Tommy Maus (Shaper)

My start in the manufacture of surfboards began as a sander in Santa Cruz, California in 1970. I worked for Overlin Surfboards and Doug Haut Surfboards at that time. I did not really get my start as a shaper until about 1977 after re-locating to Central Florida. There, I was a production shaper for Quiet Surfboards and later Natural Art Surfboards. These companies had several shapers working there during the busy seasons, so I also sanded and glossed surfboards for many years while maintaining my shaping skills.

Later around 1993, I was shaping full-time at Natural Art and R&D Surf (Ricky Carroll’s factory) when a friend started Driftwood Surfboards. Rob Sullivan asked me to do all of his shaping for the East Coast and California. We were doing pretty well with Driftwood Surfboards up until about 1996. That is when I met Donald Takayama.

Donald was looking for someone to help him with the shaping in California and produce his surfboards in Florida for the East Coast market. That’s when my shaper career really started as you might imagine. Donald really opened my eyes to design and how surfboards were supposed to be shaped.

I would fly to Oceanside four or five times a year to train with Donald on all the different models that he was producing at the time and go back to Florida and build the surfboards there at Ricky Carroll’s factory. Then back to Oceanside for more training. That is until 2002 when Donald suggested that my partner, laminator Wayne Hoshizaki, and myself take over the day to day operating of the Hawaiian Pro Designs factory in Oceanside.

At that time, I re-located to California and worked with Donald for ten years up until his untimely passing. As we all know, he was a perfectionist, and there was only one way to shape, his way, which I was more than ready to learn. So we worked together for sixteen years honing my skills and gaining as much knowledge of Donald’s designs as I could while also running the business side everyday.

Of course, Donald Takayama is greatly missed by us all, but we felt that he would want us to carry on and continue to produce the beautiful surfboards that bear his name, which we will do hopefully for a long time to come.

Aloha,

Tommy Maus