Danny Hess
01Carve: Hess’ laminated wood frames start off pretty stiff—great for an airplane wing but not so much for surfing, where maneuverability is key. He uses a router to hollow out the rail band and promote flex at certain points on the board. Near the back, he carves even more from the frame to add the springiness a rider will need to pop out of a tight turn on a fast-moving wave. This process, Hess says, “gets flex into the board, removes weight, and really brings it to life.” | Prop: In every shaping room, you’ll see stands that hold a board at the correct height. Like much of the equipment in Hess’ woodshop, his stands are handmade and decidedly low tech. They’re built from wood so he can screw different pieces into them depending on the needs of his current project. “They get funky and beat up, like a worn-in pair of shoes,” he says.
02Escape: Exit the Woodshop, walk five blocks west, and you’ll be in the Pacific. If the surf is hopping, you can pretty much guarantee the shop’s staff will be there too.
03Slice: “This is the strangest thing in the shop,” Hess says of his homemade cutter. The metal wire heats up as it’s electrified by a battery charger. Hess uses it to slice foam so it fits snugly inside his wood-frame surfboards. It looks sketchy as hell, and it is. “Every once in a while, it’ll give you a little zap. It’s like a cup of coffee.”
04Plane: The Skil Model 100 plane is one of the trade’s most sought-after tools. Hess uses his (by his estimate, a 1963 version) for when he needs to remove a lot of wood. “It’s amazing for that,” he says. “So smooth and accurate.” Model 100s are rare, and Hess got his via a personal connection: “My friend showed up with it and said, ‘I’ll trade you a board for this right now.’ I was like, ‘Done.’ ”
05Gauge: To get the thickness perfect, Hess uses these funky-looking calipers. “Surfers want a specific thickness flow throughout the board. It’s based on weight, ability level, and what kind of volume you’re looking for. This lets me fine-tune specific parts of the board.”
06Shape: For his surfboards’ frames, or rails, Hess uses a type of band saw called a resaw. He slices large pieces of wood into thin eighth- or quarter-inch panels, which he then glues together and molds or bends into shape. When it comes to getting things just right, he brandishes a super-accurate little Japanese smoothing plane.
Damien Maloney07Trace: Hess keeps dozens of wooden and cardboard templates for fins as well as the tail blocks that form the end of a board. Sometimes clients will bring him cherished pieces of wood, which he’ll use to make these smaller parts.
Damien Maloney08Surf: Hess designs a variety of custom surfboards (starting at $850), from short shredders to flat fishes, fun logs to big-wave guns.
