Editor’s note: Get your tickets here for the 2025 Boardroom Show, the world’s only surfboard-centric tradeshow featuring the Icons of Foam Shape-Off and Best In Show, in Del Mar on October 11-12
The eight shapers selected to compete in the 2025 Boardroom Show Icons of Foam Shape-Offhonoring Hawaiian board builder Eric Arakawa, come from an array of backgrounds and business models. However, Eric made sure there was a throughline with his picks: they’ve all logged serious time with a planer, crafting shapes by hand.
2025 Boardroom Show Icons of Foam Shape-off Invitees
- Allen White – Cocoa Beach, Florida (Surf Expo Shape-Off Winner)
- Adam Warden – San Diego, California
- Climate Rodolfo – Five, Peru
- Richie Collins – Newport Beach, California
- And Mann – Coronado, California
- Chris Christenson – Encinitas, California
- Barry van der Meulen – Huntington Beach, California
- Todd Proctor – Ventura, California
Todd Proctor is perhaps the man on this list who knows Eric best. Not the boards per se, but on a personal level. Speaking from his factory in Ventura, Todd explained how he and Eric were “kindred spirits” who share the same worldview and commitment to faith. Their conversations are about life, not liters.
“Even though he had Andy (Irons) in his heyday, I don’t know that Eric ever thought about how to climb the ladder and get his name in the lights,” Todd said. “I’ve always liked that Eric pursued this calling with self-sacrificial love, which is a rare thing today. He was always about doing something with excellence; let the chips fall where they will. It’s not always about you.”
Related: Shaper Profile: Todd Proctor
Eric and Todd met in the late 1990s, just as Andy Irons, surfing Eric’s boards, was surging on the QS, winning back-to-back US Open titles, and was about to take the Championship Tour by storm. But Eric made time for a hardworking Californian board-builder with a strong work ethic and plenty of questions. The two shapers shared an interest in a new computer-based surfboard building technology.
Created by Brazilian surgeon Luciano Leao, Digital Surf Design’s (DSD) Surf CAD was a custom design machine, not a pop-out scanner, allowing shapers to build a model from the ground up. It became the basis for modern-day CAD software and CNC shaping machines. But even for a talented board-builder, the technical know-how required for this tech was a departure from the norm. “Even though I knew it was the future and I wanted to do it, I was terrified,” Todd said. “I told Eric, all I know how to do is handshape. I can handshape whatever my mind can see.”
Related: Michael Arenal and Nick Heinrich Take Home the Honors at the Boardroom Show
Years after their introduction, Todd bought the same shaping machine as Eric. It was an expensive, challenging endeavor. But Eric and Luciano Leao flew over and stayed at Todd’s place in Ventura for almost a month. Rather than keep the tech under wraps, Eric and Luciano opened up the playbook. They helped Todd, already a skilled builder, learn the skills needed for a surfboard designer, a distinction that proved vital for his business.
When the machine broke (which was often), it was Eric who fielded Todd’s calls, asking for nothing in return. “They were like a network for me that had my back,” Todd said. “That’s a really rare quality for people to have. That just goes to show Eric’s character.”
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Perhaps that is a connective tissue for this year’s invitees: Years and years of building boards by hand, then adopting technology to create a more efficient system. Like Adam Warden, the force behind AJW Surfboards. As a teenager living van life in San Diego, if Adam wasn’t surfing, he was working in various factories. At one point, he shaped and airbrushed boards at Diamond (including Maverick’s guns) and Rusty Surfboards. For the last few years, he’s supplied boards for one of the best aerial surfers in the world. Matt Meola uses his models to spin off-axis and into the flats in Hawaii, Waco and beyond.
Consider Chris Christensona shaper who began slinging boards out of his college dorm room and whose patented skull logo can be seen on sleek shortboards, fishes, and guns around the world (Greg Long rode one on his way to winning the 2009 Eddie).
Related: The Pressures Of Being A Big-Wave Shaper
Or how about Dan Mann, Kelly Slater’s longtime collaborator, whose Mannkine designs are built, distributed globally by Firewire. Eric and Dan have mutual connections and respect, and the Californian shared an interesting insight on the Hawaiian shaper. He pointed to Eric’s early 2000s stint working with Salomon, the outdoor equipment company, to build a high-tech, multi-chambered carbon-stringered blank. Though the deal with Salomon fell through, Eric’s ability to balance experimentation and trusted North Shore step-ups was something Dan greatly appreciated.
“I’ve always admired him, and his shaping speaks for itself,” Dan said. “He’s experimented with various epoxies, carbons and vacuum bagging. He’s keen on shaping machines. He’s good with the software. In a nutshell, he’s comprehensive with the business and the craft. He knows ways to differentiate yourself from the competition with the focus of making surfboards really good. He’s not ideological, he doesn’t stick with just one way of creating the best surfboard he can.”
Barry van der Meulen is another invitee who truly loves making surfboards, though his business approach varies from the factory models of Firewire and global licensees of Arakawa. Barry, a former pro surfer from South Africa who is solely focused on customs, largely in the twin and fish genre. Barry learned the craft from Spider Murphy, the venerable South African board builder who once supplied Shaun Tomson and Martin Potter.
Barry has lived in the US for more than 35 years and is now based in Huntington Beach. He carries no stock models and he does every aspect of the board-building himself from start to finish, except for sanding and polishing. He calls his diversity in shapes “quite aggressive,” with a range from a grom’s performance shortboard to a 15-foot prone paddleboard.
It’s not just boards he loves to touch up. From socks to tables to fishing poles, he prefers the personal touch. “When I see something, I see a way to make it my own,” he said. “It drives my wife crazy. I have to paint, sand it down or put a stamp on the thing. I like to make it my own. It may not always make it better, but it makes it mine.”
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Another name that may surprise surfers in the Northern Hemisphere is Peruvian Rodolofo Kilma, the head shaper and founder of Klimax Surfboards. He built his first board at age 13 by stripping the glass off an old husk and reshaping it. After 40 years of board-building, he’s made models for some of Peru’s best surfers. Another feather in the cap: Grant “Twiggy” Baker won the 2017 World Big Wave Championship on a 9’6” Klimax at Puerto Escondido. Today, the Klimax factory holds the Peruvian license for Pyzel, Sharp Eye, Chilli and Arakawa. That means Rodolfo has an inside track on the Hawaiian shaper’s designs.
As for Rodolfo’s own brand, Klimax is huge in Peru, and his equipment is used by most of the Peruvian team at the Da Hui Backdoor Shootout. “He’s a highly skilled shaper who came from the handshaping era,” Eric said. “The boards look good. I’ve seen a lot of them, held them in my hand. He’s a really good shaper.”
The first person Eric asked to participate in the shape-off was Richie Collins, the former pro from Newport Beach who rode his own boards to success in the 1980s/1990s, who now shapes down the road from Eric in Haleiwa. “I see him at least once a week,” Eric said. “He’s always encouraging me to try different things. He’s trying to get me to shape myself a 7’10” twin fin for Sunset.”
Related: Saluting Richie Collins
After considering Eric’s offer and some logistical questions, Richie returned a question, “What do I get if I win?” A $2,000 check plus a trophy, for the record. “He’s super competitive,” Eric said. “He’s out to win.”
If you’ve ever ordered a custom surfboard, you know shapers are busy people. It’s not nothing for them to get out of the office and take a few days off. But when a guy like Eric shows up at the Boardroom Show, well, I’ll let Todd finish it off.
“Honestly, I probably wouldn’t normally do it,” Todd said. “But Eric has been such a force for good in my life, I didn’t even hesitate. We’re having a day to honor and uplift Eric? Of course. I’ll be there.”
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