Board shapers

lauraraggatt · Posted: Tue Nov 24, 2009 2:57 pm Post subject: Board shapers

Miles Jackson is an up and coming shaper based in Oxford. He is currently making custom boards at a massively reduced price to help him get his brand set up. I haven't met him but a friend of a friend who had a board made by him is apparently very pleased with it.

I contacted him (autumn 2009) to see what he's up to and if he's any good, and below is what he has to say about himself.....
He mentions some photos at the end of his message. He is referring to his latest creation, a 6'3" Performance Egg. Photos of this board are located in the "Odd" folder of the gallery (towards the end), which is located here:
http://gallery.lscmembers.co.uk/v/odds/
They are each labelled "Miles Jackson performance Egg" plus a number.

From: jackson.miles@gmail.com

Laura,

Thanks for your interest. I'm way stoked the word is getting out. I'm sending along in a separate email a couple of shots of the board that got picked up on Tuesday. It's my most recent. I made these photos into wallpapers for my desk at work so they are all I have access to during my lunch break. Its a 6'3" Performance Egg. I say performance because it has a rocker more akin to a shortboard of the same size, but has the egg shape. It has single concave transition to double concave through the fins.

A little background. Started shaping about 5 years ago while in college. Boards got shaped on front lawns, storage closets, apartment balconies, until I had a proper garage. Then I graduated and got a job and emegrated here in Oxford working as an CFD Aerodynamicist for Williams F1. So my day job is designing aero bits for the F1 race car and I do the shaping during my evenings. Its taken me a while to get the surf shack setup, buying all new tools with the proper voltage and putting in the electricity, low lighting, and contrasting walls. But now it is up and running.

In addition to shaping boards I have also worked directly with the guys at FCS doing foiled fin design. I have recenlty just done a set for Kelly Slater, which I was stoked about to say the least. They are still in testing and not in production as of yet. So enough name dropping.

Something that differentiates me a bit is that I use CFD (computational fluid dynamics) in the design of the rocker especially. This is just one more tool to help me understand the flow around the board and increase the performance. I know its a bit nerdy, but so far it has improved the performance of the boards. This kind of research is on going as I build more and more boards.

So Oxford is about as far as you can get from any coast. But I like your idea of it being closer to London. I would love any connections that come from that direction becuase its a simple train/tube ticket in and out of London for delivery back and forth. There is a good market potential that I've been meaning to tap into. Any help and word of mouth I greatly appreciate.

As you can see from the photos, my work is top notch. I think they speak for themselves. I am also realistic. I know my brand isn't well established yet and I knock down my prices to compensate. In return I generally ask for a couple of things from my customers. I ask that they stay in touch and give me feed back on the boards. This is how I build the brand and performance characteristics. And I ask them to realize that I do the boards in my evenings and so it takes just a little longer to get a full custom board. Not much longer, but just a little patience on that side. Repairs are still quick and easy. Basically I love shaping and surfing. I also love the expression on the face of the customer when they see and rub their hands down their custom board for the first time.

Let me know what you think of the photos. You can pass them around if you want. Just put my email in there too!

Cool,
Miles