studying under the master

I recently had a chance to attend a surfboard design class / seminar under the leadership of longtime shaper Bill Thrailkill. Bill has shaped for Velzy (1960), and later shaped for Challenger, Hobie, Hansen, Surf Systems, Surfboards Hawaii, and also as Thrailkill Surfboards. He also did some contract shaping for Lightning Bolt.

The seminar was held at the Surfing Heritage Foundation in San Clemente, which houses a museum of 100 years of surfboard history.

In attendance were about 18 serious board-builders, most of them backyard shapers like myself, and one other wood-board builder besides myself.