In The Shaping Bay: Britt Merrick

[Music] I grew up here in Santa Barbara California right next to Rincon and I literally grew up in the surfboard factory my parents opened it up in around 1970 our world was so surfboards and Channel Islands I can remember just standing outside outside my dad cheeping indoor for hours and I would just watch him probably spent literally hundreds and hundreds of hours watching and at some point it just felt really natural to me like in my late teens I was like I just I want to do that imagine learning to shape without marek like he would come in and critique it and I mean it was like a little tiny curve on the rail I'd show me that and that's gonna catch water right there I was like I can't even see it but it was demanding but really good and I just feel super privileged now to have been able to shape in the room next to my dad for years and years his main thing for me was just learn how to use her tools learn how to you know make all the parts of the board right and then when it comes to the most important part of the board which is a rocker he's like I can put you right there you know he was working with Kelly at the time like that's what stuff was really advancing to rockers were getting really curved and my dad's mine and in my mind as well the rocker is everything you know nothing else matters on a board if the rocker isn't right and I think that's why we're so into high-performance surfboards because rocker is so critical it's one thing just to make a board the flat rocker and go down line that's cool but to bring everything together for super high-performance surfing this is something well this is our little family ranch here we live just behind Rincon and the factory is just over that hill right there and this women room I shape at home and the guys that I work with come here Dain lives just another Hill over and he comes over the time all the time we work on his boards here's his recent favorite one so this is Danes model the black and white and so it's just designed to be a really fast board and also paddle really well it's got a flat deck and a full rail which Dane likes 600 19 and and 8 and 2 and 7/16 I was danes first shaper when he was a Grom and I shaped for him for years when he was a teenager Danes just probably the most fun guy to work with for me as far as that level of surfing you know he just is on kind of a different level with being able to give feedback and discern what's going on he's tough he's really not picky in a bad way about boards but he knows what he wants to feel so he really pushes me and challenges [Music] welcome to Channel Islands factory this is our Factory in Carpinteria right next to ring con this is kind of the office here over here is one of our shaping machines lots of blanks here's some of our shaping rooms we have a lot of shaping rooms here but here's a couple of them this is one that my dad shaped in four years this is Simon Kyle he's one of our main shapers one of the best shapers you'll ever see in the world Simon shapes boards for a lot of our top team writers and he's been here for years and years and years it's one of our resident experts he knows everything about boards beginning and and teachers all the time worked really closely with my dad for years and I was one of my mentors that I look up to you know we have a long history at Channel Islands with my dad and my parents starting in 1969 and my dad's passion was always the surfers you know it wasn't about like him or his ego or his designs it was like what does Tom want to do on a wave what does Tom want to feel what does Kelly want to do what does Kelly want to feel and he always felt like his job was to allow the surfers to do exactly what they want to do in their mind so that was his passion all of that um doesn't only create the ethos but like that's gained knowledge that we all have and everyone that works at the factor we have that cumulative knowledge of working with so many great surfers guys and girls over the years so many great craftsmen to over the years have been a part of it so there's a lot of history in Channel Islands the biggest thing I learned in my shaping career and the most important thing my dad passed on to me are probably the same one is to be humble and be grateful what we get to do is a blessing and we love surfing so to make surfboards is like a gift honor and a privilege my dad taught me that I'm really grateful to work for a great company with great surfers like that humbles me that I get to do that you [Music]

Channel: SURFER

Views: 41,202

Rating: 4.9489794 out of 5

Keywords: surfer magazine, surfer, channel island surfboards, britt merrick, al merrick, channel islands

Id: OJxOTLoGkGU

Length: 5min 41sec (341 seconds)

Published: Fri May 19 2017