sea hope

Another great interview via Glenn Sakamoto at Liquid Salt Magazine

Michel Junod is a Cal i for nia surfer/shaper from Santa Cruz. He started shap ing in the 1960s, and for 4 years he lived on the North Shore where he honed his big-wave skills at Sun set Beach. He recently starred in Thomas Campbell’s lat est film The Present, along side Alex Knost. At 61 years old, Michel is still charging.

What was life like grow ing up?
I was born and raised in Santa Mon ica. From an early age, I took to the beach and started body surf ing. I started board surf ing in 1962, when I was about 12 or 13. I did other sports, but grow ing up in a beach town once I found surf ing, every thing else fell to the wayside.

What was your first board?
My first board was a cus tom 7–10 Jacobs. I was small for my age and couldn’t get my arm around a stan­dard board. As I grew, I got an 8–10 Dave Sweet and then an 8–10 Dewey Weber. My first 9–6 was a cus­tom 3-stringer Challenger.

Tell us how you got started shap­ing.
Surf ing led to shap ing. I was a team rider for Surf boards by Chal lenger, which was run by Carl “Tin ker” West in San Diego. In the sum mers of 1966, ‘67 and ‘68, we would go to the East Coast in the sum mer, to Bel mar, New Jer sey. Tin ker saw mov ing to N.J. as a smart busi ness move to cap i tal ize on the grow ing East Coast mar ket, where he changed the name to Chal lenger East ern Surf boards. Dur ing those sum mers on the East Coast he taught me to shape. By 1968, the short board rev o lu tion was on. Although there were many kinds of short board designs, I went for the “gun nier” shapes because I liked big ger and faster waves.

Who inspires you?
Carl “Tin ker” West, who taught me to shape. Later on it was Dick Brewer and Mike Dif f end er fer. Now it’s my friends and cus tomers, whose feed back is an inspi ra tion to me. Hand shap ing surf boards is a hard job, and I want peo ple to enjoy the energy I put into shap ing them a board, so mak ing cus tom boards really means a lot to me.

Do you shape your boards by hand or do you use a machine?
Both. Most are shaped by hand. Some mod els I’ll do on a machine if they are stock boards for a shop. For a cus tom board, I’ll shape it by hand. If you’re shap ing by hand, there are a lot of lit tle fea tures that you can add that reflect the cus tom nature and the desires of the cus tomer that you don’t get from a machine shape.

How did your Pump kin Seed model come about?
I lived in Hawaii where you want a nar rower board. I wanted a sin glefin feel and I wanted a beak nose, but I also wanted some thing a lit tle wider. It’s real user-friendly. You don’t have to think about it — you just go surf ing. It’s really a great all around design for most surf ing con di tions. Recently, I got a cease-and-desist let ter from another com pany that said they had a trade mark on “Pump kin Seed.” So I had to change the name. It’s now the Sunbeam.

What is your favorite board? And favorite surf spot?
They go together. My favorite spot is Sun set Beach and my favorite board is a 7–8 to 8–0 gun. I love going fast. If I’m on a noserider, it’s for one-to-four foot surf. But when it’s 10 to 12 feet and pump ing, I like the speed of a big ger wave. Sun set is the per fect wave for me.

In Thomas Campbell’s “The Present,” you are shown charg ing on a mas sive right in Africa. What was going through your mind at the time?
I was on a 7–0 single-fin star tail, a mod ern tem plate mini-gun. We were in the Cape Verde Islands, 400 miles off the coast of West Africa. That was one of the last big swells we got. I was excited to get some big waves and to be able to catch as many waves as I could. I was like, “Yeah, gimme another one.” In big surf like in Hawaii, my approach was always to try and catch a wave before a set wave caught me inside. I don’t like to sit, so I always try to keep mov ing and get a lot of waves. I hate wasted waves.

What do you love about surf ing?
One of the issues is get ting in the water, just rins ing your head out and get ting a few waves. But I also love that speed and weight less ness. It’s really addict ing, espe cially when you’re pump ing down the line.

What is the great est thing you have learned in your life?
That I’m a sin ner and Jesus Christ is my Lord and Sav ior, and that I belong to my Maker, and I’m not my own.

What are you most proud of?
I’m most proud of my wife and kids and the things that are long last ing. Even the great est ath letes and MVPs go on and see that all the glory dis ap pears in a cou ple weeks. My daugh ter is get ting into roller derby and is on the Santa Cruz Derby Girls. We saw her first match the other night and she really ripped. She got a stand ing ova tion. She goes by the nick name “Fleet wood Smack.” My son works in IT in the Sil i­con Val ley and is a gui tarist. They really make me a proud daddy. Jodi is my best friend and busi ness part ner. She does all the books, ship ping and phone calls from our home office. I couldn’t do it with­out her.

What’s your favorite meal?
Any time Chef Paul Figliomeni is cook ing. We’re good surf bud dies and I never miss a men’s event when he is cook ing, or when he invites us over to his house for dinner.

What kind of music do you lis ten to?
I lis ten to every thing. I’m a jazz fan and I grew up on Rock & Roll. In the 1950s, my par ents lis tened toKMPC in L.A., so a lot of Swing music and Louis Arm strong, Ella Fitzger ald, Count Basie and Louie Prima. In the late ‘60s and ‘70s, I got into Miles Davis and jazz fusion. I’m also into R&B, blues, rock, but also some coun try like Hank Williams and Johnny Cash. I have a huge CD col lec tion. In the fac tory, I blast these big Bose speak ers in the shap ing bay on my 6-CD changer. If any one comes by, we have to step out of my shap ing room to communicate.

What are you most grate ful for?
I’m most grate ful for my fam ily and for my friends. In Santa Cruz, we have a great surf ing com mu nity, but also great friends in the Chris t ian com mu nity who super-cool peo ple who I can always call on for help and support.

What’s next for Michel Junod?
Hope fully, grand chil dren (laughs). Just to be able to con tinue surf ing and to shape. We have a small place here that’s paid for, but I really can’t retire because of those monthly bills and unex pected expenses. I don’t have the same energy level I once did, but I can still surf for two or three hours straight. I’ve been shap ing for 44 years — I’m not invent ing any thing new, and I don’t shape many boards for pro fes sional surfers. I really just enjoy shap ing cus tom boards and mak ing my cus tomers happy.

To find out more about Michel Junod and his shapes, click here. Pho tog ra phy: Top and bot tom images by Ryan Tatar. All other images pro vided by Michel Junod.