Style

This Female Surfboard Shaper Is Shattering Stereotypes With Her Unique Take On Board Design And Surf Craft

Want a board you'll treasure for the rest of your life? Christine Brailsford Caro is the woman for the job.

The women of the surf world are killing it recently, Bethany Hamilton has just been announced as the most recent entrant to the Surfer’s Hall Of Fame, Paige Alms recently took home the first ever female big wave world title and Stephanie Gilmore just got her 25th championship win at the Roxy Pro.

While women are front and centre more and more in surfing and taking up space in the line up, the background of the sport is still a massively male space with very few female names, with shaping staying one of the most male dominated areas.

One of the few women who have answered the call to shape surfboards is Christine Brailsford Caro, who defies the gender stereotype with her amazing custom designs. Shaping is just carving foam or wood to create a board that’s rideable, but Christine’s skill and finesse elevates her work to more than just a piece of equipment.

“I feel extremely privileged shape to boards for people. Bringing joy to others through my craft is what drives me to shape a better board every day” Christine told The Seea. “There are a lot of women shapers out there who aren’t as recognized as men and I feel fortunate to be one of them.”

“I want to keep focusing on the design and the form and not have anything take away from it.”

Christine not only shapes boards, but also creates her own art pieces through creating interwoven circle carving lines on wodden canvas and the two activities feed into each other in her style.

“I love the aesthetic of simplicity and focusing on the shape and the form” she says. “With my boards I keep them clean glass, clean color. With my design and art that I put on them, its very minimalist, just focus on the form and purity of it. I’ve always enjoyed that aesthetic.”

“The customers that I build boards for, they understand that. I want to keep focusing on the design and the form and not have anything take away from it.”

Christine’s artwork and carving have now been used in collaboration the Furrow Surf Craft designs for Dakine.

From apparel, to artwork and of course surfboards, the amazing stylings and intricacies of Christine’s work prove that when you let women into traditionally male spaces, something totally new and amazing can happen.