![]() Thomas met his partner Jake Bowrey while surfing a couple of years before they decided to take a leap and start working together. “Working and collaborating with someone, you end up with something better than what you would build yourself”–Thomas Bexon. He also is shaping twinnies, mini-simmons, performance quads, hulls and eggs. The key element for him is the shape of the board, particularly the rolled bottoms, and not the size what makes them stand out. In the last decades Thomas is confident and happy about how his longboards perform when it comes to logging, stall-turns trim and good old-fashioned nose riding. The mid 60's have been a big influence on Thomas Bexon in terms of surfboard making because a crazy progression in surfing history was happening then: Hayden, McTavish and Keyo, you name it. "A Certain Kind of Board to Perform a Certain Kind of Way for a Certain Kind of Waves" The certain kind of boards that people he admired, like Joel Tudor, where riding and could not find anywhere.Ĭlips from HANDCRAFTED: Thomas Bexon, short film by Mick Soiza. He started shaping his own boards because he wanted to create “a certain kind of board to perform a certain kind of way for a certain kind of waves”. He likes to shape surfboards that are challenging but still will help you progress in your surfing. Thomas Bexon has no doubt about it: he's not fond of ‘boring’ surfboards, as he calls them. In Bexon's words, if he won the lottery, he would still be doing what he does but instead of working 60 hours a week, he would work for 30 hours so he would be able to spend more time with his family: “It definitely puts a strain in your personal relationships because you have to spend so much time at work.” When you love your work so much drawing a separation between work from the enjoyment side of it, it’s a challenge. That is how his shaping career took off at his mom’s garage to what it is today. This kid had drive and passion, and when something feels that strong since being a youngster, it is pretty difficult to deny it. In his own words: "It’s more fun making surfboards than dealing with problems”. There was no doubt when it came to working on social working, the cafe or shaping boards: Thomas established himself as a full-time shaper. At the end, skipping work was the result when trying to shape the boards for friends and keen followers. While he was studying for Social Work and working as a chef in a local Maroochydore Café, he would be still making his own boards. Pic credit short film by Rare Visuals.Ī Youngster's Drive & Passion for Surfboards Handcrafting Can you imagine a 14 year-old boy shaping his own boards in his mom’s garage trying to make what he saw about boards on TV work? Well, he got a lot of experience like that and he considers himself lucky to have started at such a young age building and learning the basics of surfboards. The first 20 surfboards that he made were done in his mother’s garage. This curious and passionate kid is Thomas Bexon. He conquered his mom’s garage and would try to do what he saw on surfing videos hoping that the resulted board would actually work …, and it did! After some years as a surfer he felt the need to explore if he was capable of making the surfboards he used to watch in surfing movies and such. He felt passionate about surfing, yes, but his heart and curiosity was strongly drawn by surfboard handcrafting. That was when he started really stepping all the time and, surely, surfing kicked right away. They were able to spend even more time together when the boy moved to Sunshine Coast when he was about 13/14 years old. They both would go together to the Gold Coast for surfing and spend time together. ![]() ![]() There was a 12 year-old Australian young boy who liked to spend school holidays and weekend trips with his uncle. ![]()
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