Minds, Machines, And The Magic Of Hands

If you speak with a middle-aged man with a pointy soul patch and thinning bleached hair, he will tell you that half the guitar sound is the axe itself and half the guitar sound is the amp. 

You will not have asked for this information, but he will deliver it confidently regardless. This man will proceed to explain guitar pickups, string gauge, amp tubes, pick technique, and the other variables that create the guitarist’s signature sound.

Hours later, you will reflect on what he said and find it to be a fitting analogy in our age of computer files and machine-shaped boards — half the magic is in the code and the other half is in the hand finish. But there’s way more to it than that. 

To explore this, let’s look at the machines, software and current state-of-the-art large-scale surfboard production facilities.

OK, we can start with amplifiers — visualize a stack of Marshalls.

The backbone to modern large-scale surfboard production are the CNC (Computer Numerical Control) machines. There are a few out there with 3DM, AKU, and APS being the name brands. To cut blanks, the 3DM uses a bull nose abrasive tool and the AKU and APS use a disk which looks like a bicycle sprocket. Most decent machines are priced at $80K to $120K US after set up and freight.

“The first machine was massive and only a few people knew how to use it,” said Christiaan Bradley of Euroglass. “You’d have to do sketches and tell the operators what to do. But that helped me in my ability to design as well. The machines have become more user friendly.”

The grease in the machine today is the CAD software. Shapes 3D and AKU are the most popular. The CAD programs can be downloaded in the “light” version for free with purchase and maintenance fees required for the full versions.

This software and machines, essential to spitting out sleds at factory levels, still require experienced hands to run.

“If you’re starting from scratch the software is complicated and takes a while to know what you’re looking at,” added Christiaan. “It can take years to perfect, and on a design scale, possibly years to get right. I’ve been working on it since 2011 and I’m still learning. I don’t think you ever become completely, absolutely proficient at it.”

Preset files help, and some companies do thousands of boards so they have created all these files for their models — for example, a whole range of Pyzel Ghosts from grom size to big guy. For custom boards, the shaper will then plug in the customer’s numbers and tweak the file for the client.

After the machine cuts a blank, Bradley says it takes about 20 minutes on average for the hand-finish — but this depends on the shaper. And here’s where our guitar comparison comes into play. 

We want to know when the magic-of-surfboard-making enters the picture. Is it while using the software to design the file, or when the shaper runs their hands over the fresh foam casting an aura of magic board vibes? Turns out it’s neither.

“I can do three or four boards for Leo (Fioravanti) and they are exactly the same, but one will stand out,” added Christiaan. “They could all surf exactly the same and he gets a good wave on one and so he’ll use that one. I’ve had a lot of surfers bring in a magic board and ask for a copy, but the board will have inconsistencies in it.”

Britt Merrick at CI agrees that there is some unquantifiable magic in each board but that most of the unicorn sparkles lie in the hand-finishing.

“The hand finishing is really important, and the last 20 minutes finishing off a reshape is very important,” said Britt. “You need years to perfect it. Guys can make boards using just software without knowing how to handshape and there are a lot of people in the industry who don’t have a hand shaping background.”

Britt explained that someone could start from scratch just on software, but that when it comes time to conceptually know what each model should do, as well as for what size human and what type of conditions, hand experience really comes into play.

“Most of the best shapers in the world are older shapers who have been in it for a while,” said Britt. “You can’t get someone who can’t drive a nail to build a house. So, you could study the software and work from the screen but in the end what counts is the finished product coming out of the shaping bay.”

Britt described the mind state of shaping as similar to that of creating music or other flow-state activities.

“Shaping is one of those focal activities where you are fully involved and engaged. You put your heart and soul into it and your eyes and your hands are communicating and it’s a focal activity that takes the whole of your being. So it’s cathartic. I get that from other things. But I don’t get that from being behind a computer.”

The reality is that it’s tricky to enter a shaping zen state while working in a surfboard factory. The front office needs to get new models out the door for a surf-hungry public. Christiaan Bradley says that even with a set model, boards are slowly evolving the whole time through a combination of computer tweaking, hand-finishing and what the front office is demanding.

“You might look at a board and think ‘oh what if I changed this or that’ and then it could become a completely new model, like what if I changed this rail or whatever,” said Christiaan. “I have to go with what the company wants at the time. So I have to think about it and go from there. They’ll say they need a twin fin or a mid-length and then I have to build it. But to create a model and the marketing is a lot of work and expense. And sometimes something gets rushed because the office wants it. And you’re not happy with it but then people ride it and love it. You have to spend the time thinking about what you want to sell.”

One last curveball? In modern surfboard marketing, temptation for one brand to steal another’s top-seller can be irresistible.

“For sure theft happens,” said Britt. “There are times when people blatantly rip off designs. There are times when I’ve looked at a board and said ‘that’s my dad’s rocker.’ I know of a case where a guy used someone else’s files to produce boards.”

There is a danger when files are just a WeTransfer download away. However a lot of designs qualify as being in the imitation-is-flattery category or the simple evolution of a particular shaper. The issue is further compounded when brands straddle that fine line between introducing a mid-length, and scanning a competitor’s model for exact dimensions — which Britt says occurs more than we might think.

“Yeah that happens in the industry and that’s happened for a long time. Making surfboards is an art and it’s like music, you have scales and chords and you have to find your way, like learning to play guitar and you’re imitating Coldplay or Allman Brothers and there’s a lot of imitation that goes on and that’s the fundamentals of learning.”

A stack of amplifiers won’t do it for tone alone, and it takes more than a vintage Fender Stratocaster to make it all work. The design software doesn’t think like a shaper, but the shaper uses it to create what’s in their mind’s eye. That said, in turn, they need that hand shaping experience to know what to create when working with the file.