Britt Merrick has been in and around the surfboard business for his whole life. When he was young, he spent hundreds of hours staring into his father’s shaping bay. He watched as his parents built Channel Islands out of a $200 loan—his dad in the back shaping surfboards and his mom out front of the shop.”I would spend hours in the doorway of my dad’s shaping room watching him shape, soaking that in, experiencing that.” Merrick says. “I was always captivated by it. I was always captivated by the way that he used his hands and his tools, and the way that stuff came together.”
As time went on, of course, Channel Islands became the surfboard under the feet of many of the world’s best. Britt got his hands in the foam and put all the experience he soaked up to good use. Shapers Manufacturers recently pointed a camera at Britt and asked him 10 questions, ranging from his influence (dad, of course), to his where his worst wipeout was (Todos Santos). For anyone interested in the people behind the shapes that give us the ability to slide around on top of waves, it’s worth the watch.
