Sacred Craft Show: All About the Surfboard Shapers

“More than anything, Sacred Craft is a celebration of the surfboard—the philosophical icon of enduring youth. No other object stirs as much passion, as much stoke and as much power.”

This is the opening line for the Sacred Craft trade show on Saturday and Sunday at the otherwise vacant Rittenhouse Building on Pacific Avenue in downtown Santa Cruz.

The man of the hour is surfboard shaper extraordinaire, Doug Haut, with more than 40 years of experience shaping surfboards. Haut is a master of all types: short boards, long boards, hybrids, guns and wind surf boards. Few have done as many or done them as well as Haut.

However, there are quite a few local surfboard shapers who will be posting up in a collected push to keep surfboard shapers relevant and involved.

I remember the day when to buy a new surfboard, it required you go to Monterey Bay Fiberglass, buy the raw surfboard blank and then pay $100 to a local shaper. Then came a sit-down discussion about what type of surfboard you would like shaped. At this point, you would watch the shaper work his magic and carve your surfboard from a block of foam.

Fast forward to modern day, and you can carouse down 41st Avenue in Santa Cruz and come across thousands of surfboards in all shapes and sizes. With more than a dozen surf shops in Santa Cruz County, almost every top surfboard brand can be purchased.

I have always been a fan of the surfboard shaper; it’s a mystical relationship that now has long since been distanced from the surfer. I would liken the surfboard shaper to that of a Japanese sword master, where ninjas would go to get their custom blades created. It used to be that you had to know the shaper personally in order to get a board shaped. I really miss those days.

I make a call to Geoff Rashe, designer for Blackstar Surfboards, and he breaks the mold of a typical shaper stereotype.

“It’s about the art of shaping, and computer shaping is about the science of shaping,” Rashe says.

Rashe continues his passionate talk: “Where do they interact ultimately if you have the art and the science together?  It is ultimate, as a performance surfer you want staple computer shapes, but you want to keep getting hand shapes so you can get those magic boards, and then transfer it to a computer. It’s a combination.”

Scott Bass of Sacred Craft says he is stoked to bring the show to Santa Cruz.

"Santa Cruz has always been a place of innovation and unique ideologies in the surfboard realm," he says. "To be able to bring the show up here really does Santa Cruz the justice it deserves as a surf industry player.” 

I speak with Steve Coletta of Natural Curves Surfboards and ask him about Sacred Craft and why he is involved.

“Exposure is good for everybody, and this is certainly the most exposure we have ever received in our community.”

If you have ever surfed Pleasure Point, you would recognize the distinctive Coletta/Natural Curves logo.

“When I first started seeing Sacred Craft shows, I was, like, YEAH!" Coletta says. "And because I am a regional shaper, when I realized Sacred Craft was happening in Santa Cruz, I thought, oh yeah, I would present my boards.”  

He goes on to say, “Those of us custom shapers realize where our revenue stream is for the future, and we are doing our best to cultivate a custom clientele. The Sacred Craft show is the best venue for this, and it’s a real shot in the arm to the Santa Cruz surf industry to be recognized like this."

Nick Palandrani of Source Surfboards has been in the custom game since he stepped into the surf industry arena.

I call Nick, and he answers breathlessly.

“I am running around with my head cut off,” he laughs, as he is out the door to the Haut glassing shop. “Gotta finish my panels, sand, freaking pin line and sign boards, logo placements, every last-minute thing before they get glassed and polished.”

I can tell he is moving a million miles an hour. I ask Nick how many boards he is taking to Sacred Craft, and he says he has more than 20 boards for the show.

"If I can get over there to get it done—gotta run!”

Atta boy, Nick, that’s why you are on top of your game.

When I talk with Scott Bass, one name resoundingly comes up as a champion of Sacred Craft Santa Cruz—Sarah Broome of Rainbow Fins.

I ask Sarah why she wanted to bring Sacred Craft to Santa Cruz.

“There is a whole market of shapers that were being missed," she says, "from Santa Cruz to San Francisco, getting brands to know about Sacred Craft and the art of the surfboard.”  

I asked her how she sees Sacred Craft reengaging the surfer and the shaper.

“The first couple of shows, people had never seen a surfboard being shaped—the actual manufacturing of the surfboard, the rocker, the bottom detail ... how much work a shaper does—and people really had no clue," she says. "The whole craft of surfboard creation almost vanished.”

It’s no secret Sarah has passion for surfboards.

“It’s what I love about Sacred Craft, because they really educate the customer about why to make a certain choice as to why they buy a certain product.”

One of the many highlights of the two-day event is the live surfboard shaping room. Saturday will serve up five renowned shapers who will try to replicate the Doug Haut "Bump" model over the course of two hours. 

As Sacred Craft will show, computer shapes may make surfboards perfect—but hand shapes will always have a place in the true surfer’s heart.