DEAN EDWARDS
Years Shaping: 48
Board: 5’11” x 20”
Blank: One-of-a-Kind blank made of over 1,000 different offcuts from 47 different colored blanks. It took 10 years to collect all the foam off-cuts and the process of gluing took over 2 years.
Words by Rick Berman
“For years shapers have been trying to figure out a useful way of disposing the off-cuts of foam left over from shaping a surfboard. Several years ago, Dean Edwards of Big Rock Color Works, a master shaper/board builder on the island of Hawaii had a vision and began saving the ‘bones’ from the boards he was shaping. Dean has more than 48 years of experience shaping boards, beginning in the late ‘60’s with Wilken and Natural Progression and through the last 25 years on the Big Island of Hawaii.”
“When he thought he had enough material to proceed, he glued the pieces together and started to shape the BONEFISH. The advent of colored foam in the last 6 years or so made this approach much more interesting. Together with the glue lines, a one-of-a-kind blank is produced. This particular board consists of the ‘bones’ of over 47 different blanks.”
Words by Dean Edwards
“I’m pretty isolated here on the Big Island, but I know that other people are building interesting boards. I had seen the “Sunrise Surfboard” that Jim Phillips made in 2009, which helped me clarify my vision. Jim’s work is incredible and I just wanted to build something that might encourage or hopefully inspire others to build interesting boards from re-purposed materials.”
“Nearly the entire board is made from waste. Obviously, the foam is all off-cuts, which normally end up in the dumpster. The fins were made out of plywood and fiberglass scrap. The sandpaper was all previously used. The scraps were collected over the course of 10 years. There are over 1000 cuts; 90 foam pieces in the checkerboard section alone. It took over 2 years to glue-up the blank. There was no template, no rocker. It was all free-hand shaped. The only new material in the construction process was the resin.”
“One thing that I’d like to reiterate, is that there are so many ways to reduce the waste we create in our industry. The Bonefish is an example of something that would have ended up in a landfill. With a little consideration, we can help reduce our waste output. That is my challenge to other surfboard shapers.”
