There are many surf board builders in the world with varying degrees of talent and attitude. Some have international credentials, some have local credentials and others just love to shape as a hobby. To some it’s a business and others a love. In the case of Allan Gibbons you have a board builder with some of each. More of a humble hobby shaper at heart, and a board builder who has never minded being behind the scenes. Allan has a resume as impressive as any in the business. He was one of the top shapers for Al Merrick and Channel Islands for years. Building every type of surfboard for the pro or amateur at a very high level or production. With his own surfboards he does privately, he enjoys experimenting with board design as much as anyone. Not just a great board builder, but also a surfer with vast experience who is able to use that experience in his craft. We decided to ask Allan a few questions we thought might be interesting to those surfers unfamiliar with him.

1. How long have you been building surfboards?

There was an article in Surfer, probably ‘73 or so, about shaping, with beautiful black and white images of a side-lit shaped blank, floating in black. Really elegant! Those images made me want to learn how to shape I finally actually got to it around 1975.

2. Where did you get your start?

In my parents’ garage- in Santa Barbara.

3. When did you start surfing?

1972-ish- Eastside Oahu

4. Who were your early influences in surfing

The Carvalhos (eastside boys) Michael Ho, Buzzy Kerbox, Lopez, Hakman (Hawaii), and all the anonymous rippers in Hawaii.

In Santa Barbara it was Pugsley, Ronnie Wolfe, Guy Wright, Davey Smith, (a very young ) Tom Curren, all the old-school the SB style guys.

5. Who were your early influences in board building?

Early 70’s, Bruce Fowler, Marc Andreini, Tim Bowler, Rennie Yater, John Bradbury, George Greenough, the Wilderness crew.

Mid-late 70’s, Bill Barnfield, Tom Parrish, Brewer, Reno Abellira.

From the early 80’s, on into the 90’s: MR, Robin Prodonavich, Steve Lis, Al Merrick, Simon Anderson, Spider Murphy, Nev, Malcolm Campbell, Allan Byrne.

6. Who would you say influences what you do now or are you mostly into your own innovation at this point.

Mostly into my own stuff, but I keep my eyes open to whatever’s going on. I have my unusual boards, but also some straight thrusters for those days when I don’t feel like experimenting.

7. How did you become involved with Al Merrick and what was your position there?

For a while in the 70’s I was the CI ding repair kid (pick up, drop off) and was on the skate team for a bit. I also did some airbrushing- usually picking up the stuff that the late, great, Jack Meyer didn’t want to do.

Moved back to Hawaii for a while, and then spent some time in the Northwest, and then I moved back to SB in the mid-80’s and started doing production shaping for CI. Up to that point, I’d just built boards for myself and a few friends- it was never my intention to be a “Shaper” (as a job) , but, it was a steady gig at CI, so…I wound up shaping more boards the first month than I had in the ten years prior!

8. How many boards would you say you have shaped over your career. How many would you say you shaped while working for Al Merrick?

Lots. And lots.

9. Do you see the benefit of a machine for your average shaper? Is there a real benefit for the production shapers such as Merrick and Rusty.

There’s definitely a benefit for production shaping, for both volume and for consistency. For my own boards, though, I still really enjoy the process of thinking about , planshaping, cutting out with a handsaw, planing and finishing one-off shapes.

10. What direction do you see surf board design going at this point with custom builders. Do you feel that direction will be different than the productions builders.

The big production labels make boards that work well for a lot of people in a lot of different conditions. And then there’re the regional variations- small outfits building boards tuned for a particular area and its crew, but basically making versions of mainstream boards.

Its hard to say about customs. When I think “custom”, I think of something unique- something that you can’t get off the rack- not just tailored to fit, but built from the ground up with a particular feel in mind. That takes some experience on the part of both the shaper and the surfer, and a willingness to take a risk.

11. Do you still see the thruster being refined and keeping it’s place as the state of the art for performance surfing?

Thrusters work amazingly well. “Performance”, though, is a little bit broad. If its 6 foot and hollow, for sure. Or even 2 foot and junky beachbreak with some punchy sections. But if its knee-high mush, and your girlfriend wants to go surfing, a nice basic longboard might be the best performer. Basically, its whatever is the best tool for the job, whether its a quad or a lazor-zap or a fish or long board.

12. What other designs are you working on or do you see that might have potential to become the next state of the art or at least a close second.

For a few years I thought there’d be (and I worked towards) a big change in materials. I’m not sure its really panned out, though. At the end of the day, its pretty hard to beat PU/PE for performance, low cost, ease of manufacture, flexibility (in variation) of shapes, and for finish.

Of course, It could just be the styrene addiction talking.

As far as shapes, well, I have a few things going on, mostly using controlled flex and exotic materials. Maybe not real mainstream, though.

13. What do you think of some of the retro designs. Things like the mini Simmons, old school fish, twin fins or retro singles?

I’m all for looking at, and updating, designs from the past. Its fun to haul out an old board and give it a try. You can find its virtues, but usually pretty quickly find its limitations, too. The pretty glass jobs are nice!

14. Had that added to or taken away from modern board design?

It shows that volume isn’t the enemy (a bad rocker is).

15. What things in board building are holding your interest more than others at the moment?

Fins, flex, rocker, bottom contour, outlines, rails, thickness flow…

16. Are there surfers out there who will become as influential as guys like M.R. with his twin fin or Kelly with his skinny little boards. Or maybe Curren with the Fireball a few years ago?

Maybe. Again, hard to say. When things get locked-up and stale, something new can really seem revolutionary- the shortboard, the twin-fin, quads, the thruster. But then it cycled back on itself to the longboard…the twin fin…quads… There’s a lot of really good surfing going on, on a lot of different types of boards. Its a real smorgasbord (no pun) right now.

17. Desert island question: Ginger, Mary Ann or your favorite board shape.

When you see a fork in the road, take it….but if I had to choose one of the above…that’s a tough one. I guess it would depend on whether the desert island had good surf or not. If not, MaryAnn!

18. Who do you think have been the three most influential shapers of the last 50 years.

I don’t know, influential as far as venturing into new territory, I’d say…Pat Curren, Dick Brewer, Simon Anderson.

19. Who do you think have been the three most influential surfers of the last 50 years.

Lopez, Curren, Slater. There’re obviously some real pioneers prior to ‘70, and all sorts of new guys, but I’ll stick with what i know.

20. Do you want to add anything?

Nope