Surfer interview: Jeff Lebron

By Nick McGregor

Jeff Lebron looks and acts just like any other surfer in his early 30s: baggy shorts, disheveled hair, a couple days worth of stubble on his face, an easy-going demeanor. But Jeff is also an accomplished surfboard shaper who ended up plying his trade in St. Augustine after growing up in Northern California. Drift rapped with Jeff about his craft, his desire to keep shaping simple, and the new logo he needs Drift readers to create.

Drift: Let’s start with the basics.
Jeff Lebron: I grew up in California, in the Stanford area, right over the hill from Half Moon Bay. I ended up in St. Augustine because my dad retired and the whole family was moving here. I’ve lived here for six years; I was on-and-off for the first three, coming here for six months and then going back to Cali the other six. Eventually it was that or this, so I made the move to Florida.

D: Did you start shaping surfboards in California?
JL: I never learned how to shape out of a factory in California, I just taught myself. Back there, it wasn’t really a big deal; friends would have extra blanks, because everyone knew how to shape and everyone got customs. I was just messing around up until about six years ago, when I started getting pretty serious. Now I’ve got it dialed in: the guy that helped me out was a boat builder down in Crescent Beach, and he had bought a Clark Foam kit for his son. His son never took it on, I told him I wanted to start shaping more seriously, and he said, ‘Well, I’ve got the kit here, go on.’ From there, I ramped up to doing a board a week, the boards got better, and I started getting compliments.

D: What do you hope to get out of the surfboard craft?
JL: My thing is not really to mass produce boards, it’s just all about doing something that I love to do — shaping for myself and people I know, getting guys stoked about their boards. I’m not in it to make money — you can really only make chump change. I’m here to just make some badass boards, and that’s it.

D: Do you complete all the work yourself?
JL: I usually send my boards out to Burgess [Autrey, of Warrior Surfboards] or Kevin [Mileski, of Black Pearl Creations], and they glass ‘em for me. I’ve done plenty of glassing, but mine doesn’t come out as good as theirs. They do a board within a couple days, where it takes me a week. Once you get all the chemicals and the fumes going, you’re just sick of it. That’s why I changed to epoxy [glassing]. I’ve been using sugarcane blanks from Ice-Nine Foam Works in Melbourne, and I just try to stay with clear boards, no gloss, no glass-in fins, pretty straightforward. I concentrate on the shaping, because that’s what I like to do. After all these years, I know what I want and what I like in a surfboard. Everything you see comes from years of testing — I know where to put the rocker, how to do the rails, what the width should be.

D: What’s your opinion on the different kinds of surfboard materials out there?
JL: I want to change to EPS [expanded polystyrene] foam, because it feels good underneath your feet. I actually bought the tools and the machine so that I can go buy a block of EPS and cut blanks myself. Then I’d need a bigger shop though [laughs]. Clark Foam [which shut down in December 2005] had four different kinds of blanks, but they were consistent. After they closed down, I had choices, which was good, but then there were problems with consistency. So if I go EPS, I know it’s always going to be a consistent block, which I can then cut myself. A lot of people just want polyester [the dominant surfboard material for the last 50 years] boards, because everyone’s got their little mindset. They’ll look at every bad thing about EPS, but they won’t test drive all the good things: durability, feel. There’s nothing wrong with a board that lasts longer. If you look through a magazine, you’ll see a lot of people now are going EPS. If you don’t know, you just have to look close.

D: Are you looking to expand your customer base?
JL: I don’t want to have a big factory like Kevin [at BPC]; I just want to have my own deal. I’ve gotten a little conceited after dealing with a lot of people who want a super magic board. I want to make a board that, all-around, is going to be a shred stick. One that, in these conditions, whether you’re a beginner or advanced, I know you’ll be able to shred on. It’s better to stay basic sometimes, rather than paying $900 for a board.

D: Where do you surf locally? Since you grew up in California, what’s your take on the waves in St. Augustine?
JL: I surf with the whole crew of guys on F St., but I move around — I’m a little bit older, so sometimes I go off by myself. You have to be versatile; you can’t be in the ‘one spot all the time’ mentality. And of course you’ve got to respect everybody in the water. I wouldn’t be here in St. Augustine if I didn’t like it. I just bought a house, and I’m trying to get my construction company together. It’s a little overwhelming … before I was just hanging out on the beach [laughs], and now I’ve got all this responsibility.

D: What’s up with your logo?
JL: I’ve been shaping for all these years and have not been able to come up with a logo. I’ve just been naming off each individual board, calling it ’such-and-such’ model without a logo. If Drift readers submit suggestions for a new logo, and if it’s a good one, I’ll give whoever wins a little bit of money and slap it on my board. All you artistic Drifters out there send your ideas to jlsurfboards@hotmail.com.