Surfboard Shaping & Marketing In Real Estate

Shaping a surfboard is like designing a yard — and glassing is like painting the exterior of a house.

Ok — that sounds goofy, but I’ve done both for a living, and at least in my mind is a parallel similarity. This is me at 23 shaping in my garage on the beach in my Lanikai beach rental. Let’s start with this — there are no schools for shaping or making surfboards and no need for then for preparing a yard, JUST DO IT. The ROI on landscaping is the highest return at 180%, and painting is 120%. That is your highest ROI, and we all can do both with a little information and interest. I’ve said this about sanding wood floors, “if I can shape a board, I can sand a flat floor.” I’ve sanded 8 floors, and it is very doable with the right equipment and confidence.

Designing and planting a yard is similar to shaping in that you learn by trying, by watching and mostly asking the more experienced as many questions as you can dream up. Design is one thing, and maintenance is another. You need someone that you can trust to buy or provide plants for your plan as many designers design plants easily obtainable, usually grow fast growing plants nursery’s stock. This usually is a never ending maintenance project. Yes, you’ll design a few incorrectly and mistakes are learning tools for life, but if you can hear about the mistakes and not make them, it’s a lot more fun to do yards.

Contact me with questions of plant sources, design questions, and painting information. I’m happy to share these money making chores fun and profitable.

Fun fact about myself: I am 6th generation on the Western side native Hawaiian, and lived nowhere else but different locations on Oahu. I designed complete surfboards for a living in the late ’60s and shaped only for Lightning Bolt in the early ’70s and started Local Motion in ’77.  I sold Lo Mo in ’91 thinking he’d retire at 40 but was bored to tears and became a Hawaii Life realtor, ending his retirement.