Toward the tail end of the winter season last year, I was surfing at a local HB spot with big juicy dumpers powerfully imploding onto a sandbar. In this specific spot, when the waves get to this specific magnitude, people just don’t want to do the paddle. Call me stupid, or maybe a barney, up to you. There were 3 people out: me and two teenagers who were chucking themselves into any and everything back-breakable. Watching them fearlessly drop into the thickest HB has to offer was kind of inspiring and you know what? I went for one… That I shouldn’t have. It was probably a bit over my head (literally and figuratively). I dropped in, the wave went vertical and my fins failed to engage into the wave face, flipping the board onto its back. I landed on the bottom of the board upside down and on my back. Shit, not good. I felt one of the fins dig into my spine and my elbow clash with fiberglass. Definitely, not good.
Well, as you can imagine, I got worked, but so did my board. The fin was gone and the fin box was hanging halfway out. There was also another large hole shaped like my elbow in the top left side of the board. Damn teenagers. I felt like I just squared up in the ring with my shred stick, and trust me, I had bruises on my back and left arm to show for it. As I walked to my truck, I assessed the damage and thought, “I could fix the hole myself but would have to take the fin box elsewhere.” I “fix” my own boards. Sure you do, barn. so naturally this 6’2” Inflight Riot model sat in my apartment, haunting me for six months.
Coming onto the surf scene after watching movies like The Endless Summer or Five Summer Stories, I quickly developed a romanticized view of what being a surfer was. The do-it-yourself attitude and freedom attracted me to the culture. Bearded Nat Young in Morning of the Earth shaping his own board in a grassy meadow while inhaling foam dust without a mask is the essence of surfing. So, how can I be that cool? Not possible, barn! Anyway, when I have a broken board I always try to fix it myself. There is a huge learning curve involved, however. I picture myself as Nat Young while I’m doing ding repair on two beach chairs on my porch. Yet, in reality, I am just a delusional 27-year-old wasting time and money while splashing resin all over myself and my apartment (my girlfriend really hates me). It’s a sticky hazardous chemical mess but at least I’m living the life of a true hardcore salty beach enthusiast. Ehhhhh.
This time I decided to swallow my pride and ask for help.
McHugh Boards
McHugh Boards owner Timmy McHugh is the real-life modern-day character from these classic films. He is designing a life that he enjoys; an ocean-centered lifestyle from the movies. Travel. Surf. Fix boards. Jiu-Jitsu. What else do you need in this life?
On Wednesday, I drove my coal-powered off-white Ford north up the 405 to Santa Monica to pay Timmy a visit. He was going to fix the fin box (I need that board for the winter) and show me where he works and how he does his thing. I ended up spending the entire workday with him.
Within that day he juggled seven boards, fixing them from start to finish. It was a magic act. It takes me a week of work to fix a crack in the nose and it comes out looking like I pulled a prank on myself. Surprise barn, I gave my eight-year-old cousin a Pokemon card and he fixed your board! At the end of the day, all the surfboards Timmy was working on — logs, fishes and shortboards of all different colors — were revived and sanded to their original manufacturer finish.
His skill and precision did not come to him in a dream; no, the Ding Dr. did not appear in the middle of the night to teach him which sandpaper grit to use on the gloss coat (final finishing coat). It took him years of learning and doing to become that efficient. Timmy has traveled the world — as surfers do — in a ceaseless pursuit to get tubes and experience foreign cultures. Repairing surfboards was a logical way for the now 31-year-old to fund his travels or to even keep his travels going. Working with resin is a skill and apparently, when you are a ding repair maestro you will attract tons of friends anywhere you go. Timmy spent a year in Australia when he was 25 where he morphed into a mythical character at a hostel on the Gold Coast. He was the surfboard surgeon for the entire hostel; hand sanding, mixing and fixing, all from the balcony of the second floor. What a sight it must have been. That’s where it all began; that’s where his dream of having a resin-salt-infused existence became a possibility. Then, during the start of the pandemic in 2020, McHugh Boards was born — Timmy had the time and the available space to begin to shape and glass a serious amount of boards. He moved down to Huntington Beach because of its proximity to the core of the surf industry. He was meeting potential customers in the water (me included) and fixing their boards and shaping blanks in his garage. With all of the experience he was gaining, Timmy figured he could be of use to longtime local glass shops in the area. A local glass shop needed an employee to work their CNC machine, glass boards and help with ding repair. Timmy was the guy for the job. During his time here, he learned pro tricks and tips of the trade and leveled up in his craftsmanship. However, the surfboard manufacturing industry is driven by mostly passion. Unfortunately, because of pricing throughout the industry, surfboard factories are not known to yield large profit margins for the owner and that trickles down to the employees. Expensive material, highly skilled and intensive labor and fixed end-product prices are the core issues that surfboard shop owners face. The lifestyle it provides makes it worth it. Of course, once a shaper has the skillset, it only makes sense for them to create their own label so that they can make more money. So after several months of learning, Timmy went solo again, this time with even more ability and knowledge of the craft.
The conundrum: how can I surf every day while making money to support myself as well? Surfers get creative and occupy every area of the occupation spectrum from real estate agent (make your own schedule), to teacher (take summers off), to blogging like a barney (still working on how that can support anything), to pilot (fly to Puerto Rico once a week and bring your twinny), to Instagram influencer (Boardporn tests and rides different boards in Rockaway, NY), to well, you get the point. But being a board builder and delicate ding director deserves a throne in the surf fiefdom. Board builders inspire progression and lead ocean fanatics into the future, all while designing a life that allows them to enjoy the ocean — that’s a lot of designing. That’s special. Recently, in Matt Warshaw’s Sunday Joint, he paid homage to the late inventor of the boogie, Tom Morey (RIP). While describing Morey’s influence on the surf world he wrote, “What surfing very much does need are people who think outside the box, who laugh at the box, who wonder what would happen if they strapped the box to their feet and tried to surf it. This takes work and dedication. People like this — the innovator-philosopher-humorist — are not born as such. People like this craft themselves.” Board builders are these innovators; Timmy and McHugh Boards are running with the torch that carries the ethos of the classic surf eras (not in design but in spirit) and are well on their way to out-of-the-box contributions.
Click play on the next two clips and watch Timmy get barreled — he knows his way around a surfboard.
Santa Monica
I pulled off the highway and entered Santa Monica, I could feel the vibe. It’s a great place to have a business; a place where creativity is encouraged. A melting pot of people from all walks of life. I was impressed (remember, I’m an East Coaster and this was only my second time in Santa Monica). Of course from a surfing lens Santa Monica is very much on my radar. Eye-widening tales of localism and fast-paced party culture synonymous with surfing and skating back in Southern California’s renowned raw days have encouraged my fascination with this region. Yea, I’ve seen Lords of Dogtown. Obviously, it’s waaaay different today but the history is interesting in a gang-folklore-grungey-surfer type of way. Here are some enthralling sceneries from my day in the South Bay:
Workspace in Southern California is like fine dining — it costs too much while giving you back very little. So it is hard for a growing surfboard brand to afford a legit shop in the beginning. This is the struggle. McHugh Boards is currently located in Santa Monica in the front yard of a quaint blue apartment building with a white picket fence. As I stood in the yard, sipping on some freshly brewed coffee, I felt like I was finally living the idyllic surfing lifestyle — if only for that one day. I was surrounded by surf-craft in every corner, board building materials, and plants that would have a chef drooling: parsley, oregano, mint, figs, lemons and more. Mmmmmm.
The day of ding repairs.
Here is my board pre-surgery — poor soul. Timmy is sanding and prepping the broken fin box.
A little filler should do the trick to ensure that the fin box is flush with the surrounding areas. Notice that the fin cant (the degree to which the fin is tilted on the board) matches the opposite fin.
Quick sanding sesh to make sure the area is flush.
Glass and hot coat!
Gloss and finish sanding… Voila!
As you can see for yourself, his ding repairs are of the highest quality, as well as his boards. He absolutely shreds and rides his own creations; firstly, to try new boards and secondly, to see what works and what needs alterations. Mr. McHugh understands which small adjustments of foam distribution throughout the board will help your shredability. Let’s pick his brain a little shall we?
When did you start surfing and why?
I was like 14-years-old and I moved to Malibu from The Valley and I had a surfboard in my friend’s garage and then I gave it a go and just taught myself at Zuma beach.
Can you remember the first time you became aware of surfers and surfing as a kid?
I saw that movie Blue Crush, remember that one movie? I was like 13 or 12 and the music of the movie and then moving to Malibu made me want to give it a go. I had a couple of different starter boards, one of them was a six-foot foam board and the other one was a six-foot Wave Tools and then I tried both of them and got pretty good pretty quick and it escalated from there. I was surfing Point Dume and all the other points while I was in high school.
How’s Point Dume?
It’s clean and sheltered by the cliffs so you don’t have to worry about wind most of the time. It’s mainly a summer spot because it only works on south swells, so that’s the downside. It doesn’t really work during the winter.
Why did you start building boards?
Ooooo, good question! I started off doing ding repair when I was 16 and throughout my life, I had always been repairing my boards, and they were probably really crappy repairs. I thought it was fun and picked up that ding wizard book (Ding Repair Scriptures); I think everyone knows about that one. After I picked the book up, I gave it a go and then I started making boards a couple of years ago now. When the pandemic hit, it was the perfect time (to get his board company started) because I had nothing to do but just shape boards all day. I was picking up five second-hand blanks at a time and just selling them (his finished surfboards) for the cost of materials. I did that just to push them and get the experience which was really smart because I was able to get the materials completely covered.
Second-hand blanks?
Yea, they have firsts or seconds, and seconds are the ones that came out with something wrong. For example, a small hole or a small deformation. They get marked as seconds and they’re cheaper. 20 bucks cheaper. I would buy five at a time and would get them for a good deal.
Currently, are you glassing, shaping, or doing ding repair?
All of the above. A lot of ding repair. I’m also making a lot of boards. Usually, the boards that I make are 75 percent for me. If they don’t suit me for whatever reason then I sell them. I just sold one yesterday because there was too much foam on the tail so I felt it right away. I sold it real quick! The guy scored because it was a brand new board.
How many boards have you built from start to finish?
Over 100 now!
Tell me about your time working at the glass shop.
I called the owner and asked if he needed any help. He said that he needs someone to use the CNC machine. I knew nothing about using a CNC machine but he trained me and I was happy to work for him for a while. I learned all I needed to know and moved on.
Everyone wants to shape, but is there a need for glassers and sanders in the board-building industry?
That’s what I’ve heard. I heard that there is always a need for glassers, especially color lam guys (color lamination). There is a shortage of those guys. A lot of people don’t know how to do it.
You know how to color lam, though!
Of course I do, but I’m going to do it for myself not for a guy because then he’s going to make all the money. I’d rather be my own boss.
I noticed on Instagram that you travel all the time, what allows you to have all that flexibility in your schedule?
Doing ding repair allows me to have the exact lifestyle that I created for myself. Which is to work as much as I want doing a job that I love because doing ding repair is the best job ever; it’s super crafty. Cutting cloth, pasting, using colors are all rad.
Click play below and watch Timmy rip some waves abroad!
Favorite part of ding repair?
It’s kind of all annoying after a while! It’s all fun when you have a little to do but when there’s too much it can get crazy. Although, laminating is fun.
What’s your favorite wave that you surfed during your travels?
Padang Padang in Bali! Scored it six-to-eight foot; perfect barrels. Barrel after barrel, it’s the same wave every time.
If you were marooned on Catalina Island and the ferry was no longer running, and out of the distance you saw a surfboard floating toward shore, what board would you hope it would be?
Probably a 5’9” shortboard. Pintail. My own board for sure!
What board would you put under the feet of a never-surfed-before barn?
Most likely a fish. Something that’s wider and more stable. So, yea, a fish or a longboard. Maybe a funboard shape.
Wavestorms?
Yea, why not, those are good for beginners.
What about a progressing barn that has solid fundamentals?
Ok, they get a fish haha!
What do you think people should know about you and the backyard shaper?
Well, I do quality work, it’s insane! I’m still waiting, but I am going to get a shop really soon. Once I get the shop then game over with all the traveling; the impulsive and sporadic travels.
You can get someone to work the shop so you can travel!
Well, that would be later down the line. For a while, I would be in charge of everything.
What’s the biggest hurdle for you and McHugh Boards in terms of getting some space for a shop?
Finding a good spot to do it. That’s the biggest hurdle. I’m waiting for a miracle because I’m waiting for the shop to be on the west side, I don’t want it to be in some crappy location so that’s not going to be cheap. I don’t want it to be anywhere but the beach. A little inland is fine but not downtown L.A. or The Valley. I mean, it would actually take off in The Valley and be doable.
How is your current workload?
Right now, I actually have the perfect amount of workload. I’m able to handle it without going insane and blowing up the place.
Ok, two more questions I promise…
Go for it haha!
If you could surf with any past or present surf-world icon, who would it be and why?
Probably Andy Irons. It’s so sad and random how one day he just died. I also love Gabriel Medina. He lands the impossible; he’s super sick!
What type of surfers do your boards cater to?
Shortboarders. I mainly make shortboards for myself and that’s kind of what my shaping is evolving into. I’m getting really good at em’. I can definitely make other types of boards but I’m really getting the art of the shortboard down. Isn’t that killer?
You gotta’ make one, man!
Absolutely.
If you would like to learn more about McHugh Boards, check out Timmy’s Instagram @mchugh_board. Hit him up for a custom or to fix your surfboard — your prized possession needs some love! Also, you can email us at [email protected] with any follow-up questions and we’ll be sure to get back to you! I hope you’ve enjoyed, please make sure to subscribe to the blog so you can stay up to date with shapers, events, cringey stories and more!
– Barney Beadettte