Born and raised in Seal Beach, CA Tim Stamps has etched out a name for himself in the custom surfboard market, and he’s done so making an impressively diverse quiver of boards for his customers with a smile on his face and an honest devotion to the art of board building. Learning the craft from the bottom up, Stamps lets his enthusiasm and quest for knowledge mold his journey in shaping, which has lead customers to his door time and time again when searching for the perfect tweak or something a little different.
How did you first get started in shaping?
I grew up around Harbour Surfboards in Seal Beach and shaped my first board in 1989. [Harbour]’s been doing it since the mid 50’s, and I learned everything from the bottom up as a grom hanging around that shop – from sweeping the floors to shaping to being a kid buying wax to doing ding repairs. We were glassing old-school-style like when a surf shop was really a surf shop – you know? When the guys in the back were making boards and they were selling them out front, which doesn’t really happen anymore.
Is that what piqued your interest in shaping?
Being around it definitely helped. And my dad always was building stuff, he was into boats. But there was definitely an element of building stuff with your hands and a creative part which translated into surfing. I got into surfing, and being a pretty good surfer and being into what I ride, like why does this shape do this, and obviously having a mentor like Rich Harbor – you can’t pay for that kind of knowledge. There are only a handful of guys like him out there and a lot of it was dumb luck. I had an aptitude and was in the right place at the right time.
