Chris Garrett
Chris Garrett
He first shaped a surfboard when he was 11 years old. He bought a used surfboard for $10 and split it in half to make two surfboards with a friend. In the late 1970s, he moved to the Gold Coast and started shaping surfboards in earnest at Kirra, and in 1984 he opened his own surfboard factory in Burleigh Heads.
When Dave "Rasta" Lastovic, who is now active as a free surfer and environmental activist, won the World Pro Junior Championship, they helped him improve his surfboards and helped him win the title. Since then, they have provided surfboards to many world-class surfers, including seven-time world champion Layne Beachley, three-time world champion Andy Irons, and former world champions Joel Parkinson and Dean Morrison.
However, at one point he realized that surfboard making itself, which is all about following rigid rules and shapes, reminded him of the boarding school he once attended and hated, and he began to focus on making alternative boards.
Asymmetrical, twin fin, single fin, finless, wooden board, hull...he shaped every type of surfboard and refined the characteristics of each.
He says, "I don't shape surfboards, I make them." Surfboards are literally soulful works of art, made only under his own watchful eye from start to finish. Of course, the art is also one-of-a-kind, created by Chris himself.