About

LoveMachine is as much an experiment in deepening the communication between shaper and surfer as it is a surfboard brand. For the last 30 years the CNC machine has been the overwhelmingly dominant tool in surfboard shaping, surpassing hand shaping decades ago. The thing that didn't follow in that shift was the communication from the industry to the surfers that purchased their boards; the introduction of the machine en masse was generally looked down as cheapening a soulful product. Machine shaping became a bit of a dirty secret and the stigma created only pushed its use farther into the background as the resurgence of 'retro' and 'craft' surfboards surged in the early 2000's. Many new and young shapers have built a healthy career atop CNC-shaped boards while holding a planer in their photos.

As people have come through my shop over the last decade its a chat I have constantly; proud surfers tell me about how they only choose to support hand shapers and list off their 'fully hand shaped' quiver. On average 7 out of 10 boards listed are machine shaped, but advertised directly or indirectly as hand-shaped. 'Hand built', 'hand crafted', 'hand made' - all of these for the last 30 years have meant CNC shaped. By avoiding the complete conversation, shapers and marketers regularly imply a sort of 'purity' without addressing the elephant in the room.

My hope is that we can help change that. I spent too many years trying to lift the veil without trying to actively change the problem. Not only can we lift the veil, but we can highlight exactly whats so good about the machine; If it was good enough to shift an entire industry in the early 90's, why can't we talk about it, share it openly and actually get excited about it? If we can de-stigmatize it and give it respect we can also do justice to legitimately hand shaped boards and what they symbolize in our culture - In my opinion all of this is worth working towards, and LoveMachine is my step in a new direction.