CHAIRMEN OF THE BOARD
The art of shaping a custom surfboard requires persistence: you must fail before you can begin to succeed.
“The surfer comes back and complains,” said Bill (Blinky) Hubina, who has spent decades pondering the perfect outline, the finely crafted tail.
“You look at the board and figure out what’s wrong. You make adjustments.”
Such is the traditional relationship between shaper and surfer, a cooperation that can span years of experimentation as both parties seek to make a board suited for a particular man, a particular style and, often, a particular spot.
Lately, Hubina has been chasing this gremlin with Mike Smith, a longtime Ventura surfer who specializes in noseriding. Smith requires a longboard that allows him to tuck into a wave and inch his way forward, perching at the very tip, arching his back in the classically soulful pose.
Smith hopes to display such artistry this weekend at the California Beach Festival Longboard Championships at Surfer’s Point in Ventura. He will be riding a longboard made specifically for him by Hubina.
“We’re on our fifth version,” said Smith, who will compete in the 40-49 age group. “It’s Blinky’s hand-shaped boards and my ideas.”
Surfers of the modern age more commonly buy their boards off the rack. Those who go to the trouble of custom-ordering do so not for the lure of contest trophies but for the pure joy of performance. They chase the perfect board just like they chase the perfect wave.
It is a pursuit Smith began as a youngster growing up in Solimar Beach, just north of Ventura. He started at age 7 by riding canvas mats but soon graduated to the solid boards locals used to leave laying on a patch of ice plant.
In the years that followed, he surfed spots from Tahiti to Vietnam, sharing waves with legends such as Mickey Dora, Greg Noll and Rabbit Kekai. He rode boards crafted by shapers Reynolds Yater and Tom Hale. He recalls riding in a van with Tom Morey, searching up and down the coast for waves.
“Morey told me, ‘You know, I’m going to be the first millionaire in surfing,’ ” Smith recalled.
Not long after, he watched as Morey made a million, and more, by inventing the bodyboard.
“I’ve been all over,” Smith said.
Hubina dates even farther, having started as a shaper at Morey’s Ventura surf shop in the early 1960s. After a brief stint in the military, he and a friend opened their own shop just as the shortboard era began.
Ten-foot boards were shrinking to eight feet, then smaller. Hubina found himself pumping out eight boards a day, making 6-footers that could jitterbug across the waves. He stuck with the business until 1979, when he sold it to Stan Fujii, who is still the proprietor at the Ventura Surf Shop.
In the years since, Hubina has run a bait shop and a restaurant. He has worked as a real estate appraiser. But he has never shaken the lure of fiberglass and resin from his system.
These days, he shapes about 50 boards a year, mostly for his sons and for friends. His pet project has been the “Mike Smith Noserider Model.”
He and Smith started by taking a well-known noseriding board and dissecting it, measuring the thickness, the outline (the shape when viewed from overhead) and the rocker (the upward curve in the board’s nose and tail).
Thus began an incremental experimentation.
The shaper starts by carving a foam blank. He planes the board to an exact thickness, usually between 2 1/2 and 4 inches at its thickest part. He makes the rails, the edges of the board, smooth and true. The curves must blend seamlessly.
With the first board shaped and fiberglassed, Smith provided field research, riding it and returning to Hubina with suggestions for the next board, and the next.
“We tried different rockers,” Smith said. “And one with a wider nose.”
Said Hubina: “You need a good surfer. A good surfer says it turns too stiff. It could be the fin or the template. You improve the shape.”
By shortening the tail, they added more curve to the back of the board and made it easier to turn. They also tinkered with the rocker--more upward curve makes the board maneuverable but can cause it to plow sluggishly through the water when moving straight ahead.
Most important, they puttered with the board’s nose which, not surprisingly, is a crucial aspect. Most noseriding models feature an elliptical concave on the underside. The indentation causes drag, which holds the nose afloat and allows the surfer to stay on the tip for precious seconds.
Noseriders take this sort of thing very seriously. Smith claims he recorded a 19.9-second noseride at a 1988 C Street contest.
Such is the hubris for which he and Hubina strive.
But there is much work to be done. Hubina is experimenting with foam cores of differing weights. A pound here, an inch there, can make all the difference in how a board performs.
“Shaping is funny,” Hubina said. “If I make a board today and next week Mike says make another one just like it, I can come close but I can’t do it exactly. Every board is slightly different.
“Some boards are a little bit of magic. Others don’t work at all.”
He most recently made a 10-foot square-tail for Smith, then shaped a 9-foot-8 pintail for himself, thinking the shorter length would suit him because he is smaller and weighs less.
But Smith tried the shorter board and liked it.
The process of trial and error, the calculated guesses and accidental discoveries, are the heart of the relationship between shaper and surfer. This cooperation is lacking when a surfer walks into a shop and buys a surfboard off the rack.
Saturday, Smith will paddle out to display the result of a personal partnership--part his physical skill, part Hubina’s handiwork.
“We work together,” he says.
Hubina added: “That’s what I like about making custom boards for my friends.”
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Surf’s Up
* What: California Beach Festival Longboard Championships.
* Where: Surfer’s Point at Seaside Park, Ventura.
* When: Heats begin at 6:30 a.m. Saturday and Sunday.
* Tickets: Admission to California Beach Festival is $6 for adults, $4 for seniors, kids 12 and under are free.
* Fast fact: Amateur surfers compete in various age divisions. There is an “old log” event for vintage surfboards.
