I spent most of last Thursday morning watching Josh shaping my new board. From his hands sprang an amazing Long Fish Simmons, mixing the best elements of the Skip Frye design with some of his own design touches. She looks great and all the details make sense – I’m sure it’s a keeper!

We had just one blank left at the factory, and after a delicious pepper steak for lunch we figured we had time to fit in a quick drive around the area’s tourist spots. Josh was only here for a week, and we wanted to fit in as much as possible in the short time, so we headed to the atmospheric old town of Sintra – famous for his historical buildings, luxurious gardens and ancient palaces – and had a quick sightseeing tour encompassing Castelo dos Mouros and Palácio da Pena, residences built for past kings and queens.

From Sintra we drove to Guincho. The old road goes across the mountains and is flanked by old trees and gardens. It’s wet, foggy and curvy, and back in the days it helped to keep visitors away from the royalty.

Arriving at Guincho we finally set eyes on the ocean. It was too windy for surfing – the wind was blowing the sand off the dunes – but there were still a few nice waves out there. So we kept driving to Cascais. The road winds along the coastlineand we enjoyed the fresh sea breeze. Cascais is a beautiful city by the sea, just 30km from Lisboa. Once a small fisherman’s village, it gained fame in the late 1800s and early 1900s as a resort for Portugal’s royal family. Nowadays it’s one of the richest cities in Portugal and home of rich and famous, so we just drove by!

Our next stop was Sao Pedro do Estoril. The coast there faces south and is protected from the big swells and the north wind. There were a few nice waves breaking and a small right-hander, perfect for longboarding, captured Josh’s attention.

We stopped at the shop where Nico is showing his boards because Josh wanted to check out his work. While we were there, Josh got a last-minute order, so he had to head straight back to the shaping bay and turn out his last board in Portugal – a 5’8 Mini Fish Simmons Quad. Then it was time to clean up his tools, check logos and glassing details, before it was over.

It was time to say goodbye. Josh’s trip was coming to a close and we were already talking about a new one.

Organising a trip like this takes time and money and it’s always a risk. It’s important that all the people involved get along both professionally and personally, which can make the difference between failure and success. This tour wasn’t perfect, but it came out better than expected and in the end everybody was happy and up for doing it again. The smiles on our faces said it all!

I have to thank Alexandro (Southcoast blanks and Lokbox Fins), Pedro (carpenter and factory handyman), Hugo (photographer) and the man who made it possible for me, my good friend Nico. Without you guys I couldn’t make it.

And last but not least, the customers, for their trust.

Now it’s glassing time! Nico’s got a lot of work ahead of his – I’ll be back with more about that very soon…

[All photos by Hugo Correia]

We drove to Ericeira so that Josh could see some of Portugal’s best surf spots. The waves were huge, too big to get in, but at least Josh got an impression of how powerful the waves over here can be.

After a spot of lunch we headed off to the factory, which is located in a small village near Sintra. Nico, the owner, shaper and glasser, was there to greet us and show us where to start, and Josh checked out the blanks, the tools and the shaping bay. We stopped for a leisurely lunch – this is Portugal, after all – before Josh got to work on a 9’5 Big Fish Simmons out of a red cedar triple-stringer blank. The first board in new conditions is always the hardest to shape, so he eased himself into things.

The blank was beautiful and shaped nicely, the cedar leaving a sweet smell in the bay. It’s a huge board for a fish standard, and watching Josh shape that one was really impressive. The way he worked on the bottom of that blank came as a surprise, and opened our minds to a whole new way of doing things. That’s the beauty of working with great shapers like Josh – you can learn to much from them. Josh was super willing to share, and we could have stood there for hours and hours listening to him talking about his boards or his connection to Skip Frye.

Day two, and Josh finished the Big Fish before starting on the small ones. By the end of the day he had produced a few more boards, including a nice twin keel and a Rocket Fish that particularly caught my attention. The Rocket looked like a winner, made to ride well on good waves like Supertubos! After a break for some Portuguese fast food Nico and Josh went back to work and finished another board that evening.

Wednesday was rainy and windy – perfect conditions for shaping! Josh shaped a couple of Mini Fish Simmons, a Skosh, and his most radical design: the Pescado Hinchado. At only 5’5, there are so many details that come together to make this an awesome board. It might look weird, but there’s a lot of thinking behind the design and when Josh explained it, it just made sense.

With just enough time left to shape a board for me, Josh’s work was almost done.

To be continued…

[Photos 1 & 3 by Hugo Correia]

Last summer I started talking to Josh Hall about getting him over here for a visit. He was planning a trip to Spain to visit some friends and could stop by Portugal to shape some boards. My work at the Wavegliders factory was going well, so I had a place for him to shape and a good glasser to finish the job. Everything seemed to be in place.

As time went by, we kept talking about it, but we didn’t really get anything fixed up until September. Then Josh emailed to say that he was ready to roll, and would be arriving in November for a trip that would take him through France, Spain and Portugal – fantastic!

There was a lot of work to be done. First thing was to get a price list; not an easy task, because I wanted to make sure that – even though they’re 100% hand-made custom boards – they were still affordable to your average surfer. Next I needed to price up blanks, cloth, resin, pigments etc and work out how much Nico wanted for glassing them. After a few busy days on the phone and e-mail, everything was set.

On 22 September the word was out. Press releases were sent all over the web, and I’ve lost count of the number of e-mails I sent during those first few weeks of promotion. Josh Hall is already a big name in the US, but around here he’s still new to most of the people. A lot of time was spent on promotion, talking about him, writing about him, getting his name out there.

As orders start to roll in we had to order the right blanks, fins and pigments for to customer’s order – which isn’t always easy!

Josh’s trip started in France, where he shaped some stunning boards, and he’s now on the way to Spain where he will stop off at the Santander Surf Film Festival. At the end of the week he will arrive in Portugal and we will finally meet; then a new journey will start.

You can follow Josh’s shaping tour of Portugal at magic-quiver.blogspot.com

Along the way, he’ll be shaping custom boards and collaborating with Europe’s top surf shops, starting in Hossegor on 25 October. Already firmly established in the San Diego scene, and having worked with the legendary Skip Frye and collaborated with the likes of Thomas Campbell, Richard Kenvin, Andy Davis and Tyler Warren, Josh is keen to expand his horizons and check out what’s going on around Europe.

“It’s been a dream of mine to shape in Spain and I can’t wait to get out there,” says Hall. “I think that my boards and shaping style will fit well into the growing niche of surfers who want boutique boards from California.”

Keep tabs on Josh’s schedule on his blog ‘The Hole in the Wall’.

You can find Josh Hall’s 100% handcrafted boards in Europe at the following top shops…

England Tim Mason, Perfect Trim Surfboards, email
France Phillipe Rodes, Spyder Surf, email
Portugal Rui Ribero, Magic Quiver, email
Italy Alessandro Marchi, Black Van, email