Venice surfboard shaper Scott Anderson brings his hand-crafted artwork to UCLA Hammer Museum's 'The Art of Surfboard Shaping'
Anderson team rider Chad Marshall showcases his Anderson longboard. Marshall and his brother, Trace Marshall, collaborated with Anderson to design The Brothers Marshall Model. (Photo courtesy of Chris Klopf)
"THE ART OF SURFBOARD SHAPING"
Tuesday, 7 p.m.
UCLA Hammer Museum, FREE
By Samantha Suchland
Aug. 26, 2010 11:14 p.m.
Scott Anderson stands at his surfboard workshop in Marina del Rey, where he shapes boards seen around Malibu. (Photo courtesy of UCLA Hammer Museum)
Scott Anderson handcrafts his surfboards one by one in a workshop tucked away in an industrial district of Marina del Rey. And yet, despite the somewhat hidden warehouse location, the name Anderson has remained synonymous with the Malibu surf scene for more than 20 years.
“It’s very laid-back. People come here and look and go, “˜Wow, look at this place. It’s an eclectic surfboard factory,'” Anderson said. “We’re a bunch of guys working together to make surfboards.”
Chad Marshall, one of Anderson’s sponsored surfers, rode his first custom Anderson board at the age of 12.
“I grew up surfing Malibu. I started surfing at a very young age, and everyone I looked up to was riding his boards,” Marshall said. “I grew up having him as a mentor, which is pretty rad.”
On Tuesday at 7 p.m., Anderson will be transplanting a portion of his Venice workshop to the UCLA Hammer Museum courtyard for “The Art of Surfboard Shaping.” The outdoor gallery arrangement will allow visitors to learn from the legendary shaper as they mingle among boards he built with his own hands.
The event is the next installment in a series of talks, concerts and film screenings meant to supplement the current Edition Jacob Samuel exhibition “Outside the Box.” The exhibition features prints from 43 different artists that the visiting UCLA art professor published in his traveling print workshop. Samuel has worked with the museum to bring the public a taste of his interest beyond print publishing and has used custom Anderson boards for nearly 10 years.
“(Anderson) knows where I surf, which is locally. He understands my age, the kind of boards I grew up riding,” Samuel said about his current customized board, an Evolver model. “It’s such a great shape; I’m excited about it when I go out and ride it.”
Samuel’s lifelong passion for surfing was first shared with museumgoers earlier this summer with a screening of the Stacy Peralta surf documentary “Riding Giants.” As one of the original Z-Boys, the legendary 1970s Santa Monica skate team, Peralta and his film drew in nearly twice as many viewers as expected, including surfers from as close as Huntington Beach and as far away as Hawaii.
“It’s crazy because the art world and the surf world are so intertwined. Music, acting, drawing, et cetera,” Marshall said. “Surfing is kind of a creative kind of thing..”
According to Marshall, Anderson is unique in the surfboard world for his dedication to building his own brand within a changing industry.
“A lot of the shapers in Malibu, they buy up old labels, surf labels, that have been around since the ’60s just so that they have (them). … It’s like saying a new car maker bought Honda just to say that, “˜Hey, we have that car,'” Marshall said. “He’s the only company I know that’s building its own brand, and that’s super cool and unique.”
With 30 years of experience, 20 years at his current store location and more than 20,000 boards to his name, Anderson makes boards that are a staple on Malibu beaches and can be found in shops from here to New York.
Of course, master craftsmanship is not an overnight phenomenon. For Anderson, surfboard shaping began with making minor repairs to his own board when he was 15, which progressed to shaping when a friend decided they should just go ahead and make their own board.
“We got a blank, made it in my parent’s garage. That was a disaster.” Anderson said. “We took it to the beach, and it ended up (being used) in a swimming pool. We would jump on it at the pool and just knock the fins off.”
Anderson continued to work on shaping through high school and college and ended up in a Santa Monica surf shop. In the ’80s, he made the move to Brazil, where scarce materials and humid conditions posed a unique challenge.
“We planned ahead. We had to plan it all so we would have a lot of work the next month,” he said.
After 14 years of riding Anderson boards, Marshall has gone from idolizing Anderson riders to working with his brother and Anderson to create their own line of longboards. “(Anderson’s) a genius with making a surfboard. There’s so much that goes into making a board,” Marshall said. “He’s a master craftsman.”
Anderson’s craftsmanship made him a natural fit with Samuel’s exhibit, according to Claudia Bestor, director of public programs and education at the Hammer Museum.
“Samuel and Anderson both have skills no one else really has,” Bestor said. “There’s a sort of backlash to this digital world, an interest in things that take a lot of time and thought.”
