If a shaper can't surf, can they shape??
A question I've always thought about. Long before I started shaping, I held this simple belief: if you can’t actually do the thing, then how could you possibly teach it? How could you coach someone to play tennis if your own technique falls apart? (I surely couldn't) How do you explain timing, rhythm, feel—if you’ve never truly felt it yourself?
Surfboard shaping is no different.
Surfing isn’t just a sport; it’s a sensation. It’s weight shifts, micro-adjustments, instinct, and flow. And a surfboard is the tool that translates all of that. So for me, the idea of designing something that dictates another surfer’s experience—without understanding that experience firsthand—never made sense.
When I eventually stepped into the shaping bay after years of competing and surfing for a living, everything clicked. Every rail, every curve, every ounce of foam carried the memory of thousands of waves ridden. I wasn’t just shaping what looked right—I was shaping what felt right.
That connection matters.
It’s why boards built by surfers often have a certain soul to them. Not because of mystique or marketing, but because the person making it understands the small things: where a board needs forgiveness, where it needs bite, and how subtle changes can transform a board from being good to great.
That’s not to say someone who didn’t grow up surfing couldn’t learn to shape—but they’ll always be missing that intrinsic patient-to-surgeon understanding of how a board behaves under your feet, in real conditions, with real consequences.
At Campbell Designed, this belief sits at the core of everything we build. Our Exo Flex Technology came from lived experience—knowing what surfers want to feel under their feet, what we wanted to feel under our feet and figuring out how to engineer that feeling into every model & every board.
So… can you shape if you can’t surf?
Maybe.
But can you shape great boards?
Can you shape boards that make someone surf their absolute best?
Can you shape boards that respond, accelerate, and flow in ways you only understand after tens of thousands of hours in the water & in the bay?
That’s a harder question to answer.
And for me, the ocean has always been a blank canvas & will forever continue to be one for surfers of the world to create.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKqS32XLx6c
See you in the line up...
