There's a lot to be said for shapers who burn brightly when an idea works and then spend the rest of their career perfecting the concept. In the process they discover more and more about the design elevating themselves from the jack of all trades to the master of one. It may not be all they shape though they always seem to return to it. Think MR and twinnies, Maurice Cole and deep concaves, Webber and rocker, Mick Mackie and sidecut fish, or Hayden Cox and his variations on the full nose planshape.

Tom Wegener could be added to that list though not for a design feature but a material. Tom hasn't always shaped with wood, and he still doesn't exclusively work with it, yet it's become his raison d'etre. Tom's an inspired shaper, yet it's hard to imagine that being the case if he stuck with foam and fibreglass.

His most recent experiments have been harnessing the flex of cork in boards of various length, the knowledge used in the skimboard-style boards he's making for Tom Curren.

Here Tom speaks about his early days of shaping, the joys of working with wood, and how it rides differently.