Shaping a future

The first book I ever made was about surfboard shaper Alan Macbride (Mac), which I shot, printed, edited, designed and bound myself. I had somehow managed to spend a week for ‘work experience’ with Mac and his business partner Andy Reed at their surfboard factory and shop in Newquay when I was 14 (a week which consisted of staying in a grotty back packers, eating chips, ‘testing’ surfboards in the morning, helping out and sweeping up in the afternoons). When I started making photos at art college in Bristol a few years later I went back to photograph them.

Andy who ran the shop and business was very kind to me and arranged for me spend a couple of days documenting Mac in the shaping room. Mac seemed less interested in the idea, but he tolerated my being there and was quietly flattered in a grumpy sort of way I think. I hand printed each photo in the darkroom and assembled two copies of the book - one for me and one for them. I found my copy along with contact sheets and test prints recently when moving house and had to wonder what happen to those guys.

Surfboard shaping, surfing and the culture that surrounds it has been a constant source of wonder for me and a subject I never get tired of.