Until recently, I’d not come across the term shaper. It was through Vania Francesca, a film photographer whose work I follow, that I first heard the term. Vania, along with Eric J, run a weekly Podcast dedicated to film photography called All Through a Lens which you can listen to here. Eric enjoys shooting on vintage cameras, frequently large format, while Vania’s usually armed with a Nikonos (a waterproof film camera often used for underwater photography) shooting surfing events. It was while chatting about surfing that she mentioned shapers – the revered artisans of the surfing culture who make surfboards by hand.
A while ago I photographed some surfers at Croyde Bay in Devon with one of my film cameras (see image below) and after spending a day there and chatting to some of them I went in search of Shapers in the South West…
I came across Lignum Surfboards in Devon. They build high performance, bespoke, ecologically sound, hollow wooden surfboards. Most boards are made from polyurethane or polystyrene foam – so not that ecologically friendly.
Last year, a short film was made about Lignum by Heist Films (a collaborative project to create films for innovative and daring brands) called Somewhere South.
We follow the journey of Harry Robinson and Alen Van Rooyen as they create a balance between manmade shapes and organic materials on the South Devonshire coastline.
Their philosophy is that ‘every board can carve its own path when crafted with passion and soul.’
https://www.facebook.com/lignum.surf/