They say variety is the spice of life — and when it comes to surfboard shaping, Thomas Bexon’s flavour profile is off the scale. Under the ‘Thomas Surfboards’ brand, which he started with Jake Bowrey, his career is a melting pot of styles, designs and different craft. Initially drawn to shaping in his early teens through the inspiration of traditional longboards that he grew up riding on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, his craftsmanship now spans across logs, mid-lengths, twinnies and thrusters with an alternative tweak.
He’s built World Title winning longboards for Harrison Roach, shaped alternative step-ups for Tosh Tudor’s first trip to Teahupo’o and is providing the tools for a group of women who are intersecting the ideals of aesthetics and performance by riding all different types of crafts in every sort of wave.
One of those women is 20-year-old Lilliana Bowrey who glides freely on longboards, charges forehand tubes on quads or twinnies and can flare up on a traditional thruster. We profiled the goofy-footer in our latest edition of the mag and she gave glowing reports on Bexon. So we thought we’d give Thomas a call to learn more about the man putting foam under the feet of some of the world’s most stylish.
So Thomas, what sparked your interest in longboards and other alternative craft?
I was pretty lucky, I had a friend whose Dad owned Weir’s Inside Edge Surf Shop in Cotton Tree. It was super old school and had been in the family for generations so the rafters filled with old longboards and single fins. We’d go surfing and his Dad, Brian, would be riding a board from like 1965 and he’d let us have a go so that sparked my interest from a young age. At the same time we were seeing more traditional longboarding coming out of California and there was the early stuff of Derek Hynd riding a fish at J-Bay. Having access to that sort of stuff shaped my interest and I always saw it as something different and bit more interesting, it wasn’t common and it wasn’t the standard.
When did you shape your first board?
I was probably about 14 or 15 when I shaped my first board. It came about from wanting to try new stuff. I didn’t have the money to order the eight foot single fin egg that I’d seen in a surf video, so Brian said ‘why don’t you try and make one?’ He got me blank, gave me a few tips and I just went and had a crack at it. I turned Mum’s garage into a temporary shaping factory and used a couple of wobbly stands to put the boards on.
Tell us about the journey from shaping your first board in Mum’s garage to starting Thomas Surfboards?
Shaping was just a hobby for a long time. I was only making boards for myself and slowly but surely I stared making some for friends who were happy to ride average shapes but at the time didn’t know any better.
After school I went to Uni and studied social work. I did two years of the course, took a year off to work and surf, then went back and finished my degree. By the end of it I realised I didn’t want to do this as a career. At that time I’d started taking the boards I’d been shaping down to The Factory, ran by Paul Carson, to get glassed. Paul then offered me a job fixing dings, sanding and polishing. He also let me build my own boards through the factory and it just slowly grew. In the early 2000’s I was building heavy single fin longboards, I didn’t have any grand plans at the time. I worked for Paul for a few years and then eventually he downsized his business. I did some ghost shaping for Tom Wegener after that and that kinda spurred me on and made me realise I had the ability to do my own thing. I then moved to the Hayden Surfcraft factory in Maroochydore and at that time I was trying to balance working in a café with shaping. I was getting more and more orders and had to make a decision to do one or the other. While trying to give the shaping gig a crack, I had been speaking to Jake Bowrey, he was one of the best laminators I knew and we talked about going into business together. We both had supportive partners who were in full time work, so we decided to set up a business out of a shipping container, which, I guess, was the start of Thomas Surfboards.
We paid ourselves $300 each a week for the first two years and mum was our book keeper, free of charge, for the first five years. We started to grow from there. We then rented the shed next to our shipping container and we used half the space for shaping and the other half we let our mate open a barber shop. It was at this point we were like ‘Oh, we’ve actually got a business here’.
How would you describe your shaping style?
I really just try to make board that suit the conditions more than anything. That’s led to all the different types of boards I’m making. The other day Tosh Tudor sent me a clip of him at 12 foot Chopes riding a 6”5 step up thruster thing I’ve been building him. I’ve been getting more excited about performance type boards recently as it’s a new and different challenge. It’s completely different making a board you know someone is going to be getting seriously tubed on versus a longboard for someone riding a two foot point break with no consequences. That’s not to say I don’t still enjoy making those types of longboards, because I do.
How have you ended up shaping thrusters?
Lill (Bowrey) and Jake were kind of responsible for me making thrusters at the start. Lill was starting to compete at age eight or nine doing the Queensland State Titles, so it kind of started there. I’d get an idea based on the ding repairs that were being brought in at the time and sort of study the outlines from there.
Do your thrusters differ from your standard high performance shortboard?
If you took some of the ones I’ve made Tosh recently and put them next to a JS or Pyzel, they’d be a little different. They have that similar single into double concave and contours, but there’s still a big of difference.
Are there any limitations on what a customer can order then?
No, that’s what has kept it interesting for me. Because I feel like there is no limitations. A few weeks ago someone ordered a 7”2, 7”4 and 7”6 gun. It’s what keeps me motivated and inspired. Yes, we’re known for our longboards but I’d say that’s about 50 percent of what we do these days. I couldn’t imagine only shaping high performance shortboards and pumping them out all the time.
Who are your biggest influences?
The surfers I get to make boards for, especially the top pros. Watching Tosh at Chopes, Harrison (Roach) competing on them or even the girls; Lilliana, Luca Doble and Mason Schremmer were doing some of the best longboarding I’ve ever seen on a recent trip to Sri Lanka. That stuff is special to me and it’s my inspiration to keep making better boards.
How many boards do you think you’ve shaped?
Probably around 15,000. Since we started counting it’s about 11,500 but there were a few thousands before that.
If you had to shape one board for the rest of your life, what would it be?
That’s too hard. Can I pick three?
I’ll give you two…
Ok. I’d probably go a super Aussie inspired style longboard, super foiled out, rolled bottom, the board that got me into shaping. When first point in Noosa is waist to chest high, there’s nothing more perfect. Secondly, I’d go with the boards I’ve been shaping for tubes, slightly alternative step ups that feel so good under arm. The curves in them feel so nice and knowing the types of wave they’re going to be put in is super rewarding.
Aside from shaping, I’ve heard the Thomas Surfboard parties have gained quite the rep. Care to share?
Haha! We were really lucky not to get into trouble doing them at the start. We would reach out to Sailor Jerry’s and Corona who’d send us a bunch of booze which we’d just give out for free. We’d have a mates band playing, surf movies on and no liquor license or security. We managed to get away with it for a few years but eventually got told off by the cops. We also grew up a bit and realised we should do it properly otherwise someone could get hurt. So we still do it once a year but it’s a lot more responsible, we play by the rules and it’s a ticketed event which allows us to get bigger bands and we even have toilets now.
