Episode Two Shaper Reveal — EAST With Mikey February

Click here to watch Episode One of EAST With Mikey February — presented by Kona Big Wave and Vans.
Click here to meet the nine shapers in ep 1.

“I do not think I’m educated on surfboard design,” chuckles Mikey February, to start Episode Two of this year’s EAST. “And I think it’s hard, especially when you’re at a certain level, to kinda admit the fact that you don’t know that much about surfboards.”

As such, the entire process of ordering and testing 16 surfboards has been one of developing (and flexing) his surfboard IQ.

And, though the first episode was just a dip into the shallow end of his large scale hydrodynamic experience, the second plunges deeper into the characteristics of surfboards that Mikey Feb enjoys — and the ones he doesn’t.

After revealing nine of the shapers in Episode One, there will be another five introduced and tested in California throughout Episode Two. Let’s talk about ’em.

Tom Morat

“I hate it when shapers purposefully make something look different just for the sake of it, but it’s not actually logical, more just to stand out,” explains Tom Morat. “There’s a lot of that these days. There’s a lot of people that just look at Ryan Burch’s boards and just throw wack shit at a design and can’t really tell if it sticks because there’s too much going on. I like to just chip away at one variable at a time.

“I like to make sure it’s like a scientific experiment in a sense. If you’re trying out too much shit at once, you don’t really know what the fuck’s working anymore, what’s actually making a difference.”

The board he made for EAST?

A 5’9 x 19 1/2 x 2 5/8 twin with a trailer — which features a very accentuated bottom contour.

“When I first looked at this board,” says Mikey Feb, “There was a lot going on with the bottom that I was a little bit nervous of, but I knew it would go fast.”

Tomo

With a tweaked nose, double pointed hatchet quad fins, an exaggerated double-concave vee bottom, and a stringered EPS epoxy construction, the surfboard Tomo submitted is a testament to his lifelong quest of challenging how performance shortboards should look.

The board — coming in at the very unique dimensions of 5’7 1/2 x 19 1/4 x 2 5/8 — was also fathered by a certain double digit World Champion… but we’ll get into that in the episode.

“There’s a lot of other ones where people have done things that are more aesthetically pleasing,” grins Mikey. “This one is definitely the one where it’s all about function, not how it looks.”

Ellis Ericson

“I feel like there’s this crazy onslaught of computer shapes,” says Ellis Ericson. “I’m in here trying to fight against that in a way — just keep the tradition of a good custom handshape going, but also push it into a realm where it can be refreshing. There’s young guys doing it and making a living and still pushing performance from the backyard. I’m just trying to fight the machine. The world doesn’t need any more fucking surfboards. It doesn’t need this mass flood of fucking surfboards. If everyone just made what they could with their hands, it’d probably be a lot more sustainable and everyone would be having a bit better of a time.”

As you may already know, Ellis makes his surfboards start-to-finish, including the blanks.

For Mikey? He delivered a 6’1 x 9 3/4 x 2 1/2 quad setup that nearly bamboozled the South African.

“I didn’t know which boxes the fins were supposed to go in,” laughed Mikey. “Small ones in the front or the back?”

Jaleesa Vincent

Painter, dancer, poet, musician, professional freesurfer, shaper — there’s very little Jaleesa Vincent cannot do. And, as the only female shaper in this year’s lineup, she crafted Mikey a board she’s dubbed Britney’s Sister.

“My first board I made, I ended up calling it Britney and it’s like a fish — really fat and flat and wide and thick with a cool bat tail,” says Jaleesa. “Britney’s Sister is a bit more tightened up version of that, a little bit more like a shortboard, it’s got a narrower nose and a bit more rocker. Also kind of like a fish, but a performance fish I guess.”

For Mikey, the dimensions are 5’9 x 20 1/2 x 2 19/32.

Very precise.

“My first impression was that this one just looked like the board that would be the most fun to me, especially in California,” said Mikey.

Beau Foster

Raised on New South Wales’ Central Coast and now residing in the outskirts of Torquay, Beau Foster has spent years refining his custom handshapes.

The board he opted for in his first ever EAST?

An alternate approach to thrusting, with unbelievably small fins and a pronounced channel along the entire stringer of the bottom — a board he call the Gap Tooth, which comes in at 6’1 1/2 x 8 7/8 x 2 1/2

“The only idea I really have for how this could go is from watching Beau’s surfing,” says Mikey. “Which is really sick.”

— — —

Click here to watch Episode One of EAST With Mikey February — presented by Kona Big Wave and Vans.

Click here to meet the nine shapers in ep 1.