th a love of surfing and a desire to craft, Mike Becker used his mechanical and on abilities to create the Natures Shapes label when he was sixteen. The name company, Natures Shapes, came naturally to him when he was thinking about he boards should be created, “Each board should be flawless and become part nature, or one of nature’s shapes,” explains Mike when asked how he came up h the name. While the company has grown, the same principals and ideas have anged. Each employee has a common goal; build the best surfboards using the best materials and without cutting any corners.
or, Jeff Schad, was particularly interested in Natures Shapes vintage restorations. overies:
ne eras have so much going for them that ds do not. They are beautiful, elegant and enduring d craftsmanship. Boards built from the late 1950’s ties were individually handcrafted and built to last, as s trend of machine-made, high volume production. oday’s processes much has been lost in the way of s-artist. Today the act of board building is so refined d makers with some of the deepest experience have uilding methods in favor of making more boards, but with less human touch and artistry).
o those who love creative and functional building processes ala old time board builders to see d Fawess of Natures Shapes Surfboards keeping the tradition alive.
s
Mike and Ed are artists in the true sense of the word. The duo has been restoring classic and vintage surfboards for well over ten years, and they perform about eight to ten restorations a year. Certain boards from past eras can fetch upwards of $50,000 in mint original condition, but most boards that survived this long have suffered at the hands of the elements and simple neglect. That is where Mike and Ed come in. They don’t do it for the money, because a restored classic will be worth a small fraction of an original mint counterpart; they do it for the love. Surfers and non surfers alike are drawn to the special a finished work: pigmented resin tinting, wooden stringers and tailblocks, polished glass or ogos that are redrawn or rescreened to match the original, era-specific logo (Ed’s knowledge of
11
www.artizenmagazine.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57