Today we’d like to introduce you to Catherine Girard.
Hi Catherine, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I grew up in Quebec, Canada until I was 19 years old. After that, I decided to move with my mom to South Florida. I was a competitive swimmer growing up and throughout college. That’s when I applied for an Ocean Lifeguard job and began to surf. I fell in love with the ocean and my life became more and more driven by waves. That’s why I decided to move to California where the waves are much more consistent. I worked in a coffee shop in Santa Barbara.
While I lived there, I became friendly with a regular older customer who would come in every morning for a matcha. I later found out that he was not only an amazing surfer but also a surfboard builder. He would share the most fascinating surf stories from the 70s and 80s with me. One day, he offered to teach me how to build my surfboard. He had a shaping bay behind his house and would do the fiberglass in his garage. I couldn’t say no to this offer so I began making my first board.
I loved the creative but also very scientific calculations that are needed to make a good surfboard. I shared the process on social media and began receiving custom orders. It’s been four years now that I’ve been building custom surfboards for people. I moved back to Florida during COVID and have been making many boards for the East Coast.
Can you talk to us about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Looking back, it was very challenging to learn all these new skills all at once. Luckily, I had a very passionate and patient mentor to help me with the overwhelming learning curve. When COVID hit I decided to move back to Florida which I thought was going to be the end of my shaping journey.
Thankfully, I had a friend offer his workspace and started receiving orders from fellow South Florida surfers. Since being back, it has been very challenging to find a space to work out of on my own with commercial space rent being very expensive. I’ve managed to share spaces which has been a blessing.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I make 100 % handmade surfboards from start to finish which is rarer nowadays with the majority of boards being machine-made.
I make sure I have a conversation with each customer beforehand to have an understanding of what board they are looking for and guide them to the best of my ability with what I think they would have the most fun on. The proudest moment is when customers take their board out and message me right after how amazing their surf session was.
How do you think about luck?
I would say that being a woman in a male-dominated industry has set me apart. I get asked this question a lot of the challenges/bad luck I’ve had to face being one of the only few female shapers. I always felt like it was a strength.
Not only have I had multiple female customers reach out to me because they wanted a surfboard made by a fellow female but also had multiple men come see me because they had had a bad experience prior with the other guys.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.catherinegirardsurfboards.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/catherinegirardsurfboards/
Image Credits
Jasper De Kloet
