Alaia Shaping in West Africa

The First Liberian Surfboard: Alaia Shaping in West Africa

by GG on MARCH 4, 2011

Surf Resource Network worked with the local surfers of Robertsport to help them create alaia surfboards using local materials and tools. We wanted to teach the locals they can make surfboards with what is available right here and we also used surfboards as a model to discuss small business concepts (such as cost, profits, and business plans) and other ideas for businesses that can be created. All of the tools and wood was purchased locally in Liberia and our task was made infinitely easier when our friends at Kurduroy.tv sent us over a copy of “Tom’s Creation Plantation & Alaia Shaping Tutorial” and a bunch of printed out step by step instructions on how to create the unique boards. The locals were more than amped watching Ryan Burch and Cyrus Sutton spin 360s and learning how to shape the rudimentary surfboards from Tom Wegner’s instructions in the shaping bay was very inspirational for the locals. After we watched the tutorial a few times we took to it.

The first challenge we encountered was finding the correct type of wood to use. We sourced out some planks in the main city of Monrovia and payed to have them cut, however we could not find any planks wide enough so we figured we would glue two boards together. When we picked up our order in a few days it was the incorrect wood; this wood was way heavier than the wood we ordered and anticipated on using, but we figured we would give it a shot, after all the ancient Hawaiians used to surf on 200lbs plus redwood boards. A few weeks later we were able to get our hands on a few planks of the correct wood, however, this wood was cut horribly uneven so it took quite a bit of planing and sanding to try and pair up two edges to glue together. So, we figured we would try and make some boards out of the two different types of wood and see what works and what doesn’t.

Once we had our planks glued together the next step was to create the board racks and the sanding blocks that we need to shape the boards.  We taught them how to make surfboard shaping/dingrepair racks with wood, buckets, and a bag of cement and we made a few sanding blocks of various shapes, sizes, and sand paper grits.

After we had our materials and tools in order the guys went to work drawing templates, sawing, sanding, planing, and fine tuning. It was a great process that involved several community members and the project emphasized team work and demonstrated how building a surfboard can be divided up into several jobs.

The grand finale came when the shape of the first board was all finished up and we branded the board with a brand that was made out of a bucket handle in the shape of Africa.

I was able to get the surfboard back to California in one piece and the board will be made available for auction in the near future as a very rare and valuable collectors item, so keep your eyes on surfresource.org for more information on this rare opportunity to own a piece of surf and Liberian history.