This was a great experience, a labor of love…

Sourced a blank with sufficient volume & width. The GA Surfboards owner Giezi has got a great board-making act and kindly opened his factory door to me so I could make one for myself. Had to dig deep as there was a lot of planer work to do. It felt like starting all over again… it was great!

Nose lift, tail lift, bit more here, little more there… and then the required rocker arrived. A heap of foam on the floor and lots of time to potter, drift and get lost in the moment of creating. Such a buzz to find myself in a country surfboard factory deep in rural Nicaragua. You can hear Howler monkeys calling, their booming ‘hoo-hoo-hoo’ echoing through the leafy treetops. Chickens walking in and out the factory, kids curious to check the Gringo out. Women knead great rolls of dough, forming their bread and tortillas with the same gusto I used on the blank. And if this rural paradise wasn’t enough – there just happen to be world class waves just down the road. No surprise that Nicaragua is one of the fastest-growing tourist meccas in the last 10 years… the secret is out. She’s a natural jewel.

I decided to shape myself a Freshfish as mine has seen better days and it is the board I ride more than any other. Cutting out the planshape and feeling my way around the shaping bay… it’s going to be 5ft10 x 24 x 2 7/8 with the ‘Freak’ bottom and rails. And that is what, exactly? Single to double concave deep-beveled vee-like hull, chine rails. Foiled profile deep fishtail.

The story of my Nicaraguan Freshfish unfolds…. I will return with the next installment and tell you the shaper’s tale…right up to the day it shall be born to be barrelled.