Great
surfboard shapers from the Southern California
area.
Wayne
Okamoto
How many boards have
you shaped over the years?
(Laughing) It never really occurred to me
to count. Let’s just say it’s
over a few hundred. (now really laughing)
Every board always meant something though
– I never became jaded. It didn’t
matter who it was for or how many I had shaped
before that – every board got my heart
and soul.
I
have shaped tens of thousands of boards,
I'm just starting to evolve into my own.
I mean that in the sense that after ghost
shaping for some of the biggest names in
our industry from various parts of the world.....
Mike
Zippi has broken the fish down to a science.
What was once thought of as a board fad is
now being turned into a functional high performance
board. What used to be a fat bellied bottom,
with cumbersome rails, and unnecessarily deep
swallow tail, Zippi has honed into a speedy
wave magnet. These features allow his fish
to fill a niche within the board market for
a high performance.....
El Porto parking lot, South end… 8 a.m.
the dawn patrol has already been out and is
now headed for work, school, elsewhere. Parking
spaces are opening up. Cars and trucks face
the line-up, their decaled ass-ends stake
claim to surf turf... 'O'Neil', 'Heal the
Bay', a 'Tyler' decal on one, two, three,
trucks in a row. Skip one, empty spot, another
Tyler decal.......
Stoked. That,s the best word to describe Mark
Brog. As soon as you walk through the door
of his surf shop, Soul Performance, in Redondo
Beach, he is all smiles and instantly strikes
up an enthusiastic conversation......
The corn on the cob logo is a familiar sight
in the south bay. It is synonymous to the
meaning of a great surfboard - a board that
was made with extreme care and effort. Dan
Cobley is the shaper of these magic boards
and anyone who has ridden one of his boards
can attest to the fact that he sure has the
right touch.......
In February I had the opportunity to interview
Pat while watching him gulp down a burrito.
Pat put his life into precise chronological
order. By the time it was over not only did
I have a great respect for him but was also
exhausted from taking lengthy notes (he was
making sure I got it all)........
We realize that Ben is not a "South Bay
Shaper" but his influence on modern surfing
has affected all of us. His major contributions
to shaping are such things as the ever so
popular swallow tail, the "stinger"
and the modern longboard. Considering his
contribution we felt it necessary to do it......
It’s hot. It’s California, The
South Bay, Marina Del Rey, we’re sitting
in an outdoor work area in the parking lot
outside Scott’s shop. A lunch table,
lawn chairs, broken templates, the refrigerator
kicks on, rattling the discarded blanks stacked
against it, some shaped, some partially shaped,
none are glassed, various shades of sun stained
brown-yellow, all rejects......
We
at Swellmagnet.com take great pride in our site
and will do our best to keep all off the surf
reports and live surf cameras up and running around
the clock.
We now boast a daily, dawn patrol, Surf report
for Malibu as well as a live, streaming Malibu
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for Sunset as well as a live, streaming Sunset
surf camera, a daily, dawn patrol Surf report
for Venice Beach Breakwater as well as a live,
streaming Venice Beach Breakwater surf camera,
a daily, dawn patrol Surf report for Santa Monica
Beach as well as a, live, streaming Santa Monica
Beach surf camera, a daily, dawn patrol Surf report
for El Porto Beach as well as a live, streaming
El Porto Beach surf camera, dawn patrol Surf report
for Manhattan Beach as well as a live, streaming
Manhattan Beach surf camera, dawn patrol Surf
report for Torrance Beach as well as a live, streaming
Torrance Beach surf camera, dawn patrol Surf report
for Huntington Beach well as a live, streaming
Huntington Beach surf camera and a dawn patrol
Surf report for Huntington Beach well as a live,
streaming Huntington Beach surf camera. Lastly
we have free surf reports from both Manzanillo
Bay Inn in Troncones, Mexico and from Punta Roca,
El Savador courtesy of adventuresurftours.com.
If you know of any possible locations to put up
new surf cameras there is 150.00 finders fee for
you! Just hit us up with an
email.
