How many surfboards need to shaped by an individual before they are considered having credibility?

I find it interesting that numbers seem to be a marker of sorts…. The question is often asked “ how many boards have you shaped?” If I’m asked my immediate thought is ‘who cares’. Honestly I don’t know how many boards I’ve shaped, certainly thousands more than some and thousands less than others.

On a forum thread recently there has been dialogue on shaping a board in X number of minutes… and again my thoughts are ‘who cares?’ I thought it interesting that no one commented on the jewels of knowledge that were in a shaping video that got the “shaping a board in so many minutes” thread going. One was getting the stringer clean with a nice even curve and the other was getting the outline clean without any bumps or flat spots. I’ll leave the explanation on why that’s important for my next ‘so you want to make a surfboard post’.

On another forum thread there was the question “should you buy a surfboard shaped buy a guy that doesn’t surf or… more specifically, has never surfed.” Well guess what? People do it all the time by the container loads. Do you think that the boards being made in China and Thailand are shaped by people that surf… or for that matter, have ever surfed?

Back to the numbers game. If cleaning up a machined shaped blank is considered shaping a surfboard… which it seems is by some… then how many surfboards are being shaped or have been shaped by the people in China and Thailand day in and day out over the past 2, 3, 4, 6 or more years? Think in the tens of thousands upon thousands. So what does it matter how many surfboards you’ve shaped when there are guys that have done tens of thousands more and probably have never surfed?

Just a couple thoughts between surf sessions.

D.R.