paid some attention to the Masters of the craft as well as paying some dues behind a Planer.
bumping this because I will probably be throwing in an order to a shaper soon.
So more about me and what I’m looking for:
6’1 180lbs, I’ve been riding the same log for about 9 years (really good glass job) shaped by a buddy. Its basically the same template as a wingnut II but we widened the tail by a significant amount and put the wide point just a little bit further back. Also, we made it way heavier than your average wingnut II. Board works well but I’m getting a new job on the east coast and would rather leave this at my folks in SD for when I come home for holidays etc. + new job=new log, right? I’m also looking to try something different.
I’d say my skill level on logs is pretty good. I generally made finals in ISF’s, local log comps, and sometimes did decent in coalition contests, all junior divisions and all about 10 years ago. But I’ve continued to longboard fairly regularly since, always riding a heavier single fin as traditionally as I can.
I’ll be moving to New Hampshire and some of the reef breaks look pretty log friendly but being realistic my guess would be that I’ll be spending most of my time at mushier beach breaks. If anyone can recoommend any good New England shapers I’d appreciate it but if I’m going to drop over a grand I’m probably going to go west coast and ship it out. My plan would be to either put in an order soon and hope to have it done by August or potentially just by a new board off the rack (never done this.). I’ve heard amtrak ships for a pretty low rate but if anyone has tips on getting boards shipped back east that’d be great!
Thanks!
Also, thought I’d add some of the shapers etc. that i’ve been considering. Any comments on any of this stuff and thoughts on other shapers/boards would be appreciated!
Boards that I’d consider grabbing off the rack:
Tyler. Always wanted a tyler. I’ve never actually surfed on one and wouldn’t know what model to look at but his boards have always just seemed like the cadillacs of traditional logs to me.
Takayama Model-T. I have no idea who shapes these now but I would guess that quality control is still high. I’ve only ridden on once in really crappy blown out beach break and didn’t really like it, it felt slow, but so many people swear by them that I figure its worth giving it a shot and seeing what the folks on this website think. Also, I like that donald developed this shape with his own noseriding expertise and with the 90’s log rippers like joel.
Thomas Bexon. No idea which model or exactly how long he’s been shaping but I like the fact that he surfs logs really well and that a lot of the blog videos coming out lately have people shredding his boards.
Other potential off the rackers:
Harbour evolver, new shape for their anniversary. Basically the outline on this looks great but I really don’t know anything about the quality of Harbour other than that they’ve been around for a while. I had a new weber performer in highschool and it was a POS and its made me pretty wary of buying boards from 60s companies with new owners (bing, jacobs, cooperdesigns etc., nothing against calvani)
Almond surf thump. Again the outline looks like what I’m looking for but I’m really hesitant to throw down that kind of cash for someone who I don’t think has more than 1,000 logs shaped.
From the Shaper:
Christenson, a lot of people ripped on these in the early 2000s but you don’t see them around that much anymore. I’d rather go with someone who primarily focuses on logs.
Mccallum: little focus on logs but i’ve ridden one that worked really well. also, i used to work at the same surfshop as him during gromdom so there’s the potential for a deal.
Jim Phillips: stuff looks good but I could only find one for sale and at 1,700. pretty steep, and I’ve never ridden or seen anyone riding his boards.
Shosbree: ridden a couple of the boards he did for joel and liked them.
Wait til you get to NH and ask around among the local crew. There’s a couple of guys in New England who are true craftsmen. I’d suggest you try to connect with Roger Beal if you can track him down. OG San Diego guy who moved East. Knows what a longboard should be.
Beal is on Facebook. Here’s pics of two of his creations.
Im with sammy on this one. Support the small NH surf community.
Wayne is about your size and makes incredible surfboards. I know he had an East Coast dealer at one time. Go custom and talk directly to Wayne. His contact information is available on his website.
There really are few shapers that compare. An old friend of mine who bounced back from a career ending injury and took it to the next level. Aloha, M.A.
Nick Paladrini makes some amazing looking stuff
I remember Wayne telling me Nick was humble enough to ask for some skil planer depth of cut adjustment advice at Sacred Craft Ventura. Great to see the veteran helping the up and comer with no stink.
But… Support your local shaper. I would check Beal and see where he is at these days.
Small, dedicated veteran shapers have paid some dues. Going commercial is no picnic either. My rule is they still need to surf. All golf and real estate does’nt cut it.
