JC: How many boards are you in control of designing each season?
SW: I don’t really know; there are so many. In the old days, there was only windsurfing. Now the stand-up movement came along which has a lot of momentum because it is new. So models change quicker and the range grows quicker. Windsurfing is already established, we don’t have such big steps and models stay longer in the range. But I am in charge of every single board for both stand up and windsurf. In SUP we do a 6’10 wave board all the way up to a 14 foot race board while windsurfing goes from a 77 Stubby all the way up to the Viper. It’s a huge diverse range.
JC: How did you score the job as shaper for Fanatic?
SW: First of all I became a shaper just through lack of money when I was young. I did not have the cash to buy a new board. In those days the production boards were all over three metres, big boards! Back then building your own board was quite a common thing. I wanted to windsurf and I needed the latest boards and trends so I built my first one when I was fourteen. I kept making boards while I was competing on the tour and while I was on the German racing circuit. Before I became the shaper for Fanatic I was actually racing for them. I was a team rider and “a slot opened up to help with shaping and design and that is where it all started. That was over twenty years ago! That is a lot of boards I have been involved in over all those years.