From the Shop Floor: Randy Gaetano

We’ve been asking our builders at Grain Surfboards to offer their point of view on surfing and building wooden boards. We’ll be sharing their words and images here over time in special blog posts called “From the Shop Floor”.

We hope you enjoy them and they inspire you to build and surf your own wooden surfboard. Words below by Grain builder and artist Randy Gaetano.

“The world is moving fast. The cleanest and whitest objects have been the fuel of our desire for some time now. Machines and molds have quenched our thirst for plastic perfection. We’re returning to our fascination with the natural, the organic, and the hand-made. And only now, because of our choices, can we call this a fascination.

Before plastics were available, everything was made from wood and metal by hand. It was our only option. Our obsession with plastics gave us a way to rise above that earthiness, a chance for man to obtain some glorified state of perfection. But even those perfect plastics decay and crack. They loose that shine and luster, often quickly, and then stick around in this used state for very long time. And our world is quickly filling up with tons of these little pieces of plastic.

(Click Here for a related story on how plastic is affecting the environment.)

Many people are rediscovering what we’ve known all along: That wood and hand-made objects are timeless, ageless in their ancientness, and beautiful in the least. We all know plastic is a necessity now, but it’s no coincidence the greatest manufacturer of foam is now closed. At this juncture in surfboard history, I feel honored to be chosen by this world to be building and shaping surfboards made of wood.”