Watch: THRASHAHOLICS by Thrash Craft Surfboards

You’ve gotta hand it to a master craftsman. A few years back, after inhaling a wok-load of Moroccan herbal delicacy, I found myself lured into a crumbling shop, barely noticeable from the street. 

Inside, I walked past creaky doors and cobwebbed corners, eventually noticing some of the finest woodwork I’d ever laid eyes on. Handcrafted, intricate, completely stunning. A remarkable display of human skill. Clearly, I had found a true artisan, creating authentic, one-of-a-kind pieces. Without hesitation, I purchased a proud, masculine-looking tiger sculpture. Expensive, yes, but almost certainly justified. I left the shop with my chest out, feeling smug, until I turned the corner and found the exact same tiger in every shop window, as far as the eye could see.

Point is, there’s real value in craftsmanship. But it’s a lot more impressive when the work is original.

Back in 2022, Brad Flora was the only surfer to submit a self-edited Stab Edit of the Year entry, which he put together on iMovie, riding boards he shaped himself. Three years later, after turning his shaping side project into a full-time gig, he brings us THRASHAHOLICS — a Thrash Craft team surf film that he once again edited himself, built the boards for the entire team, and stars in.

Quite the DIY, human Swiss Army knife.

“I edited it on fucking iMovie again,” says Brad, of Thrashaholics. “I really enjoy putting edits together — that way I can make it how I want it to look. But I have friends look over it to make sure it doesn’t look like absolute shit. My girlfriend definitely has a good eye for this kind of thing, so she always tells me to change things. I kind of ponder her inputs for a while before I go back to editing, and she’s always fucking right.” 

Before Brad went full-time with his own board-building gig, he was just another grunt for bigger names, paying his dues under more established shapers. It was purposeful, sure, but eventually, he had enough of playing the underling and decided it was time to be the boss.

“I just kind of fell into a role here, scrubbing boards for other people — Rustys, Dahlbergs, and Chillies,” says Brad. “I just saw what they were doing and thought, fuck, these guys aren’t even around, and they’ve got a shop and their own boards. So I figured, might as well take a stab at doing it with my own label.”

And so Thrash Craft was born, a side-hustle at first, then, as business picked up and a string of injuries kept him out of the water, it became his only hustle. He put his best friends on the team, and now he’s scrambling to keep up with orders.

“Shaping as a career was the dream when I started, but it was mostly because I kept getting hurt surfing,” says Brad. “I’ve always had an unhealthy obsession with surfboards. You get a new one, and it’s pure fucking bliss, you know? I just wanted to turn that into a job.”

He’s still running a small operation, but things are moving in the right direction for Thrash Craft. Their last batch — 400 boards — vanished in two months.

“When we finished our last batch, we were like, fuck — it’s a good problem, but still, if our only issue is that we’re out of boards, we might as well go bigger. So we did 800 boards this time, and I swear to god, I’m never doing that again. It was just… too much.”

Thrash Craft’s main market is still the States, and their business model is, predictably, all DIY hustle.

“We just pack the van full of boards and hit every surf town in the States,” says Brad. “We show up with the orders, and on top of that, the van’s packed with extra boards. We call it a pop-up sale when we drop them off. We’re about to hit the road again from November to January, hitting every surf town we can. If you want a board, talk to your local dealer.”

Watch THRASHAHOLICS above.