Josh Hall

Josh Hall is a surfer/shaper from San Diego, Cal­i­for­nia. His inno­v­a­tive shapes are a direct result of the many hours spent with his men­tor, Skip Frye. His bound­less energy and stoke is evi­dent in the way he lives his life. We caught up with Josh to find out more.

Tell us about grow­ing up in Cal­i­for­nia.
I was born raised in the San Diego area and spent my time in Pacific Beach, the Crys­tal Pier area. I got into the sport pretty late but it was a nat­ural pro­gres­sion from rid­ing the soup when I was young. Start­ing off boo­gie board­ing, I made the tran­si­tion to surf­ing around my sec­ond year in high school. It’s late by today’s standards—where if you are not a pro by 14, you might as well give it up! (Laughs)

Describe your first board.
My first surf­board was a used Don­ald Takayama/Hawaiian Pro Designs surf­board. I think it was a 9’2”.

Who did you look up to as a young man?
Joel Tudor was a huge influ­ence on me and still is. And the local guys like Skip Frye, Bird Huff­man, and Joe Roper. I grew up very lucky. My base­ball coach was Bob Boeche, the owner of Dia­mond Glass­ing. I wouldn’t be any­body if it weren’t for the peo­ple I have known or met. They make me who I am today.

My grand­fa­ther was a big influ­ence on me also. The best piece of advice I got from him was to never shun any­one away for what they say. Always lis­ten to what they say because you never know—you might learn some­thing that can help you in the future. He taught me to be more socia­ble and to always lis­ten to what some­one has to say.

I have been extremely blessed with all the peo­ple I have been asso­ci­ated with so far in my life. And I’ve been to places I’ve never thought I would go to, and to be able to work and surf is mind-blowing.

How did you get started shap­ing?
It stemmed with me just want­ing to surf. My dad is a car­pen­ter and my grand­fa­ther is an engi­neer, so I have always been around build­ing things. It orig­i­nally started with ding repair and when I turned 18, I just bought a blank and totally went at it with the wrong tools. Shortly there­after, I ordered a board from Skip my sec­ond year of col­lege and I watched him shape it. And that was just the most … I can’t describe the expe­ri­ence of watch­ing him hand­craft this board. From that point on, I told myself this is some­thing I just have to do.

Why do you surf?
Because I have to. If I don’t, I freak out! Surf­ing for me is release. When you’re out surf­ing, you aren’t think­ing about other things, prob­lems or stress. Some­times it feels like a real self­ish sport because you’re out there doing it by your­self, but for me it’s like another form of church. I feel connected—there’s the spir­i­tual side of it. The phys­i­cal side of it? It keeps you in shape being in the water. Like I didn’t surf in the last three weeks and when I got back from my trip, that’s all I did for the next four days. It’s an addic­tion and it’s a con­nec­tion to Mother Nature. It ful­fills me in many ways.

Who are some of your heroes?
Skip is my num­ber one hero of all time. The local guys—Larry Crow, Joe Roper, Bird Huff­man, Joel Tudor. I could give you a laun­dry list, but those are the main influ­ences for me.

Tell us more about your rela­tion­ship with Skip.
What I admire most about Skip is how he has been able to main­tain his san­ity after the last 50 years of surf­ing with the ever-growing crowds. He is as stoked now as he has ever been. To have been lit­er­ally “The Guy” from the begin­ning, and to be still so stoked to rein­vent and test and exper­i­ment with stuff. He is absolutely amaz­ing because he can con­tin­u­ally rekin­dle the stoke with­out being bit­ter or sour.

One day, Skip sug­gested we do a board swap. He said, “I’ll build you a noserider if you make me one of those quad fishes.” I was like, “Whoa! Okay.” I was think­ing a 10 footer and he was like, “No, make it a mid-length.” So I shaped him this 7’11”. We went out and it was a really good day, and Skip was pad­dling out with Richard Ken­vin (another hero) and he was rip­ping on the board I built. He told me it pad­dled well, it trimmed, it went down the line. This thing went good. It was such a spe­cial day.

I feel like it is my respon­si­bil­ity to carry on the tra­di­tion that Skip started. Because once he stops shap­ing them, there won’t be any­thing like the boards he makes. I am try­ing to keep it pretty close to what I grew up rid­ing my whole life and what I’ve learned from him.

What’s next for Josh Hall?
Open­ing new mar­kets. Going back to Europe and devel­op­ing some more mar­kets in the British Isles and oth­ers. Just to con­tinue what I am doing. I’ve got a team going and this past Win­dansea con­test, I had five boards in the finals. It was so cool. It’s cool that peo­ple are rid­ing my boards and lik­ing them.

Find out more about Josh Hall surf­boards here. Fol­low his Hole in The Hall blog here. Top three pho­tos cour­tesy of Ryan Tatar. Fourth photo cour­tesy of Doug Agillard. All pho­tos are used by per­mis­sion and are the prop­erty of their respec­tive own­ers.