AMY VANSANT
In 1964 Juan Rodriguez started working on surfboards at the ripe old age of 13, when a ding in his Hobie longboard forced him to learn the trade. After figuring out how to fix his own stick, he demonstrated his knowledge at the local fishing tackle shop, which also happened to be the place he bought his surfboard. Impressed with the teen's prowess with resin, the owner of the tackle shop hired Rodriguez as his ding repairman.

Not long after hsi whirlwind employment, the tackle shop rented a longboard to a guy in a Volkswagen Bug who took too tight a turn with the board sticking out the window. They guy grazed a telephone ple and snapped the tail clean off. On a whim, Rodriguez cut down the damaged board, made a short board out of it, and sold it. After that, Rodriguez began buying other old boards, striping the glass, off, and shaping new, smaller boards out of then. Rodriguez wanted to shape, and he worked with whatever materials were available.

"It was a great time to be a surfer here," says Rodriguez. "At that time all the otop shapers came through with vans full of boards ant they'd stop at this fishing tackle store, which was all retirees except for me fixing surfboards with my friends in the back. It was like magic being fourteen or fifteen then and having surfing be a major part of your life."

Rodriguez moved to California when he was 18 and worked at Surfboards Hawaii, which was right next door to where famous shaper Mike Hinson was working on various experimental designs. Thanks to a mutual friend, Rodriguez was able to ride all of Hinsen's experimental boards-without Hinsen actually knowing it. Those experiences helped Rodriguez come up with his own ideas for surfboard designs, and his interest in shaping grew.

After a brief career in Hawaii as a glasser for shaper Del Cannon, Rodriguez returned to Florida and started shaping more seriously. Quick to spot growing trends, Rodriguez also began making skateboard decks under the name Western Flyers. Soon after, during a pretty productive bout with insomnia, he came up with the idea to make skim boards. Six months after that night of sleeplessness, Rodriguez started making Western Flyer skim boards-at one point cranking out 5,000 a year.

Rodriguez eventually decided to sell the successful Western Flyer label so he could devote more time to shaping longboards, his first love. Presently, Rodriguez's One World Surfboards has a relatively small clientele-he shapes between 500 and 600 boards a year for a select number of dealers and private individuals-which is exactly the way he wants it.

"I wanted to shape enough to be financially comfortable, but few enough that I can spend time on them and not hack 'em and rack 'em," says Rodriguez. "Now I shape some high-performance specialty boards: tighter tail, more nose rocker, narrower-basically, a long short board - but mainly I make classic-looking longboards with softer rails and a little bit of belly, I really like to make different things, particularly wood stuff-balsa boards and redwood."

Rodriguez also restores old longboards for his extensive collection. "I have always loved restoring old boards, both for my collection and other people's" says Rodriguez. "I collect longboards that have some significance in the evolution of the surfboard: old Dewey Weber's, a Mike Hinsen triple-stringer and a Low-Rider, Greg Nolls, Peck Penetrators-neat boards that changed the approach to surfing in their own way."

 

In addition to longboards, Rodriguez is always finding new ways to employ his talents, from shaping miniature replicas of classic 1960's boards to producing custom wooden fins. "From what I have seen, you have to have interests beyond surfboards," says Rodriguez. "You have to broaden your horizons."

This philosophy is one reason Rodriquez doesn't plan on moving his operations to a place that gets more surf than the Gulf Coast.

"Like I said, there's more to life than just surfing," says Rodriguez. "But if there was surf here every day, then I definitely would have surfed a lot more and spent a lot less time thinking of new shapes and projects!"