A student of the old school, traditionalist approach to making surfboards, Josh Peterson cut his teeth and earned his chops as a shaper the way it was done in a bygone era: sweeping up the foam dust in the shaping bays of older masters of the craft and observing. If you hang around long enough and aren’t a pest there’s a good chance the old guard might start instilling some wisdom and tips, 1which is what happened to Josh from North Shore Hawaii legend Jeff Bushman.
Bushman has been shaping boards since the 1970’s and has called the North Shore of Hawaii home since 1988, shaping boards for some of the most legendary surfers to grace the waves of the fabled North Shore and worldwide. There was a period of time in the 90’s and early 00’s if you looked at the guys boards who were charging the hardest, they were on a Bushman.
Josh, hailing from the East Coast, knew how to be humble and put his head down which attracted Bushman to him and let him hang around his shaping bay in Hawaii, sweeping up and doing the things no one else wanted to do. Fast forward some years now and Josh has a flourishing shaping career where he divides his time between the East Coast and Hawaii, while also moonlighting with Trimcraft surfboards.
We were fortunate enough to have Josh shape our recent batch of boards at the Noah Hideout in Amagansett and the Noah Clubhouse in Japan. In between his busy schedule and winning this year's Surf Expo shaper of the year, we caught up with Josh to ask him a few questions.
What are you interested in shaping these days?
Right now I’ve been mostly into shaping boards for good waves. That’s translated to a lot of quad fishes and longer pintails and those types of boards.
What gets you excited in surfing and inspired to shape?
The most inspiring thing for me is just time in the water in good waves. It keeps things fresh in the shaping bay.
Are there any design characteristics that you have become known for?
I think for my fishes and twin fins in general.
Who did you apprentice with and what takeaways from that tutelage do you implement into your own practice?
So I apprenticed with Jeff Bushman when I was 21. We spent about a month together just really going over the basics of hand shaping and how to hit specific numbers. I’m so grateful for that experience, it was so generous of him to do that for me. From there I’ve spent time learning from Rich Pavel and Ryan Lovelace. Both amazing craftsmen for doing boards start to finish. A lot of the way that I look at surfboards and how they function comes from a combination of all those guys.
How do you balance a bi-coastal East Coast / Hawaii existence and how does that help you as a shaper?
I think the best boards for whatever wave you have locally, will be built locally. So for me traveling around and building boards in different places and surfing wherever gives you a lot of insight on what works for different types of waves instead of just being planted in one spot and guessing. Being in Hawaii has been great by having constant swell to be able to try out whatever you want at any point…very different from back east.
What music are you listening to in the shaping bay?
Spacer Woman by Charlie.
What's next for Josh Peterson?
Back to Hawaii until the summer and then off to Indo and Europe with an East Coast visit in there somewhere with lots of surfing and shaping mixed in!
