National Geographic 08.2019

EXPLORE | TOOL KIT

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TERRY MARTIN CARVED HIS FIRST SURFBOARD at age 14, and tens of

thousands more during the next 60 years. That put him in the elite

ranks of the board artisans known as shapers (Surfing Magazine rec-

ognized just 720 of them in the past 100 years). Since Martin’s death in

2012, his son Josh, bottom right, has carried on the tradition. Today’s

shapers craft surfboards with modern materials such as polyurethane

foam or with wood such as the balsa and coast redwood (the stripe)

seen here. Josh fashions boards for world-class competitive surfers,

using tools that he and his dad once shared. —PATRICIA EDMONDS

1. Power planer
   A shaper’s primary tool,
   this planer creates the
   board’s tapered silhouette
   and “rocker,” the curve that
   makes nose and tail slightly
   higher than the middle.


2. Outline template
   A wooden pattern that
   preserves a custom board
   or fin design so a shaper
   can produce it again.


3. Calipers
   To measure the thickness
   of boards and the fins that
   go on their undersides.


4. Sanding block
   Terry Martin smoothed so
   many surfboards with this
   hand-sanding tool that
   his fingers wore marks in
   its balsa wood handle.


5. Surform tool
   Aka surface-forming tool,
   its graterlike metal face
   levels wood or foam.


6. Worktable, resin
   Once carved, boards are
   coated with waterproof
   resin; the plywood catches
   drips, like this aqua-tinted
   resin from a custom board.


7. Ketchup bottle
   Josh Martin says it’s ideal
   “for squirting glue on
   wood like you’d squirt
   ketchup on a hot dog.”


8. Power sander
   A power sander quickly
   smooths and flattens large
   areas on longer boards.


9. Rail contour templates
   Cutouts record the shape
   at the midpoint on a
   board’s edge, as a refer-
   ence to create the
   customer’s next board.


10. Shaper’s square
    For marking board width
    and fin placement points,
    to be sure the halves of
    the board are symmetrical.


11. Tongue depressors
    To mix and apply epoxies,
    pigments, and glues.


12. Block plane
    A plane fine-shapes wood
    boards and shaves the
    stringer (the band of wood
    down a board’s center) so
    it’s level with the surface.

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