story

ERIC

ARAKAWA

“For a long time I thought I was very wise for choosing Jesus. But the reality is, he chose us.

Ephesians 1:4 tells us that God chose us before the foundation of the world.

And Jesus makes the same point in John 15:16 saying, ‘You didn’t choose me. I chose you.'”

What  got you into shaping?

My shaping career started off as an accident – I didn’t intend to get into shaping full time. My original intent as I shaped my first board was just to provide boards for myself to ride. That’s it. I didn’t have any vision beyond that. I was 14 years old and I was too young to work legally, but I could do the odd jobs around the neighbourhood, call up the relatives and ask them if they needed the leaves raked and the lawn mowed. So that’s what we did, my two brothers and I. We’d work what I thought was all day. It was probably 2 hours – but it seemed like all day – and we’d get a dollar, perhaps a dollar shared between 3 boys. I can’t remember the exact amount, but it just was not much. I did the math and I remember thinking: this is going to take forever. We’d go out around the neighbourhood and collect glass bottles and take it down to the redemption centre, and get a few cents. So I thought no, there’s got to be something else I can do. I’ve got to cut to the chase. So I came up with this brilliant idea that I’d make my own board, and save the money. I didn’t have a blank, but my younger brother had a really, really thick board. So I decided to repurpose the board and I stripped all the glass. I didn’t even know the word repurpose back then, I don’t think it was invented yet. But I thought, I’m the older brother, I’m going to commandeer this board. I have a better purpose for it. So I took a hammer and a chisel and started chiseling away and stripping the glass off. It’s a good thing the board was thick because chunks of it came out with the glass. I believe it was a 6’8’’ and it was super, super thick. So I stripped it and reshaped it. I got a paper tablet, I can’t remember exactly how, but I think I traced another board on paper – it was very, very crude – and transferred that over to the blank. I cut it out somehow and then shaped it. I can’t remember what I used. Maybe it was a stone edge and a rock, but it could have probably been a saw and some other tools. Perhaps a short fore[MF1]  and some sandpaper. But I managed to get it shaped. I remember it was a winged pin tail and I remember thinking Wow, this board is so beautiful. I really impressed myself.

I remember taking it out for its maiden surf session, and I went to Pupukea and I remember it just would not drop in. It was the weirdest thing. I’ve never ridden a board like that. I tried to take off later and later but it didn’t even want to go down. In the end I realised, it was a terrible board. I have never ridden a board that was worse than that. It was the absolute worst. There isn’t even a close second.

Oddly enough, a close friend of mine asked me to build them a board. This time I started from a raw blank. I have no idea why he would even trust me, but I did it. It was a fun project, we got our hands dirty and it was fun. Then we did another one, and then one for a friend of a friend. And before I knew it, there were people that I didn’t even know ordering boards from me. And then one day it just dawned on me that I might be in business.

And I just did it. I was still going to school. And one day while I was in college, I think my second or third year, I decided that I was going to do this full time. In between there were a few successes, there were a few pretty good boards that I was able to surf. So by the time I was in college I had shaped quite a few boards. And I had shaped for a couple of companies, such as Lightning Bolt. So yeah, I did progress from that first board.

Out of everyone you’ve shaped for, who was the most challenging surfer to shape for, and why?

Ah, that would be an easy question to answer: Michael Ho. Two reasons. One, I was a really young shaper. I did have some successes and I was already travelling to different parts of the world to shape… But when Michael started riding my boards, I thought I knew a bit, but he took me through boot camp. He was on a tour back then and he was just ultra, ultra picky.

I was really young when I started shaping boards for him. I shaped him some boards for the Triple Crown, for the Pipe Masters. He had broken his wrist, and he had his arm in a cast a couple of days before the comp. So the night before his Pipe Masters we were trying to figure out how we were going to do this. He had a 7’4’’ board for Pipe that I shaped that he was going to ride. We knew that it was going to be pretty big that day. His hand was locked in the cast and he couldn’t grasp anything. It was a fibreglass cast and it was slick, so he couldn’t even push up on his board. He couldn’t duck dive, he couldn’t do anything. If you look at some of the old photos, there are some archive photos and videos where there is a black strip on the right rail of his board.

So we had decided to put asheldeck strips on the rail and we wrapped some of it around his palm and his thumb so that he could push up and his hand wouldn’t slide off the rail, and the rest is history. He won the event. He was getting pitted deeper than anybody and coming out. But it was really funny, as he paddled for each heat, he had to bail his board, he couldn’t even duck dive. He couldn’t even duck dive waves that were waist high and even shoulder high. He was letting the board go on the way out to the shore break. It was funny to see that, and then see him paddling for a gaping ten-foot monster at Pipe and just grabbing his rail and pulling in really tight and deep.

If you were to ask me what would be one of the most memorable events of my career, that would be it.

To this day I’ve never worked with anyone that picky. Bar none. Nobody. He was brutally honest, but that was the best thing for me. Over the years I’ve worked with shapers and some pros where it seems like they just can’t tell me. They can’t speak to me. Honestly. If the board doesn’t work, they don’t want to tell me. They feel like they’ll hurt my feelings. Of course, you don’t want to fail, but it’s critically important to know when you’re failing.

“Of course, you don’t want to fail, but it’s critically important to know when you’re failing. The reason the Good News is so good is because the bad news is so bad.”

You can apply that to the Gospel. The reason the Good News is so good is because the bad news is so bad. We have to get a grasp onto the bad news, to really appreciate and grasp on to the good news.

Michael’s brutal honesty was the best thing for me. It really showed me positionally where I was at and often it was not where I was supposed to be, as far as my designs went. He knew what kind of performance he was after, and it was really tough.

I could do a really good board, but even a good board wasn’t good enough. He would tell me, and it still rings in my ears to this day. He would say, “Eric, this board is good. But I can’t win on it. I need magic. I need a board that I can win on.” And much of it is just having confidence.

So yes, he put me through boot camp, but I really value the experience of working with someone like that. He was the guy who really got me off to a good start.

What did it feel like, being so successful and being really young? I’ve never heard of such a young shaper shaping for a World Tour competitor.

Well, it’s a double-edged sword. One day I had lunch with Rusty Biesendorfer, Al Merrick, Bill Barnfield, and myself. I remember Al saying, “You’re only as good as your last board.” One day you’re up and you feel like you’re conquering the world, and the next day you’re down in the dumps and you can’t make sense of what’s up or down, left or right.

And there’s some truth in that. I’ll tell you, when you put your passion into something, and other people depend on the success of your work, it can be an emotional rollercoaster, and quite stressful at times. You have to be willing to embrace everything – the successes and the failures, the difficult seasons.

What led you to becoming a follower of Christ?

Honestly, it was seeing genuine faith lived out. At 15, I thought that religion was foolishness. I thought it was for people that actually needed help, that were somewhat weak emotionally.‎ I thought I had everything, that if I could put my mind to something I would succeed, if I really fought hard enough. I came from a good family. I felt that if I applied myself I could do well in school. There was no hardship in life that really drove me to seek something else. I wasn’t even looking – maybe I was, God knows exactly where I was – but a friend invited me to church. And of course I just said, “No. No way. I don’t have time for that.” But this friend was really persistent and over the process of several months of his persistence, I finally said, “Okay, I’ll come to church on one condition. And that condition is that you never ask me to come again. You just get off my back.”

So I went, and I met some people that I knew in school, and it was just not what I expected. I met some genuine people, and for some reason I was invited to a youth group right after church. I was off the hook already, but someone just asked me quite casually, and I said, “Yes. I’ll come.” And it’s almost like I could see the words coming out of my mouth, and I was just trying to get them back. But it was too late. I couldn’t believe that I had said yes. I ended up going that Friday and I went the following Friday and the next Friday. ‎The more I went, the more I realized that there was something missing in my life – something really, really important, something critical. And the more I went the emptier and emptier I felt. And I noticed that these people that were living out their faith, they had something I didn’t have, and it really bothered me.

I am somewhat analytical, and I have this cause-and-effect mentality. I always thought, what’s the purpose of life? You get born into this world, you hopefully grow up in a good family and you are nurtured and well-trained, well-balanced. You go to school, primary school and then work your way up to high school. Why do you study so hard? Try and apply yourself? Maybe so that you can go to university. Why do you do that? So that you can get a good job, hopefully get married, have kids, grow old, see your grandchildren. Then you die.‎

I came to this conclusion: you’re born to die. There is stuff in between, but you will always end up in the same place. So what does it really matter? It just seemed so empty and pointless. But I noticed that the people I was seeing on Friday had something substantial that I didn’t have.

“I noticed that the people I was seeing at Youth Group on Fridays had something substantial that I didn’t have.”

I remember going home one Friday, and the next morning I asked my mom, who was not a believer at the time, “Mom, what does it mean to accept Christ? What does it mean to be saved?” I would hear these terms, and I would think, what do you need to be saved from? What does it mean to accept Jesus? How do you accept him? He died a long time ago. He’s not here.

I remember my mom, not being a Christian, just gave me this really concise answer. She said, “I think it means to just accept him in your heart.” And I went, “Okay.” But I still didn’t know what it meant.

Several Fridays after that, one evening I just hung around. I was the last one there. The youth pastor was there and he asked me, “Eric, have you ever asked Jesus into your heart?” I said, “No. Never”. And he said, “Would you like to?” And I said, “Yes.”

And it was as if God revealed himself to me, he was drawing me in and for the first time opened my eyes and my heart. God knew that was the moment for me to hear the Gospel – I was ready, and my friend shared the Gospel with me, the simple Gospel. And I said, “That’s what I want. I want that.” And he led me to this prayer, and after I prayed, I opened my eyes and I knew, that was it, that’s what I had been missing. It was a clear gospel presentation. I knew my need for Christ and understood the grace and the mercy and what the blood of Jesus did for me as a sinner, and the hope that I have in Christ, through faith.

“After I prayed, I opened my eyes and I knew, that was it, that’s what I had been missing. I knew my need for Christ and understood the grace and the mercy and what the blood of Jesus did for me as a sinner.”

Did your faith in Jesus helped you handle the early successes of your career?

For sure, but there are two sides to that. My faith definitely helped me navigate some of the challenges and temptations of being in that arena that early in my life – but at the same time the difficulties, the challenges, and the temptations helped to shape my faith, because God showed himself faithful. God is so good. I’ll tell you what, the tough times are the good times. Through my life I’ve learnt that I can trust him no matter how difficult it gets. I can trust him through everything, and he can use those things to shape me and make me more Christlike. Often, when we go through trials or we want to counsel someone who is going through a difficult time, we quote Romans 8:28. “God causes all things to work together for good to those who love him and are called according to his purpose.” But we rarely quote the next verse: “for those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son.” Which is Christ. So God uses those things to make us more like Christ.

Why do you think the Surfer’s Bible is important?

I think it’s important for several reasons. Any time you can get the Word of God in people’s hands, whether it’s a believer or an unbeliever, it’s a good thing – absolutely. When it comes to the Surfer’s Bible, you know, the cover might be unique, but when you open it up, the contents are still the same. It’s God’s Word, preserved through the ages.

The Surfer’s Bible is good because surfing is good. And the reason why is because surfing has a way of transcending barriers – socioeconomic barriers, religious barriers, racial barriers. Surfers connect on a level playing field. Titles disappear, status disappears when you’re out in the water, or having lunch after a surf. When you’re in boardshorts, it doesn’t matter if you’re a doctor or a CEO of a company, or a Muslim or someone else. You’re just a surfer.

“Everything can fall into one of two categories: it’s either a tool or an idol. For years of my life surfing was an idol. It’s been that for many other surfers around the world, many that I know. But it can be a powerful tool in the hands of God, and in the hands of a faithful believer.”

I also recognize that everything can fall into one of two categories: it’s either a tool or an idol. For years of my life surfing was an idol. It’s been that for many other surfers around the world, many that I know. But it can be a powerful tool in the hands of God, and in the hands of a faithful believer. We can use surfing as an effective tool to get the Word of God out, to people who would never normally accept it, or would think it’s weird. But there are testimonies of people going “I didn’t know Eric was a Christian” or “I didn’t know that surfer was a Christian” and then they’re like “Well, he doesn’t seem that weird. Maybe he’s an ordinary guy. Maybe he has something to say. Maybe I should listen.” But it doesn’t matter if it’s me or someone else. It really doesn’t matter.

What has God laid on your heart recently?

 I think in the last version of the Surfer’s Bible, I quoted Phillipians 1:21 which says for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. But I have had some other thoughts since then. There are so many, but one thing I have is John 15:16-17. Jesus is speaking to his disciples and he says: You didn’t choose me. I chose you that you may bear much fruit and that your fruit should remain. This is my command, that you love one another.

For a long time I thought I was very wise for choosing Jesus. But the reality is, he chose us. Ephesians 1: He chose us in Him before the foundations of the world. And Jesus says it right there, we have it out of His own mouth. You didn’t choose me, I chose you.