Nick Heinrich is a 23-year-old shaper living in Ocean Beach, San Diego, California. He grew up surfing, skateboarding, and snowboarding. He’d always worked with his hands in construction jobs and carpentry, so shaping surfboards was somewhat of a natural extension for him.
It all started when he saw a kid’s broken board wash up on shore one day. He took that broken board, shaped it into a stubby single fin, and found his passion for shaping. From there, he started tracking down second-hand blanks from Craigslist and local surf shops just to get his hands on something to shape.
I met Nick through mutual friends about four years ago in San Diego. At first, Nick would talk about his dream to start seriously shaping surfboards. The problem was he didn’t have the space. Lucky for him, I had just moved into a new house with a decent-sized garage, so I agreed to let him start there. Three years have passed and Nick’s shaping has improved dramatically and he now makes boards out of his own garage. As you can see, lately, he’s been shaping more fun, retro-inspired surfboards. This is a simple profile of someone who turned a dream into reality.
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