Shaping Legendary Surfboards
by Elisabeth Deffner
Ankle
deep in foam planed from the surface of a 7-foot plank at the Becker
Surf factory in Hermosa Beach, Calif. (pop. 18,566), Jose Barahona, 41,
pulls a dust mask from his face and runs his hand along the curves of a
board being shaped to ride the ocean waves.
Sculpting a surfboard's
contours is almost instinctual for Barahona, who has hand-shaped some
40,000 boards since he began working at the factory 27 years ago. “As
you go, everything falls into place,” he says, describing the shaping
process that he has refined into a 10-minute job.
Few manufacturers hand-shape surfboards anymore, but the craftsmen at
Becker Surf always have. “We're kind of purists,” says CEO Dave
Hollander, 51, who started the company with two fellow surfers.
One of the nation's oldest surfboard manufacturers, Becker Surf got its
start in 1980 when Hollander, Steve Mangiagli and Phil Becker each
invested $8,000, formed a partnership and expanded Rick Surfboards, a
Hermosa Beach business that Becker and Mangiagli had bought in 1975.
Working as a team, Becker shaped the boards, Mangiagli coated them with
waterproof fiberglass and Hollander painted them with spectacular
designs.
Today, the Becker Surf factory employs 10 craftsmen who produce about
4,000 surfboards each year. The weeklong manufacturing process begins
with Barahona—the company's master shaper since Becker, 67, retired two
years ago—who cuts foam planks with a jigsaw and then contours the
boards with an electric planer and other hand tools. After shaping, the
boards are painted, covered with fiberglass and sanded satin smooth
before they receive a gloss coat of resin for protection against the
sun, surf and sand.
Finished boards are shipped to customers around the world and sold at
six Becker Surf & Sport stores in Southern California, alongside
beachwear and other surfing gear. The company's standard-size
surfboards range from a 5-and-a-half-foot shortboard to a 10-foot
longboard, which sell for $450 and $650, respectively.
While surfboards account for only 10 percent of Becker's $15 million in
annual sales, they are an essential—and celebrated—part of the
company's identity.
About 30 percent of Becker's surfboards are custom-ordered by people
who pay $20 to have a board built to their specifications. Customers
can even watch their board being shaped, an experience Hollander
compares to “being there when your child was born.”
Six of the 10 craftsmen who work in Becker's 2,000-square-foot factory
have been with the company for a decade or more. Their passion and
expertise are valued by a company that prides itself on manufacturing
boards of consistent quality, from high-performance shortboards to
nostalgic longboards, like the ones favored by surfer Roger Hoyt.
“They really make you feel like you're a surf star,” says Hoyt, 53, who
has bought about 90 Becker boards through the years.
Hoyt, who purchased his first surfboard shaped by Phil Becker in the
1970s, has watched the sport evolve since he rode his first wave at age
12. Despite industry trends, the desire to build a better board endures
at Becker Surf, where catering to surfing purists remains a
legendary—and enjoyable—labor of love.
“It's like I've never really had a job,” says Mangiagli, 55.
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