Shaper Profile. ROGER HINDS
ROGER HINDS IS A HUMBLE MASTER OF HIS CRAFT WHO BELIEVES EVERY SURFBOARD SHAPED IS A CHANCE TO LEARN SOMETHING NEW.
In your words, who is Roger Hinds? Roger Hinds is a guy who wanted to surf his whole life from a young age & as it turns out I’m doing it. My goal in life is to make the highest quality custom surfboard for every customer that they can paddle, ride & enjoy. How did you get into board building? Out of necessity of not having the money to buy a new surfboard, but being intrigued with the craft of building one, I would strip down longboards, which were plentiful, on the side of my mom’s house during the 1968 transition era & shape them into shorter boards. They were very crude at best because everything was trial & error & I had to learn on my own.
“I have shaped & glassed over 33,000 surfboards to date.” — Roger Hinds
Where do you see board building going in the future? The entry level “fashion” surfers will continue to buy Soft Tops & maybe an upgrade to NSP but as this class matures, and those who stick with the sport, will move into the stage of wanting something that will actually improve their surfing. It will be this group and
How many boards have you shaped?
those in the know who will gravitate to better designs. This is what it
I have shaped & glassed over 33,000 surfboards to date.
will take to move to the next level in one’s surfing evolution.
What type of people come to you asking to have a surfboard made?
Who are some of the board builders who inspired you or that you
It’s kind of all over the place, I make everything from a 5’6” shortboard
currently look up to?
to a 12’ glider to a board to surf outer reefs on. The people who come to
Don Koplien & Kent Smith, early Lighting Bolt guys, because they
me want a custom surfboard made just for them & the waves they ride.
did everything from start to finish of the highest quality with no ego. I still rely on Kent Smith’s advice 50 years later. I look up to Matt &
What keeps you motivated to keep designing and building
Margaret Calvani at Bing Surfboards because their quality stands
surfboards?
alone & they run a very successful business in conjunction with Bing
Tomorrow I am going to build a better surfboard than today. I’m
Copeland who I am a big fan of. Randy Rarick because he has been
never static, I’m always looking forward, looking to build a better
a great mentor of mine for a lifetime & has been in the surf industry
constructed, riding surfboard.
since the beginning & always gives me sound advice.
Where do you mostly surf? Where is your favorite place to surf?
Is it the surfer, the board, or the wave? All are equal in my eyes,
I mostly surf in Huntington or San Clemente. My favorite place by far is
also using my NVS fins is the 4th component. The fins come with
Sunset Beach Hawaii.
my templates & in my opinion, they are the best fins on the market & come with every one of my Surftech models. All 4 of these flow
What do you find appealing about working with Surftech? I can only build 100 boards per year by myself from start to finish. I’m a big fan of EPS/epoxy constructed surfboards. In my opinion, Surftech has the highest quality in that type of construction so it was easy to partner with them so more people could get my EPS surfboards worldwide with quality construction.
together to become one.
