Eventually Matt moved his airbrushing business to Shoreline Glassing (Hermosa Beach, CA) and was offered a job by Hap Jacobs to do some rough-shaping on the side. Hap was so pleased with Matt’s work that he hired him on as a part-time shaper. Then Dennis Jarvis of Spyder Surfboards started to notice Matt’s talent and offered him a job shaping for the likes of Tom Curren, Shane Dorian, and more.
In 1993, Matt was offered a full-time shaping position at Becker Surfboards as Phil Becker’s main production shaper. It was while at Becker that Matt created an impressive shortboard program, shaping for the likes of Greg Browning, Geoff Moysa, Pascal Stansfield and many more.Matt was hand-shaping more than 25 shortboards a week in addition to longboards and mid-ranges at Becker.
But all the while, he continued to do some shaping for not only Hap Jacobs, but also Lance Carson and Rick Surfboards. Matt’s talent and passion for shaping traditional longboards became apparent.
In 2000, Matt’s friend, Dan Bendicksen, head shaper for Bing Surfboards in the late 60s, introduced Matt to Bing Copeland and Mike Eaton, which paved the way for Matt to inherit Bing Surfboards. In 2003, Matt set up shop along side Tyler Hatzikian of Tyler Surfboards, another young talented shaper. The two worked together for about a year, but when Hap Jacobs decided to retire in 2004 and asked Matt to inherit Jacobs Surfboards, Matt jumped at the chance.
In 2008, in an effort to streamline and grow his business, Matt opened a surfboard shaping and glassing facility next to friend and foam supplier, Jeff Stoner of Blair Foam in Gardena, CA. Matt continues to shape exclusively for Bing, Jacobs and Rick Surfboards today.
Story by: Robyn McGinnis
Edited by: Margaret Yao
