Rusty's right hand man, Rick Hamon, has been shaping with Rusty since pretty much the beginning. Learn a bit more about this master craftsman...
Click the image below to liston to Rick talk about his time as a shaper with Rusty Surfboards and watch a video clip of him shaping.
Date of Birth: July 27th, 1950
Home Town: Corpus Christi, Texas
Started Surfing: 1964
Started Shaping: 1966
Shaping with Rusty Since: 1988
Approx. # of Boards Shaped: 40,000+
Best Surf Trip: Mainland Mexico - 1969
Stance: Regular Foot
Hobbies: Mountain Biking, Machine Shop, Old Cars and Motorcycles
Favorite Type of Board to Shape: Anything but a six channel
Least Favorite Board to Shape: A six channel
Favorite Boards from the Past: Eggs
Favorite Wave in the World: A warm right point
Travels: Mainland Mexico, Central America, Carribean, Hawaii, Fiji, Japan
Future Travel Plans: Yes
Something Interesting: Perfecting the art of crashing on a mountain bike
Team Riders Shaped For: Jeff Booth, Shane Powell, Todd Chesser, Taylor Knox, Kalani Robb, Pat O’Connell, Hobgoods, Chris Ward, Flea, Kawika Stillwell, Kalani Chapman, Marlon Gerber, Nate Yeomans, and what’s his name...
"When I was a kid on the Gulf Coast of Texas the only real spots that you could surf were next to piers because the piers were the only places where the sand would form sand bars in the right way to surf. Unfortunately, the fisherman pretty much claimed the piers and the closer you would get the more angry they would get. So they started getting in the habit of casting at us; some of 'em would just throw led, some would throw led with hooks on it. Occasionally someone would get hit and and tension built up. One of the ways we would combat it is we devised a modification to the fin on our long boards. Essentially, we shaped a notch on the leading edge of the fin and foiled it really, really sharp so that as your riding the wave if you ran over a fishing line it would eventually cut the line and it worked pretty good! Usually when you run over a line you would hear it go 'bzzzzzz' and eventually it would go silent (when the line was cut). It took the fishermen a while to catch on and eventually they stopped casting at us and we stopped cutting their lines."
- Rick Hamon
Rick Hamon Hand Shaping
Ray Hamon (Rick's Son) Machine Shaping
This is the burning question that seems to be firing up board builders world wide; here is what Rusty and a few of our other shapers had to say...
"As the body wears out the romance with the planer cools off. It's really the concept that matters; master your tools and bring good ideas to life. Computers definitely bring consistency to the equation."
-Rusty
"The Computer is just another tool, but, I think something is lost if someone has no hand shaping experience."
-Rick Hamon
"One completes the other- you can't design a board on the computer if you can't hand shape one."
-Pedro Battaglin
"Consistency is a plus. Great for keeping track of subtle design changes."
- Hoy Runnels
"At first I was down on computer shaping. I know that it is just another tool, but, it just isn't shaping. But, I guess maybe it has redefined what shaping is, for better or for worse? I don't know. I do know that shapers should be able to hand shape anything and do a good job on it, or you are not a shaper."
-Michael Russo
Photos: Brody
For the second year in a row, the Sacred Craft event has given the surfboard consumers a chance to directly interact with their shapers. A plethora of surfboard history, technology and craftsmanship could be seen at the event. Archived boards from the past were dusted off and crazy contraptions of the future were brought to life...
The Rusty booth was stacked with a full line up of boards and Rusty, himself, was in attendance along with several other R Dot Artisans such as Rick Hamon and Michael Russo. Check out the full story and photo feature on Surfline.com.
Photo: Brody
