"Phil Becker: A Chat With Surfing's Most Prolific Shaper," by Sam George, ran in the December 1993 issue of SURFER. This version has been slightly edited and shortened.

When you started shaping balsa in the early ’50s, who showed you the ropes?

Hap Jacobs and Dale Velzy. They had the Velzy-Jacobs shop. And they were the only ones around who you could actually go and watch 'em work. I’d done some wood carving when I was younger, so I knew a little bit about wood. It was kind of a natural thing. Just went right into it. We used to strip the glass off old boards and reshape them. That’s how we started. Take an old Simmons, strip it, chop it up into something new, that kind of thing. We made a lot of dud boards that way!

Then foam came in and changed everything. It became a career.

Right. I think a lot of shapers in those days learned how to do it fairly quickly because there weren’t enough shapers to shape all the boards that were needed.

It must have been pretty exciting, as boards were going through so many design changes at the time.

Yeah, but really we’re going through just as many changes right now, with longboards and shortboards and mid-size boards. There’s never a dull moment.

Is it true you're still using the same planers as when you started?

Yeah. I’ve got three, all Rockwells. Got them when they came out around 1965. I rebuild them every couple of years.

I also hear you've been in the same shaping room since forever.

Since I started with Rick Surfboards. I guess it’s been 30 years. Maybe 31 or 32.

You always made longboards, even in the mid-’70s when hardly anybody was riding them. Did you ever think they'd come back so strong?

I kind of thought so, yeah, just because of the way the crowds were building and getting more aggressive. One guy paddles out on a board that’s way longer than everybody else, and he's gonna get more waves. So a couple of weeks later, the guys that got dropped in on by him come out on boards that are even longer than his.

Yeah. There just aren't enough waves to go around, and everybody is hungry.

What was it that led you to develop those mid-range “fun” boards?

I think that was mostly just guys getting older. All the baby boomers. They weren't in good enough physical condition to ride a shortboard, and surfing was becoming really frustrating for them. They had jobs and maybe they’d only get in the water once a week. They weren't necessarily into full high-performance surfing, but they still wanted to be able to do things on a wave, and not just cruise. It was a big market that wasn’t being targeted, and I kind of did it because I figured, well, it’s going to make a lot of guys a lot happier.

I call it the gray wave. But your boards predated the trend by about 10 years.

The market hadn’t been cultivated when I started, but it was always there. We just filled a niche.

Some people might say you actually created a whole genre, a whole type of surfer. In some areas, it’s almost become a generic name: “Becker Surfers.”

Well, I’m just surprised more shapers didn’t jump on it sooner. I mean those boards are pretty easy to make.

After shaping 85,000 boards, do you still get that thrill shaping a custom board for a guy and having him come in and check it out?

Oh, yeah, yeah. Especially if you get a call from him in a month, and he says, “Hey, this thing really works really good. It does just what you said it was going to do and it’s definitely improved my surfing.” The guy’s stoked. You made somebody happy.

Did you have a favorite shaper, someone who influenced you during your career?

Not really. I’m a bit of a loner and kind of go on my own course. I’m sure I took ideas from a lot of people, though. I do a lot of surfing in Hawaii. I go to the North Shore for a month or so every winter. You see a lot of interesting work there. They’re usually a little bit ahead of us because they’ve got more surf.

There’s a certain romance to being a surfboard shaper. But in your case, I wonder if maybe that wears off after about 50,000 boards.

I didn’t really pick up on the romance. I mean, it was always a neat job because I didn’t have to drive to work. I ride my bike to work, so I come and go whenever I want, as long as I get everything done. That part is kind of nice.

Do you look forward to retiring at any time?

I don’t think I’ll ever completely retire.

I’m fortunate in that I like to do things that are physical when I’m not shaping. I enjoy surfing and I like to swim laps in the pool, that kind of thing. I do some bicycling and some running and stuff like that.

You'll still be heftin’ your Rockwell when you’re 63.

It's kind of interesting when you think of how many surfers have ridden your boards. You used to surf when it was uncrowded. Now they're all out there on your boards! Do you have any thoughts on that?

Yeah, yeah. I've contributed to the pack, for sure. I try to surf out-of-the-way places, go on a lot of vacations. I don’t like the pack.

What’s interesting about Becker Surfboards is that everyone knows your name, but not many people know the shaper. They have no idea who you are. Was that a conscious choice on your part, to stay out of the limelight?

I think it’s just my nature. It wasn't a choice, exactly. Or not a conscious choice. I just made the boards as the orders came in and didn't much worry about the rest of it.

Have you ever been dropped in on by a guy on a Becker?

Oh, sure. They don’t know. A lot of the people who have the boards don’t know me.

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