Breaking the Fiberglass Ceiling
Surfboard building has long advantaged men, but women are pushing the industry in new and vibrant directions
In 2018, a visual artist named Rachel Lord suffered a temporarily debilitating car accident that caused her to rethink her creative path. “I’d spent years making art that went on a wall for a short period of time and then disappeared for eternity into a private collector’s storage. I found myself wanting to do something that would have a life beyond its initial showing,” said Lord, who studied at the esteemed Rhode Island School of Design and now lives in Ventura, California.
Just before the accident, Lord found her creative focus shifting toward her interest in surfing, in particular the way surfboards seemed to pose a more gratifying artistic challenge. “There were things about the boards I was riding that I knew I instinctually wanted to change,” she said.
There was just one problem: Lord couldn’t find anyone to teach her how to shape a surfboard. “I reached out to people who shaped when I was first trying to find someone to guide me
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