Paul J Schmidt

Paul has logged over 10,000 hours in the shaping bay and glassing studio, and for the past six years, has worked out of Rockaway, New York. A native of landlocked Virginia, Paul developed his surprising love for surfing when he was 12. He made his first surfboard out of curiosity when he was 20, and over the years has developed an organic business out of his pursuit for perfection of the craft.

He began his journey with wooden boards, experimenting with balsa, basswood, spruce and pine, in latticed and hollow constructions. Today, in the studio of Paul Surf (est. 2014), he utilizes solar-made blanks which are more environmentally friendly than their industry standard counterparts. Paul completes every step of the custom surfboard process by himself, with his hands, and lives his life’s joy of creating and riding thoughtfully built shapes.

Prior to shaping and glassing surfboards, Paul worked with a design team in Soho, New York, which specialized in handmade glass sculpture, and before that, graduated from Brooklyn College with a masters in poetry.

If you’d like to learn more about Paul’s process, Paul Surf offers Shape Your Own 1-Day workshops as well as Watch and Learn instructionals. He would love to share what he has learned with you, just as has been done for so many generations.