Tom shapes up to best in the world Tom Dalton really couldn’t have been anything else but a really good surfboard maker. Growing up, playing LOST AND FOUND: Shaper Tommy Dalton has earned a place in the world around dad Ray’s surf factory, watching and listening to all surfboard making hierarchy. the talk about surf and surfboards, learning to surf as soon as he could walk – he really didn’t have much option. Born in a caravan at Byron Bay in 1979 while Ray and Gail were building a house on their section by the beach at Suffolk Park, Tommy is a true child of the late ‘70s northern New South Wales and Gisborne surf cultures. Tom, now 28, and a new dad himself, has these days well and truly taken over from where “Aardee” left off and has gone on some from there. Tom is one of New Zealand’s most respected surfboard shapers and that reputation is also gaining recognition internationally. A business relationship and close friendship with Matt Biolas, the founder of Lost Enterprises, has given the Wainui local a global perspective of the surfing industry. Earlier Ray had latched on to the alternative Lost marketing concept, hand-shaping franchised Lost custom designs for the New Zealand market. Biolas came out to Gisborne in 2000 to check out what was happening at the Wainui factory, did some shaping and took a liking to young Tommy. He invited Tom back to California where he went to work shaping at the Lost factory in San Clemente. This was a huge boost for Tom to be working alongside the world’s best shapers at one of the world’s top-three surfboard making companies. In a recent issue of Kiwi Surf magazine Tom was quoted: “It was like I had qualified for the WCT of shaping. Arriving at my first day at work I realised that this was what I really wanted to do. This was my dream.” At the end of that two month stint Tom had shaped 400plus boards for Lost. What he would expect to make in a whole year before Christmas the latest in surfboard technologies Lost Firewire. in New Zealand. In the Kiwi Surf article Matt Biolas summed up Tommy Dalton: When he got back home dad saw it was time to hand over the reins “Tommy’s a great guy. He immersed himself into my family and we of the family surf business, moving aside to let Tom do the full-time surf a lot together, have a lot of fun. He’s driven to keep up with the shaping and generally take over The Boardroom with partner Hayley. times and grow his business. I am sure we will work together for a Tom went back to the States the following year again at the long time ahead.” invitation of Biolas and went to work six days a week pumping out literally hundreds of boards for many of America’s leading surfers, earning more and more respect and trust from the Lost boss. In 2004 he agreed to go to work at Lost’s European based factory in Spain where he shaped all the Lost boards for shops throughout Europe and for the entire Lost team in Europe. It was in Spain that he proposed to girlfriend Hayley and they were married the very next summer on the sand at Makorori Beach. Since then he’s been making the trip to San Clemente every northern summer, except last year, while Hayley was pregnant with Jett. It’s an amazing and fruitful relationship for the local boardmaker, being befriended and trusted by one of the world’s leading shapers and surf brand entrepreneurs, being able to keep in touch with innovations and new designs, making boards for the world’s leading surfers (Cory and Che Lopez, Chris Ward, Shane Bechan, Aaron Cormican). All this experience, knowledge and insight is brought back home to the shaping bay and surf shop in his Mum and Dad’s front yard. Here he and Hayley retail custom and off-the -shelf surfboards incorporating a range of international labels such as STD, Lost, MR, P 867 1684 W www.surfboardsnet.nz Chilli, Placebo Fexlite’s and Ray Dalton Longboards – and coming
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