A Shaper Story

Mike Whisnant started building surfboards at the age of 15 with his long-time friend Winnie Strickland in Neptune Beach, Florida. Initially, they started small by building one board a month. As time went on, they were able to build up to 40 boards a week with a full crew!

Mike had the opportunity to work with some of the most reputable surfboard brands in the market including: Atlantis surfboards, Savage, Rozo, Escape, Nev, HIC, Blue Hawaii, Byrne, Line Drive, and R. Wood surfboards. Mike started to build a reputation for building high quality boards.

In 1989 Mike was ready to start shaping under his own name, and Whisnant Surfboards was born in Jacksonville Beach, Florida. The main focus was to provide a customized experience to each individual surfer’s needs.

Mike spent the following years shaping and designing thousands of boards, while building one of the most recognized surfboard brands in and out of Florida. This recognition resulted in an invitation to the Florida Shape-Off at the Surf Expo in 2011. The Challenge was to copy one of Joe Shriver’s (WRV) last boards, a step deck shortboard. Out of all of the many talented East Coast shapers,Mike won by replicating the board close to perfection in 45 min! He won again in 2015, and in 2016 he even won the Master of Masters!

Most recently, Mike has worked in a number of collaborations including the creation and design of the Void Magazine surfboards. This unique quiver of boards were developed specially for Florida surf conditions. Mike was also selected by Trimcraft Surfboards to be the official shaper for the south east region. Trimcraft Surfboards was created by a roster of famous shapers including Gerry Lopez and Rich ‘Toby’ Pavel.

Today Mike finds himself as busy as ever. He continues to make high quality hand shaped surfboards by mixing traditional shaping techniques with new innovating surfboard designs.