“I find a shape that works well and then try to help it along,” he said. “I’m always trying something new, but I’m not doing anything ground breaking.”
Like Becker, for whom he once worked, he prefers a hand planer to a shaping machine.
Cobley’s personal favorite board is a four-fin long board, but he said it’s too squirrely for most surfers. It’s a good board forMalibufor getting through sections because it’s so fast, but it’s not so good for Trestles or Haggerty’s if you want to do top to bottom turns, he explained.
He said he played with the rocker on a four-fin short board and got the board to perform like a standard thruster. “But my team rider said, ‘Why go to all the trouble of changing the shape. Just put the drive (center) fin back in.’”
Cobley makes boards for that narrow group of surfers who know what they want, but need guidance on how to get it. This year, he made a lot of “step up” boards in the 7-foot-6 range for guys hoping to win the South Bay Board Riders Big Wave Challenge.
“Fin placement, foil – that’s where guys like me come into play. Bring me that magic board you broke and I can duplicate it or expand on the qualities that made it so good,” he said.
Dan Cobley: Danc Surfboards, 640 Cypress, Hermosa Beach310-469-2671.
