TOM HOYE & DA CLAW

Tom Hoye’s surfboard shaping factory is in a faded brick building hidden behind a row of jarrah trees in Margaret River’s light industrial estate. On the locked shopfront door is a map directing visitors around the back. Through a slot in the sandy concrete wall, across a yard, past a 1985 Nissan Patrol patched with fibreglass, and through the raised roller door.

Tom comes out, all bright and sun-battered, white hair with a 240V charge through it. Californian drawl. Biker moustache. Trusty sneakers, one at the end of a mangled leg. Eyes equal parts mad scientist and measured craftsman. We go through to the musty front showroom, where five of Tom’s trademark ‘Da Claw’ surfboards are hanging on the wall.

For 40 years, Tom has been here quietly crafting these designs. He’s a renowned shaper in underground circles and is sometimes credited with introducing the twin fin to Australia in the early 70s. His unconventional shapes have always been polarising, but Tom isn’t too concerned about what others think. He’s just here for the ride – and the surfboards.

Each board in the display room is tinted yellow and has five, black glassed-in fins. The smallest is a 7’10”. The longest is 12 feet and four inches thick, “A serious fucking surfboard,” says Tom. Above the counter, there is also an 8’2” sailboard with cascading stepdown rails and golf ball like dimples in some sections.

These boards, like all of Tom’s surfboards, are shaped entirely by hand, he tells me. He is one of the last remaining professional shapers who work in this way. It’s hard work for a 75-year-old man, especially one who bears the debilitation of a lifetime dedicated to surfing. Tom knows he could save his body and make more surfboards and money if he moved to a shaping machine, but is compelled