For example, Weiner recently worked with one of his pro riders, Adam Veers, to produce one of his latest designs. “We went out to the lake, got in a boat that puts out about a two foot wave, and we did some surfboard testing behind the boat to watch the way the boards rode.” Weiner gathered information from this experiment and then designed a small board that would surf well on small waves. In the past, pro surfers have won events on Weiner’s shapes, and in fact, Weiner himself won his second national title on the tenth board he ever shaped.

From age eight Weiner was immediately fascinated by the world of surfing, especially surfboard design. He bought his first Surfer Magazine, and from that point on, he read everything he could, accumulating a strong understanding of surfboard designs. He shaped his first board when he was 12 and later worked in a factory in Oxnard where he glassed, sanded, thinned, “did every aspect, learning from the bottom up.” He calls the next years from there “a natural progression to the level I’m at now…God opened some doors and things fell into place.” Weiner’s been committed to a career in shaping for the past eleven years, and has built a successful business around his label, Roberts Boards.

His specialization lies in shortboards, with most of his designs geared toward high performance. Ninety seven percent of his boards are pre–shaped digitally. In the past, Weiner says that the use of computers in shaping was actually frowned upon because people thought the machines were doing all the work sans the craftsmanship of the shaper. “You would become stereotyped as a sellout and that’s sad because it was state of the art technology.” Now the surfing community has become more educated in the use of computers. “I feel like my shaping now is at a point where everything is more technical, working out bugs in design. Now everything we do is fine–tuning.” He now produces consistent high-performance boards.

What has allowed Weiner to stay in the shaping business successfully for so long, he says, is the hard work and strong ethics he stands by. “I don’t mind getting dirty and working with my hands,” said Weiner. “Most kids [new shapers] that I see nowadays, once they see what hard work it is, they’ll get discouraged and give up.” Many misconceive shaping to be glamorous, super profitable, and a profession that allows a lot of surf time. “But words of wisdom” warned Weiner, “it’s a lot of hard work.” When he first started, he was making his own hours and surfing a lot, but now that he’s running a business on a bigger scale, his surf time has been cut shorter than he would like.

And now on top of his shaping, Weiner is also working with one of his pro-riders, Sean Hayes, to produce a movie. Titled Underground, the film is a documentary on the Roberts Boards team riders. The film is scheduled to be released this fall in local surf shops.

The focal point in all his work is to “continually strive to build a better product, work real hard, and gain trust from the surfers I deal with.” His logo, which is an arrow shape with a fish symbol at the top, represents Christ as the center. “Without Christ in my life, I feel like I wouldn’t have a business or a logo, so I put him at the top. I’m really thankful for everything I’ve had.” Roberts Boards is located in Ventura, call (805) 658–6855 for more information.